Sunday, June 12, 2011

I can’t believe it was only 4 miles….

I only had a little time after church today to get a ride in. Jerry suggested we pre-ride a portion of the upcoming solstice route up and down the greenbelt trails near his house which sounded perfect.

The route starts on a steep downhill into the canyon, followed by two miles of uphill….most of it was rideable, but there were a couple sections where, as I pushed my bike uphill I noticed the Garmin was showing 22%.....can that be right?

Anyway, the best part of the climb is always the downhill that follows and I’ll go out on a limb and say that the greenbelt trail is one of the best kept secrets in the east bay. Yes, it’s short, and yes you do come across the occasional hiker with a dog, but the trail really flows and I’m sure that younger people can really fly down this thing.

Unfortunately, since I still needed to get to the store and home in time for Sunday dinner, we didn’t get to do the entire route and turned back uphill at the half way point. Again, the trail was mostly rideable but there were two spots where I needed to get off and walk due to the fact that it was too steep to get any traction…again, I saw elevations over 24% if my garmin is to be believed.

Soon enough, we were back at the start and the only thing left to do was Jerry’s driveway…..one of the steepest paved section of road in Hayward

All in all I ended up with 4.3 miles and 963 feet of climbing….the toughest 4.3 miles I think I’ve ever done….

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