Grizzly Peak-Pinehurst-Chabot ride (52 miles)

This ride is very similar to the Grizzly Peak Pinehurst loop, except instead of returning to Rockridge after the major climb up Pinehurst, you take a left on Skyline and cruise over to Redwood which takes you through Redwood Regional Park (natch) and on into Chabot Regional Park. After a quick lunch stop at Luccas Italian Deli in Castro Valley, the route continues on alongside Lake Chabot and drops down to San Leandro BART.

We’ve had some unseasonably cool weather the past few days, and the morning started off overcast and chilly. The weather report predicted clearing by noon, so I only took minimal cold weather gear.. jacket, full fingered gloves, and my headband. By the time I got over the Oakland Hills to meet kc at Orinda BART, I couldn’t feel my toes at all. In fact the weather never really warmed up or cleared until after I returned home. Annoying.

After riding up Diablo twice on Sunday, my legs definitely felt sluggish on the first climb up Old Tunnel. At one point I actually dismounted to make sure there wasn’t something dragging against my back wheel. Nope, that was just me going really slow. But once I warmed up I felt fine, and the rest of the hills were very manageable.

I felt a little bad because I had told kc that there were basically two climbs on this ride: Pinehurst (my steep nemesis climb) and a more gradual climb up Redwood. But at a couple of other points on the ride, kc asked me, “Is this one of the two climbs?” and I realized that a couple of these gradual rises that I don’t really count as “climbs” per se still count for something to a recreational cyclist. So I may need to provide more full disclosure on my ride routes. On the other hand I think if I sent him the elevation profile for a route beforehand, he’d take one look at all those little hills and never ride with me again.


Total Distance: 52 miles
Elevation gain: 4200 feet
Time in the Saddle: 5 hours 13 minutes