Calaveras Clockwise - Sat Jan. 13

[jobob]

Hi -

My husband & I plan to ride over Calaveras Rd. from the Sunol side this coming Saturday.

Our current plan is to start from our home in Union City at about 10 am.

We're going to take the Alameda Creek Trail down to the Niles Staging Area, which is near Mission Blvd. and Niles Canyon Rd. in Fremont. We should be there about 10:30, if anyone would like to join us at that point.

From there we're going to head down Niles Canyon Blvd. into Sunol. I haven't done this ride in a while so I'm not sure when we would reach Sunol, possibly around 11:30 ??

And from there we'll head up and over Calaveras Rd.

If we're feeling extraordinarily frisky we'll hang a left after the descent down the Wall and go up Felter for the way fun descent down Sierra road and hang a right onto Piedmont Rd.

If we're not feeling frisky, we'll hang a right at the bottom of the Wall, continue down Calaveras, take a right onto Piedmont Rd, and then Jacklin, North Park Victoria, Warm Springs Blvd, take a right up East Warren for a rather steep yet short climb up to Paseo Padre, and take a right onto Mission Blvd.

At the top of the gradual climb up Mission Blvd. we'll stop for a well-earned late lunch at Mission Coffee. Then back to the Niles Staging area and home.

If anyone would like to join us, you could either meet us at our home before 10, at the Niles Staging Area around 10:30, or the Sunol Train Station around 11:30 (probably earlier, I have to look at the mileage).

PM me if you want directions to my home. I'll follow up in a subsequent post with directions to the Niles Staging area (which has parking & a porta potty) & the Sunol train station.

Approximate round trip distance is about 50 miles, tack on another 10 if we add on Felter/Sierra.

I'll have a better idea on timing, distance, amt of climbing etc. once I map the route out on Bikely tonight.

- Jo.

[SadieKate]

Geez, you know I'd be there in heartbeat if I wasn't completely commuter-ed out from the last two days.

[Trekhawk]

I would love to come and ride with you and Lee but unfortunately the union for disgruntled babysitters/husbands might be called in if I try to escape for rides on both Sat and Sun.

Have a wonderful ride. I look forward to hearing about it on Sunday.

[jobob]

Well, we can all do it again some other time. It's a nice ride.

Maybe we'll save the added loop up Felter & down Sierra for when our hill-climbing demon friends can join us

I've uploaded the two routes on to Bikely, starting from the Niles staging area, if you'd like to take a gander:

The shorter version with just Calaveras is about 40 miles. Tack on 15 flat miles if starting from my home. Bikely says the elevation gain is about 2100 ft, we'll see how close that is - click on Elevation to see the profile.
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...iles-clockwise

The loop with Felter & Sierra added on is about 50 miles (about 65 from my home) with an est'd elevation gain of about 3300 ft.
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...ise-from-Niles

[maillotpois]

I would love to come and ride with you and Lee but unfortunately the union for disgruntled babysitters/husbands might be called in if I try to escape for rides on both Sat and Sun.

Have a wonderful ride. I look forward to hearing about it on Sunday.

Ditto.

[five one]

How did you include a cue sheet for your rides in bikely.com? I don't see an option to add one when creating a route.

I had never heard of this site until now. Routeslip seemed so user unfriendly that I gave up on it long ago. Bikely is much easier to use.

Thanks in advance.

five one

[jobob]

Hi five one -

The cue sheet option is fairly new. What you do is, when you create your route, is at the appropriate point in your route your would include in the "notes" box a description of the turn ("right on Main St."), or a landmark, whatever it is you would want to see in a cue sheet at that point in the route.

Then when you click on "cue sheet", Bikely takes the notes you entered and generates a cue sheet (of sorts) from it.

It's not perfect, but it's a nice feature.

For instance, the "Distance" heading doesn't reflect the distance between points on the cue sheet. It actually reflects the distance from the previous point on the route, labeled or not, which is meaningless.

I usually just copy the cue sheet, paste it into a word processing program or Excel, and delete the Distance, Direction and Elevation columns.

hth, - Jo.

[five one]

Thanks for your help. I kind of wallowed through one (shhh...don't tell my boss. I just *look* busy ) awhile ago, but didn't put in any notes. Guess I'll have to revisit it - or delete it and start again.

Nice to have an alternative to routeslip.

Enjoy your Calaveras ride. It's been a few years since I've ridden through there. Now that it's getting green, it should be beautiful.

[aka_kim]

This looks like a really nice course, and I hope you schedule this ride again. This Saturday I'll be busy perfecting my couch potato ways, urm, and I have a sore throat.

[snapdragen]

I have to get Chloe's nails cut. Yeah, like I could make 50 miles right now

Have fun!

[jobob]

We'll certainly do it again.

If it's as windy & cold tomorrow as it was today, we reserve the right to wuss out and perhaps just head out to Mission Coffee for a nice warm bowl of soup.

[Veronica]

Yeah... I've been told it's too cold to ride. Although I did ride to work today. Jeans are NOT warm enough. I think it was just as cold coming home this afternoon.

V.

[snapdragen]

Well, I was hoping for snow - but Weather Underground says 0% chance of precipitation.

Dress warm - it's gonna be cold tomorrow!

[jobob]

So, this morning I put on:
a Smartwool microweight LS crew under a Smartwool lightweight LS zip-T;
EO fleecy knickers under heavy Sporthill tights;
2 pair of wool socks, plus toe warmers over my shoes;
a pair of glove liners under my regular gloves;
a Smartwool headband that I use as a neck warmer; earbags, and
my lovely AV thermal jacket topped off the Nanook of the North ensemble.

It was mighty chilly out, but it all worked perfectly! This was the first time I took my AV jacket out on a ride and it was a champ.

It was a lovely ride, and clear and sunny and gorgeous out. I hadn't ridden that direction up Calaveras in a long time and I didn't find it very difficult. I was feeling really good, and I never got out of my middle ring during any of the climbing, which is pretty unusual for me.

We decided not to head up Felter because the wind was starting to whip up, & while we were somewhat protected from the wind on Calaveras, we'd be taking the brunt of the wind up on Felter.

I'll post a few photos in a bit.

The cuesheet generated from Bikely was remarkably acccurate, waypoints were off by maybe one-tenth to two-tenths of a mile, and the elevation gain was very close as well.

Total mileage to & from my house was about 55, with about 2100 ft of climbing. We need to get out there again! Perhaps we can tack on Alum Rock Park.

[jobob]

Here're a few pictures ...

This is the path along the Alameda Creek Trail near our home.



Here's a view of the reservior along Calaveras.



A shady section of Calaveras Rd.



Does this jacket make me look fat? um, no need to answer that
But it was nice & warm & very visible, and that's all that matters.