Alameda Creek Trail - Saturday April 29

[jobob]

Hi gang -

There are a bunch of places we could meet to ride the AC trail. For those not familiar with it, it runs from Niles Canyon eastward to the bay.

I suggest we meet at the east end of the trail, at the Niles Canyon staging area (directions below). In that way, we could ride the length of the trail out to the bay (~ 11 flat miles) and loop around Coyote Hills park (~ 3 miles with gentle rollers ).

[ side trip: If anyone would like to do a side trip up my nemesis hill, which is about a half-mile total, with a gradient of 8-12% followed by 3-5% followed by 10-14% followed by 0% and then a final kick of about 8-10%, you're welcome to give it a try but it's competely optional. ]

Then we could ride back along the trail towards Niles Canyon, and near the end of the trail we'll get on to Mission Blvd (or, if anyone want to bail at that point, we'll be very close to where we started). We'll go a few miles up Mission Blvd which will include a shallow climb of a mile or so at about 3%. But once we get to the top, near Mission San Jose, we hang a right onto Washington Blvd. and have a well-earned snack stop at Mission Coffee - you didn't think I'd go on a ride without a snack stop, did you???. Then it's a shallow but fun descent back to where we started.

This arrangement has the advantage of missing out on the inevitable west-to-east headwinds which whip up in the afternoon.

I'm guessing the total mileage will be on the order of 35 or so, ~ 25 if you just do the AC trail. But I'll double-check that.

Here is a link to a Google map of the location of the Niles Canyon staging area, with a small parking lot, picnic benches and porta-potties*.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...04884,0.107803

The general location is 700 Old Canyon Rd Fremont, CA 94536 if you want to map-quest directions. Or feel free to PM me.

10 am sounds good to me.

How's that sound to you all?

( *No guarantees as to the quality of said porta-potties, but there are quite a few at various places along the trail so we're bound to find acceptable ones. And I don't live very far from the mid-point of the trail if the need arises.)