Browsing through my old blog notes, I was surprised to see that I had never written up this route, since I used to ride variations of it fairly often. I guess I haven’t done this ride for a while, and after today, I think I remember why. It’s not a terrible ride, but it’s a bit utilitarian, not very scenic, a bit ghetto, and slightly annoying with the hill profile. On the up side, it’s an easy way to get in a 40 mile loop from my front door. This ride is based on the Oakland Yellow Jackets routesheet, with some minor modifications at the beginning and end.
From Rockridge the route follows the standard bike route down to uptown Oakland/Lake Merritt (basically following my commute route). Then around the lake, under the freeway, and over to Alameda. Alameda is a pleasant little island community that used to a big naval base in the bay area. I was pleased to see that they’ve added a dedicated bike lane on the approach to the bicycle bridge connecting Alameda and Bay Farm. Sweet! No more cutting across traffic and getting on the sidewalk to approach the bike bridge.
From the bike bridge I like to go around the miniature airplane airfield and head out towards the airport. There’s a dedicated bike lane that runs parallel to the airport access road, which is nice. Today it was a bit of a wind tunnel, with breezes blowing from the south. From the airport the route goes along busy boulevards of San Leandro, and at mile 20, starts a short climb up to Lake Chabot. The climb up Fairmont to Chabot is slightly longer than a mile but covers 500 feet in elevation gain, so it’s a bit of a pain.
After the climb, the first of two scenic sections begins: the ride alongside Lake Chabot. Unfortunately it’s all too short of a stretch, and pretty soon you’re back in San Leandro. Now from here there are a couple of ways to get back to Oakland. One is a straight shot through the San Leandro and east Oakland ghettos.. not very nice. The other principal way is to follow Mountain Blvd as it meanders along just at the base of the Oakland hills. This route is slightly less ghetto but annoying with the terrain. You’re constantly climbing short steep risers only to drop back down again, so you get the pain of climbing without the sense of accomplishment.
Past the Mormon Temple, at Park Blvd, instead of turning left to return to Lake Merritt I turn right to rejoin Mountain Blvd through Montclair, a really cute little town. Past Montclair, the road takes you to Broadway Terrace and Lake Temescal (cut through via the multi-use path). From here wind your way over to Chabot Road in Rockridge and you’re done.
Total Distance: about 40 miles
Elevation gain: 2300 feet
Routesheet (on bikely.com): Chabot Loop from Rockridge
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