Marc's Public Blog - Biking, Running, Rollerblading and other Exercising

some paths were still under water

lots of PG&E trucks and even boat to try and maintain the lines

strangely the bay level was low at that time

Would have been fun to complete a loop but the PG&E access paths were not open to the public

trees were blooming already, and had no idea that winter wasn't over

new google campus is ready

the bird center was closed unfortunately

been a while since I flew out of PAO

nice shot with 3 arriving planes

shoreline lake was beautiful

Sure, you can also bike up (and it's a tough ride), but it's a fairly long bike ride back in the dark, so driving was easier.

Beautiful hike with sunset views, we'll have to do it again.

We started by Rancho San Antonio:

a bunch of few turkeys

looking for prey

nice colors

The hills are hilly, lots of up biking (or walking), with views:

For reasons unknown, we found petrified trees on the side of the road:

More nice views:

Once we got to the top of Olive Tree Lane, where I thought from the map, we could connect to Chamise Trail, but no, the residents put a gate to stop people from going to a public road to a public trail. I had to find a pretty painful way around the fence, through the brush:

took 15mn to get around

this doesn't show how filled with dirt and leaves, I got

We then exited the park towards Los Altos Hills and a nice little private lake they don't like to share with others :)

More houses:

rich kids get their own private playground

deer in your backyard (both good and bad)

you can camp in your own yard

toy car

Another connecting path:

nice view of the private lake

we then took another connecting path to another path along 280, and back out to civilization

I had to hurry to get enough light before losing it

smoke was visible but on the east side of the bay

black mountain peak was clear

clear at the top

A few animals were out:

The ocean side of the view was nice too:

smoke means nice views

It was then time to bike back since I didn't have a bike light:

Soo much nicer than 2 days prior...

the bike barely fit

not the best view

top of montebello

oops, good thing I had my N99 mask

I unpacked my bike and did the short ride to the first radio tower and then black mountain. I was very out of breath breathing with that max (and even the filtered air not being prefect probably):

couldn't really see the bay

and that's why

biking back to my car

And then I went down, and the air was definitely better:

Map: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/5023804251

We've been going through bike/walks around the urban landscape next to our house. We found a hole in a fence at the end of our street, so we went to check it out, that took us to 280 and stevens creek. There was a big tunnel for the creek, but a second huge tunnel, for I don't know what, it's big enough for a road (advance planning, nice).

Many years back, when I jumped a fence to get there, I couldn't go down, but someone nicely installed a rope ladder recently, so we went down and into the tunnel. That took us to the railroad (mostly unused) on the other side and connected to a street, or to sommerset park after removing a few metal wires that tried to patch a hole in the fence (thank you swiss army knife).

The secret BMX park is inaccessible unless you get to it through the railroad tracks from another access point. No idea who built it, it doesn't look official but yet it was well built: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3322805,-122.0624639,157m/data=!3m1!1e3

We found that the freeway had doors in the wall, some you could just open and someone put chairs on the other side, maybe to just relax and watch traffic go by? :)

On the way back, I noticed that you could drive from a hole between the freeway walls through a railroad crossing that had been built for car crossing, to nowhere, the road stops there, although it almost connects to the stevens creek tunnel.

There is probably some interesting history and roads that maybe used to connect and don't connect anymore, or were meant to connect, but never did in the end. Either way, it was fun, we felt like urban explorers :)

nice pink house on the way to Steven Creek Trail

lovely tree

Norcal radar site

babies are grown up already

so proud

Eventually we got to Alviso, the land that time forgot:

prime real estate in a flood zone, awaits for you

interesting house

it was a mixed neighborhood

From there, we got to the Alviso Don Edwards loop (we did the longer double loop):

for once, a train that almost looked fast

salt from evaporation

After the long loop, it was time to bike all the way home (almost 2H), back around great america, 49ers stadium, and greenbelt back to Stevens Creek Trail:

This was our longest bike ride ever, it went well considering. Maybe 50 miles next time? :)