South Bay/Peninsula #6: Coyote Valley (9/20/2009)

Map for this ride

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Meet time: 8:00 a.m.
Ride-out time: 8:30 a.m.
Meeting place: Three blocks west of the Mountain View Caltrain and VTA station, in the overflow parking lot at the corner of Evelyn Avenue and Franklin Street. (map)
City: Mountain View
Rain policy: Rain cancels
Category: 2 - moderate pace (10-12 mph)
Terrain: 2 - rolling hills
Miles: 69

Description:
This long route is a perfect sampler of the many different types of riding you'll encounter during Seismic Challenge. We start by taking a moderate route into Saratoga (no Mount Eden) and Los Gatos. From there, we traverse south San Jose before heading around Calero Reservoir and down the Bailey Avenue hill. We return along Santa Teresa Blvd. and then go back through Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and Los Altos Hills on our way back to Mountain View. This ride has a wide variety of road conditions and traffic levels. Total climbing on this ride is about 2,200 feet with no excessively long climbs.

Leaders: Chris Thomas, Tim Huang, Larry L'Italien, Maggie Vande Voorde

RSVPs are requested but not required.

South Bay/Peninsula #5: Sunol (9/5/2009)

Map for this ride

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Meet time: 8:30 a.m.
Note the earlier meeting time!
Ride-out time: 9:00 a.m.
Meeting place: Three blocks west of the Mountain View Caltrain and VTA station, in the overflow parking lot at the corner of Evelyn Avenue and Franklin Street. (map)
City: Mountain View
Rain policy: Rain cancels
Category: 2 - moderate pace (10-12 mph)
Terrain: 2 - rolling hills
Miles: 63

Description:
For our first metric century of the season, we're going to the quaint East Bay outpost of Sunol. We'll take the easy route through Palo Alto to the Dumbarton Bridge and through Fremont. From there it's up Niles Canyon Road to Sunol, and then back via a short climb into the Mission San Jose area of Fremont, with a return through McCarthy Ranch, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. Total climbing on this ride is about 1,550 feet.

Sorry, but due to the earlier start time, you no longer can take Caltrain to get to the South Bay/Peninsula rides starting with this one -- the trains don't run early enough. (You can still take VTA light rail, though, if you're coming from the south.)

Leaders: Chris Thomas, Tim Huang, Larry L'Italien

RSVPs are requested but not required.

Transportation projects in the Bay Area

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has released its proposal of projects for the next 25 years, "which specifies how some $218 billion in anticipated federal, state and local transportation funds will be spent in the nine-county Bay Area." Today's edition of the San Mateo Daily Journal has an article about this report, but it only gives passing mention to some projects that might be of great interest to bicyclists.

One such project includes the addition of a second uphill lane on Highway 92 from I-280 to the summit at Highway 35 -- the traditional major climb of Day 1 of ALC. Other interesting things I found in scanning the 46 pages of projects include conversion of Willow Road to an expressway from Highway 101 to Highway 84. There are hundreds of projects listed, and I suspect you'll find a pet project of yours somewhere in there.

Of course, how much of this actually becomes reality is anyone's guess.

On a related note, if you're looking for hours of nerdy reading enjoyment, I refer you to the MTC's 2009 regional bicycle plan. If you want to skip the words and get right to the pretty pictures, the maps begin on Page 39 of the PDF.

Saturday's route appears to be set

I've been up in Los Altos Hills every evening for the past few days, trying to keep tabs on which streets are torn up, which ones have shiny new pavement, and which ones aren't going to be touched. And it looks like I've come up with a good route that's immune from construction problems.

It's only half a mile longer than the original route, and it's only got about 120 extra feet of climbing. There's an extra bonus, though -- from the top of our last hill of the day, there are absolutely amazing views of the valley and bay that I'd never seen before, even though we'll only be about 600 feet up. Bring your camera!

Just to be safe, however, I'm not publishing this route sheet in advance, just in case I have to change something else at the last minute. Never fear, though; I'll bring enough route sheets for everyone.

But here is one important tip for you. This ride has a lot of turns and special instructions. In fact, the route sheet is completely full. I highly recommend that you use a map holder like this one (the one that I use), binder clips, or some other type of handlebar-mounted device. You'll need to refer to your route sheet often, and you can't always assume that there will be someone nearby to warn you of a turn. This is a useful accessory that will serve you well on other training and club rides.

Hang tight about this Saturday's ride

I went up to Los Altos Hills tonight and, much to my unpleasant surprise, discovered that the town has begun a massive repaving project that affects nearly our entire scheduled route through Los Altos Hills this weekend. They've run a pavement-grinder over the streets, rendering them especially dangerous for cyclists ... particularly on the descents.

It's unclear how much of the repaving will be done by Friday night, so I'll keep an eye on things. If need be, I have an alternate 50-mile route in the can (with just a little bit more climbing than advertised) that we can ride instead.

Update: The blog problem I reported in this space Tuesday night appears to be fixed, and Google has now apologized for the difficulty.

New bicycle map for San Mateo County

San Mateo County has been lacking a current bicycle map for quite some time. But that's been rectified, and despite what you might have read on a certain bicycle-related mailing list, PDFs of the map are available online.

You can get the whole map in two giant pieces (one for each side), or divided into page-size bits in the PDF. As a bonus, the map covers the entire county, including the coast, which means that this is especially useful for folks who are just beginning to venture beyond the usual confines of the bayside.

Go here and scroll down to "San Mateo County Bicycle Map":

http://www.ccag.ca.gov/bpac.html

Weekday closures on Cañada Road

If you sometimes head up to Cañada Road for a midweek ride, you might need to think again. Next week, most of the road will be closed all day on Thursday and Friday, and again on the following Monday, for the 2009 Summer National Senior Games:

Thursday, Aug. 6, and Friday, Aug. 7

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Full road closure on Canada Road in Woodside between Runnymede and State Route 92 for bicycle races. A service lane via Jefferson Avenue allows access to homes for residents. Emerald Hills residents are asked to detour via Interstate Highway 280 and Farm Hill Boulevard. Residents should expect five- to 10-minute delays if using Canada Road.

Monday, Aug. 10

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Full road closure on Canada Road in Woodside from Edgewood Road to State Route 92. Access to Filoli Estate is open via Edgewood Road. Residents should expect five- to 10-minute delays if using Canada Road.

More info (but not much more) here from the Palo Alto Weekly.