Fun Weekend Hanging out with Friends ... oh and riding a bike too

This past weekend, I went over to the East Bay and had fun with my BF pals.  We all met at the Orinda Bart station parking lot.

From left to right, Brentley, Richard, Nick, Henry, and Michael. I haven't been doing a lot of rides with a group lately, so this was a welcome change.

Richard designed the route, and he uploaded it on www.bikeroutetoaster.com, and I downloaded it over to my Garmin, so I thought I'd try out the "Do the Course" feature.  That's where you follow the route.  It's not too intuitive to use on the Garmin, but I eventually got to the map display, so I can visually see if I need to make a turn or not.

To start off the day, we did this gratuitously senseless out and back.  Nice little cul de sac, but with a kicker of a climb.  Now this felt like the East Bay Hill Climbing fight club.  That was totally unexpected, and a real punch to the legs to tell them, wake up.  I seem to do well on this climb, but maybe that's where the advantage of having a triple, 30x28 comes in?  Bah, in the end, it's all about the legs and the engine inside.

Onto Mama Bear (part of the three bears), and this was a nice gradual climb with some rollies.  This was the warm up before hitting Happy Valley Road ... kind of a cruel name ... cuz will you really be happy climbing this?  This does kick up.  How about 15-20% in some spots. It wasn't too bad ... it only last 0.8 miles, but you still have to climb it.

For whatever reason, I was climbing near the back, along with Brentley, and in some instances Nick.  I don't know if it was just the beginning of the ride, or the type of climb, but I found myself near the back on the gradual climb.  However, as soon as I got to the steep climbs, I seem to propel ... weird, huh?

Acalanes Road has a good kicker, and it's also short .. 1 mile, and it does kick up to 15% in spots.  Last time we did this, we were being chased by a dog on the hill.  I was trying to video that climb just in case he comes out, but I was having problems with my camera turning on.  Damn ... but no dog this time.

We got to the halfway point where we stopped for Starbucks.  After refueling on caffeine, this kind of kick started me.  I felt really good at this point.  The next climb coming up is Pinehurst (up in the Oakland hills), and this one of my favorites, not only in the East Bay, but all of the Bay Area.  See the video, and judge for yourself:

Half the group split up at this point, as we continued on down Shepherd's Canyon, and climbing over the Caldecott Tunnel via Tunnel Road.  Tunnel Road is a nice climb with gradual grade ... not a 15-20% kicker, but pretty mild 4-5% grades for about 3 miles, till we get to Grizzly Peak.  From there, it was a nice descent down through Wildcat Canyon.