Orinda-Palomares (58 miles)

Today's ride was another BART-to-BART ride, beginning at Orinda BART station and ending at Castro Valley. The first third of the ride takes you through the communities of Moraga, Lafayette, and Danville (a good place for a rest stop).

At Danville, pick up the soutern portion of the Iron Horse Trail and follow it all the way to Dublin. From the Dublin/Pleasanton area you continue south along Foothill until you reach Sunol (another good rest stop before the long climb on Palomares).

Sunol is a cute little town along Niles Canyon, half way between Pleasanton and Fremont. Main Street features a cafe (established in 1906), a market, a post office, a train depot, and an antique shop. It looks like something out of Little House on the Prairie except for the antique shop, I guess. I bet that originally it was called "General Store" and after a while they decided to change the name rather than the inventory.

The train depot here is interesting: during the 19th and early 20th century, Sunol and Niles were important railway towns. Both the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific had tracks through Sunol. The Southern Pacific tracks were abandoned in the 1980s, but a company acquired the rights and they now run steam train rides between Niles and Sunol on the weekends.

This afternoon, the train had just arrived and passengers were disembarking, wondering what the hell they were going to do in Sunol before the train took them back to Niles. I was in the market getting water and Gatorade, and one train passenger came in to ask where the nearest bar was (answer: nowhere close).



Continuing on: leave Sunol and proceed west on Niles Canyon Road for about 4 miles, until you get to the turnoff for Palomares Road. This is a very pleasant country road that runs about 10 miles along a creek and through ranches, vineyards, and pastures until you end up on Castro Valley Blvd. The first mile has some really steep sections, but after that the grade evens out and is a pretty nice climb for the next few miles. The summit is at 1000-1200 feet, and the descent is fast and easy into CV.

At some point I'd like to visit the wineries on Palomares Road. I noticed that both Westover and Chouinard had tasting rooms.



Animules: 3 wild (or very free range) turkeys, lots of horses and cows
Distance: 59 miles
Time in the Saddle: 5 hours