by Curtis Otaguro, Rick Dumlao, Board Members
Last Saturday on September 24th, eight NSCers and friends (Rick, Merton, Frank, Greg, Gary, Jim, Jeff, and myself) enjoyed a beautiful day, riding the Peninsula section of the San Francisco Bay Trail starting from Shoreline Park in Mountain View. A mainstay of NSC summer events, the annual bike ride not only keeps us in shape during the off season, but also gives us the opportunity to stay connected with our members.
I led the group with Rick as sweeper to make sure we didn’t lose anyone. We began at a leisurely pace from Shoreline Park under clear skies heading north towards the Palo Alto Bayland Nature Preserve. We admired the panoramic views of the Bay as we rode along the shore on a wide packed gravel trail. As the trail turned inland, we passed a pole field (designed to be reminiscent of pier pilings) on our left at Byxbee Park. Then we passed the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Center along the way to the Palo Alto Airport. As we rode past the runway, we saw some clearly dubious landings (2-point!). We rode on through East Palo Alto, along a paved bike trail until we reached a short, narrow gravel section. This led to the entrance road to Cooling Landing Park, our first rest stop.
Cooley Landing Park, named after Lester Cooley, who purchased the land in 1868, is the site of the original Town of Ravenswood, which back in the 1800’s was a bustling port shipping bricks to build homes everywhere in the Bay Area. For a time, it was the only port between San Jose and San Francisco. In later years, it was a county dump with the landfill creating the peninsula which forms the landing. From this viewpoint, there were excellent views of the Dumbarton Bridge and the old Dumbarton Rail Bridge. Did you know that the Dumbarton Rail Bridge built in 1910 was the first bridge crossing in the Bay Area?
After taking advantage of the scenic setting for a photo op, we headed back south on an alternate inland route which was much appreciated by the road bikers as this was all paved trail. One of the highlights was a photo op at “Bliss in the Moment”, a stainless-steel cycling sculpture dedicated to former Bay Trail Board member and bicycle activist, Bill Bliss near the Palo Alto Baylands. He advocated for the scenic, 500-mile San Francisco Bay Trail that is planned to encircle the San Francisco and San Pablo bays. So far, 310 miles of the route have been completed.
The return route was more expeditious, but not as scenic as we rode alongside the Bayshore Freeway. We continued, making a left on the Adobe Creek Loop Trail towards the Bay, and returned to Shoreline Park, completing the first 13 miles of the ride. It was getting close to lunch time, but 7 of us opted to continue south to the Stevens Creek Trail for a longer ride. Many agreed that if we had taken a lunch break then, we would have been done riding as it would have been too difficult to get started again.
After riding a little over a mile south, we turned right onto the Stevens Creek Trail. The Stevens Creek Trail is a short 4.8-mile feeder trail that begins near the Mountain View – Sunnyvale border at the intersection of Dale Avenue and Heatherstone Way. This trail runs parallel to Highway 85, including an 1100-foot pedestrian bridge crossing over Evelyn Ave, Central Expressway, Caltrain and VTA tracks. As hunger and fatigue slowly started to creep in, we decided to turn around at the pedestrian bridge and head back.
On the way, we discovered the reason for the constant buzzing of helicopters flying near the Google campus at the NASA Ames Research Center (we observed this throughout our ride). A pair of helicopters were flying back and forth, bringing supplies and equipment to the high voltage transmission towers crossing the bay. We spotted crews perched high up on 2 towers working with them.
After we rolled into Shoreline Park, our final distance totaled ~19 miles. We then had a well-deserved relaxing time in the shade relishing our lunch and beverages. While we were reveling in the day’s ride, we already started kicking around ideas for the next bike trip. Angel Island? Golden Gate Bridge? East Bay? South Bay? Your suggestions are welcome! Happy riding!
