Back from camping

Went camping with the family for the last few days. It was oddly refreshing to have some intense heat (as I write this the sun is finally breaking through the Bay Area fog at 11 am) and to be off the grid for a few days. We camped at Del Valle, a reservoir and park managed by the East Bay Regional Parks district outside of Livermore CA.

I took my bike (actually I had four hung on the back of the car) and took the opportunity to ride in a new area since this is further south than I can roam normally. I rode up Mines Rd, which much to my surprise ran a good 20+ miles uphill from the 700 ft at the park entrance up to 2600 ft just south of the Santa Clara county line.

It was some really good riding though, a weekday morning and the number of cars and bikes encountered did not exceed my total number of fingers and toes over the course of nearly four hours of riding out and back. The road was quiet, the landscape charming and I even spotted a few jack rabbits and wild turkeys trying to decide if I was intent on chasing them. I did have a passing thought about the chance of a mountain lion being in the area, but decided with the large number of deer they would be well fed without me in their diet.