Road notes

BART parking garage/Stoneridge Mall Road/Springdale Ave/Muirwood Drive/W Las Positas

Exiting the BART station on the south (Pleasanton) side puts you on the third floor of the parking garage. Might as well ride down the ramp! Exiting to the left puts you on the loop road around Stoneridge Mall, then a left on Springdale takes you through residential streets past Muirwood Community Park.

Foothill Boulevard (all rides)

Foothill is a fairly nice road, somewhat more traffic than you’d prefer, but usually there’s enough room to share. This route turns left just past the golf course, but you can also take Foothill all the way into Sunol if you just want to make time.

Pleasaton/Sunol Road (all rides)

In contrast with Foothill, Pleasanton/Sunol has little traffic and wide shoulders. It parallels the recently restored railroad tracks of the Niles Canyon tourist railway. There’s one climb, more an incline than a hill. The road ends on a downhill at Highway 84. The Sunol Corners market on the left is the last chance for food and water until Milpitas.

Niles Canyon Road (Highway 84) (beginner ride)

Be sure to hop off Highway 84 at Sunol to take a rest in this tiny rural town. Other than that, Niles Canyon is a beautiful and unpleasant road; the canyon is the beautiful part, the traffic is the unpleasant part. There’s a lot of it and it moves fast. Most of the road has a good shoulder, but there are bridges and other narrow sections which can be harrowing. Once you get to the town of Niles it’s just a couple klicks of city streets to Fremont BART.

Calaveras Road (intermediate/advanced rides)

Leaving Sunol, this begins as a busy road with a shoulder, briefly loses the shoulder, and crosses under Highway 680. After that, there’s about 10km of somewhat pleasant road past a gravel plant and water pumping station; there’s still some traffic on this section, mostly people going to Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness. Once you pass the turnoff for those parks, the road is gorgeous, gradually winding its way up the hills above Calaveras Reservoir through oak-dotted hills and canyons. You’ll get views of the water temple that celebrated the construction of the Hetch Hetchy water pipeline and dam that created this reservoir. It’s all quiet and remote; I’ve seen bobcats, coyotes and elk along the road.

After the road turns away from the reservoir, it drops quickly down into the Santa Clara Valley. If you’re looking for a bonus climb, turn left on Felter and come down Sierra Road into Berryessa.

These are semi-arterial roads along the outskirts of San Jose; both have decent bike lanes. The Berryessa BART station is on the right on Mabury. Keep going to the other side of the tracks to visit the historic San Jose Flea Market.

This series of gradually uphill suburban roads takes you to the intersection with Mount Hamilton Road. I usually take the gravel side path on Alum Rock.

An epic climb to the highest peak in the Bay Area. Lick Observatory was the first mountaintop observatory in the world, and the road was graded to allow horse teams to haul up the heavy 36″ refractors, largest in the world at that time. So, none of the climb is very steep, but it’s a long way.

The lower section on the outskirts of San Jose has some traffic, but once you pass Crothers Road it gets pretty quiet, a pleasant ride through oak groves and meadows. Most of the oaks on the mountain are deciduous blue oaks, unlike the coast live oaks common in the Bay Area. In the spring the new leaves have a remarkable smokey, silvery color.

The road includes two descents, so the total elevation gain is even greater than the 1300 meters of the pea. After the first descent to Joseph D. Grant County Park (water available), you’ll get clear views of the observatory, which seems closer than it really is. After the second descent to Smith Creek you’re about halfway there. Keep cranking.

The visitor center parking lot is gated after 5PM, so get there earlier if you want to get to the true peak.

The descent is fun, but not quite as fast as Diablo or Tam because the road isn’t as steep. Those two descents on the way up become two climbs on the way back, which feels unfortunate. Still, it’s a good swoopy roll down back to San Jose.