Hi - I'm hoping all you kick-butt Bay Area riders can remember back to the days you were just starting out and can give me a couple of suggestions for Bay Area (East Bay?) rides. I can tell from your postings that you are in a league of your own (Mt Diablo? Mt Tam? Yikes!)

I have only been riding since January, and I am up to riding 25-30 miles (max so far is 38) at an average of 13+ mph (depending on wind!). I regularly ride the bike path from Emeryville to Richmond and back, which is compeletly flat (except for a little bump of a hill behind the race track that I can sprint up) - and I extend it with doubling-back and adding loops. A beautiful, safe ride, but I think I'm ready to try something new... (600+ miles on the bike now, mostly up and down the SF bay trail!)

I've lost a bunch of weight since starting riding, but still am feeling too heavy to try any serious hills; unfortunately (for me), in this area, there are routes with hills a-plenty - but flat-ish routes are harder to find! (I know I need to start tackling hills soon, and there are shorter hilly rides in my neighborhood that cycling friends are anxious to subject me to (they love hills!) - so those are on the agenda for the summer as well...)

So my question now is how to get into 40-50 mile rides that don't involve killer hills. I was planning on just doubling up the Emeryville-Richmond ride to get to 40+, but I'd love to try some other routes. I'm not afraid of early rising to beat the heat - any ideas, or thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any ideas!