Orinda-Sunol-Union City (62 miles)

This ride is a bit of a hybrid, combining the first 45 miles of the Orinda-Palomares ride with a jaunt down the Alameda Creek path and a quick turn through urban-industrial Union City. This is another BART-to-BART ride: the route begins at Orinda BART station and finishes up at South Hayward BART.

The stretch from Orinda to Sunol (i.e the first 40 miles or so) has become one of my favorite standard rides this season. It's a really pleasant route that's relatively flat without too many stops or lights, so you can really speed down to Dublin/Pleasanton in no time.

Instead of taking the turn up Palomares Road, I stayed on Niles Canyon and picked up the Alameda Creek trail at Mission. I followed the trail to Union City Blvd, then headed north to Industrial Parkway. Obviously this is a utilitarian route rather than a scenic one, but it's a straight shot down Industrial Parkway to South Hayward BART. Besides, there aren't a lot of scenic options through Union City and Hayward, so you sort of have to settle for the functional.

While out and about I was keeping an eye open for changing fall colors. Being in New York last weekend got me thinking about fall foliage, so I've been on a mission this week to spot any isolated trees in the bay area that are undergoing an autumn transformation. From what I can tell, the hills around here don't have too many trees that change, but scattered throughout many residential areas (including my own) there are lots of these little trees that are changing to a very bright red. Wonder what kind of tree that is...?



Animules: horses, and some pasturing cows in Union City
Total Distance: 62 miles
Elevation Gain: 1400 feet
Route (on bikely.com): Orinda-Sunol-Union City