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Bicycling for Distraction
Oct. 8th, 2018 09:51 amBecause I wanted to avoid media stress as much as possible, and because I unexpectedly didn't have a podcast recording session Saturday morning, I finally achieved the next step in my "let's bicycle on weekends" program, which was to take the Iron Horse trail all the way down to Dublin. Well, sort of. I usually start my bike route along the Contra Costa Canal trail (which adds some additional distance) rather than picking up the Iron Horse Trail at the start up by Hwy 4. And somehow I missed the start of the trail after ducking under 680 at Walnut Creek, so I took the bike lane on Danville Blvd as far as Danville (where I had lunch) then picked up the official Iron Horse route from there.
My usual route down to Walnut Creek is old hat at this point, though I was feeling more peckish than usual and stopped for coffee in Pleasant Hill. That helped in deciding to go the extra bit down to Danville (which has some really great places to eat). I'd forgotten (or not previously noticed) how the leg form Walnut Creek to Danville is a steady upgrade. The previous times I've done it, I was on the actual Iron Horse Trail, which has a lot of stops for cross-streets, so I suspect there were more distractions. Over lunch, I checked the maps and mileage and confirmed that it was (substantially) shorter to continue on to Dublin BART than to return the way I came. (Although, of course, the long-term goal is to do a round trip to Dublin.) Past Danville the trail has no grade up to Bishop Ranch and then starts a slow but steady down-slope to Dublin. Important to remember.
There's no point to continuing on past Dublin since the trails peter out around the Alameda Fairgrounds. But if I want to continue extending the ride incrementally, there's always the choice to go to Dublin then back to Walnut Creek and BART back to Concord from there. Since I usually break my ride substantially at least twice, I don't have a good time estimate for the whole thing. Mileage estimate (very rough) is about 8 miles from my house to downtown Walnut Creek, another 8 miles to Danville, then 10 miles to Dublin. But all very flat, nothing in the way of hills at all, just some gentle grades.
My usual route down to Walnut Creek is old hat at this point, though I was feeling more peckish than usual and stopped for coffee in Pleasant Hill. That helped in deciding to go the extra bit down to Danville (which has some really great places to eat). I'd forgotten (or not previously noticed) how the leg form Walnut Creek to Danville is a steady upgrade. The previous times I've done it, I was on the actual Iron Horse Trail, which has a lot of stops for cross-streets, so I suspect there were more distractions. Over lunch, I checked the maps and mileage and confirmed that it was (substantially) shorter to continue on to Dublin BART than to return the way I came. (Although, of course, the long-term goal is to do a round trip to Dublin.) Past Danville the trail has no grade up to Bishop Ranch and then starts a slow but steady down-slope to Dublin. Important to remember.
There's no point to continuing on past Dublin since the trails peter out around the Alameda Fairgrounds. But if I want to continue extending the ride incrementally, there's always the choice to go to Dublin then back to Walnut Creek and BART back to Concord from there. Since I usually break my ride substantially at least twice, I don't have a good time estimate for the whole thing. Mileage estimate (very rough) is about 8 miles from my house to downtown Walnut Creek, another 8 miles to Danville, then 10 miles to Dublin. But all very flat, nothing in the way of hills at all, just some gentle grades.
