Distance: 12 miles one way
Elevation gain: 2044 ft

Sierra Road, a name that brings shivers to Bay Area riders, was made famous in 2012 when Chris Horner flew up its 18% pitches (OK, RWGPS says it tops out at 14%, but my legs say different) to lock up the win in the Tour of California.  He rode those pitches at around 13 mph.  I had ridden up the same slopes earlier that morning to watch the stage finish—at 4 mph or less.    This is one of the toughest climbs in our list, a true feather in your cap, one of two climbs in Bestrides where I’ve been known to stop to recover (the other being Welch Creek Road, in the Adding Miles section of the Calaveras ride).

Sierra Rd. itself actually isn’t all that wonderful a ride.  It’s too steep to be fun, and the landscape is mostly barren grassy hills and vistas of San Jose bloat.  But it’s a marvelous challenge, and the descent on the backside, Felter Road, is superb.  For those more interested in scenery and riding pleasure than bragging rights, a better ride is Felter alone as an out and back, which I discuss at the end.

Start at the intersection of Sierra Rd. and Piedmont Rd..  The climbing starts immediately (I ride around on Piedmont to warm up) and is immediately fierce.  It’s going to stay like that most of the way to the summit (about 3.6 miles).  The scenery is a bit bland and the view from the top, while admittedly vast, is mostly of San Jose sprawl (standing at the summit, Bob Roll looked at San Jose and said to me, “How did we go so wrong?”).

Felter near the summit

The summit used to be absolutely nothing but one-lane road and grass, but now there’s a spiffy new parking lot, benches (to take in Bob’s vista), and a map board introducing you to the trail system that takes off from the parking lot into the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve to the southeast.  Signs used to implore you, “Do not throw manure over fence,” in case you had it in mind to do so, but they seem to have disappeared.   Still no bathrooms or water, however.

A rare moment of shade on Sierra Road

Once past the summit, everything changes.  Now the views are quite nice (the Open Space Preserve).  You turn north and start to roll and descend on good road surface.  Try to notice the “Livestock Keep Out” sign on your L—I guess the East Bay cows are a literate lot.  At a minor intersection the road turns from Sierra Road to Felter Road (there’s a road sign marking the change, but it’s easy to miss).   The pitch steepens until you’re almost literally flying down some short 10% and 14% stretches.   Much of it is very fast, with no speed-killing sharp turns and with long sightlines and run-outs allowing for 45 mph if you’re up for it and just enough up-and-down and back-and-forth to add some technical interest.  Flat-out exhilarating.

Nearing the summit of Sierra

Felter changes its name to Calaveras Rd. when Calaveras enters on your R, then intersects Piedmont and our ride is over, because the ride back to your car is ordinary.   To complete the loop, turn L on Piedmont and stay on it to your car.

Looking back from Felter at the summit, with San Jose in the background

Shortening the route: Climbing Sierra is the sort of thing you do for bragging rights, so it makes no sense to do part of it.  If you want something easier, just do the Felter half as an out and back.  It adds miles, but it’s prettier, easier, and more fun, a lovely climb through hobby farms and along rolling grass-and-oak hillsides.  You’ll still get a workout—1400 ft of vert in 6 miles, with the afore-mentioned 10% and 14% stretches.

One of many grand eucalyptus along lower Felter

When I do the Felter out and back, I usually start at the intersection of Piedmont and Calaveras, to give myself some warm-up time—it’s all uphill from there, but at a milder pitch than Felter itself.

Adding miles: Since this is the East Bay, you’ve got great riding to the north and south of you.  The intersection where Felter becomes Calaveras is the turn-around point of the Calaveras Road ride.  A stone’s throw to the south is the Mt. Hamilton ride.

Afterthoughts:  In the middle of the summer the Sierra Rd. temperature can be nearly 100 degrees, and there are no services on the ride until the water and bathrooms at the Ed Levin County Park when the ride is almost over.  If you can’t do the ride in the morning, I strongly encourage a third water bottle for your head.  One afternoon I started the climb with two full water bottles and that proved inadequate—I had to beg water from a guy watering his lawn.  And we’re talking a 4-mile climb here.

Distance: 30 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1470 ft

This ride is one of a trio of East Bay rides that are similar in general contour: Calaveras, Palomares Road, and Morgan Territory Road.  They’re all about-five-mile climbs, at first gentle, then moderate, up through pretty wooded canyons along creeks.  To tell them apart: Palomares is the simplest and has the most domesticated ambiance; Calaveras is the easiest (though none is Mt. Diablo hard), has no backside descent, has the best open hillside views, is the only one of the three that has great riding contiguous to it, and is ridable only on weekends (because of car traffic); and Morgan Territory has the roughest and narrowest pavement, the best isolation, and the best backside descent.   Morgan Territory’s pavement is poor on the north side of the summit, which doesn’t bother the ascent but puts a damper on coming back down that way.  If you’re riding on a weekend and are just going to ride to the summit and back, do Calaveras.  If you want to climb to a summit, descend the back side, then turn around and ride back, do Palomares.  And if you’re in for a bigger adventure (or a BART ride), do Morgan Territory.

Calaveras Road is, most of the time, unridable.  Calaveras Road is now an alternative route for traffic on the South Bay freeways during commuter hours, so you can expect to meet literally hundreds of cars on a small, twisty road then.  In addition, during working hours an aggregate plant fills the first 3 miles of the ride with huge, noisy, dusty gravel trucks.  Therefore, this is perhaps the only ride in Bestrides.org where I tell you, unless you want to ride it before 7 AM, ride this road only on weekends.   On Saturday and Sunday, the road is transformed into a recreational bike path.  You’ll see upwards of 80 bikes, many of them hybrids or other strollers.  One rider said to me of Calaveras, “On the weekends we own it!”  You’ll meet 20-25 cars, but for 4/5 of the route either the road is very wide for a two-lane or you can see them coming from afar or both.

Calaveras Road (“skulls road” in Spanish) is an absolutely delightful ride (hence the 80 bikes).  It’s scenic as hell (half oak-canopied creek canyon climb, half open, grassy hillside with big vistas).  It’s remarkably easy for a climb—1400 ft of vert in 14 miles—and it has the best, most interesting road contour in the East Bay—better than Mt. Diablo, Mt. Hamilton, or Palomares.   In addition, the road surface for the first half of the ride is glass (they redid it 2017-2018) and the second half is excellent chipseal.  As if that weren’t enough, the route touches two excellent, challenging add-ons: Felter Rd. and Welch Creek Rd.—see Adding Miles for details on both.

Park at the northern end of Calaveras Rd.  There’s a lot of good dirt shoulder in all directions.  Much like the Palomares ride in the beginning, you start out fairly level for about 3 miles.  The scenery in these first miles is ordinary, with one exception: right past the start of the ride you pass a stretch of road lined (on your R) by the rare and striking cork oak.  The gnarly bark is unmistakable.

View from the Calaveras Rd. ascent

Next you do about 4 miles of constantly varied, moderate climbing (never over 6%) through shady oaks with steadily improving views of the creek canyon on your L, up to the reservoir level, then climb some more to get up above it.  If you notice someone with a spotting scope, stop and ask them what they’re looking at—there’s a pair of nesting peregrine falcons across the canyon.

Once past the unnoticeable summit, you roll up and down and back and forth below the ridge line through patches of oaks and stretches of open grassland with fine views of the reservoir  basin on 3 sides of you, until a very short, steep drop to a dead end at Felter Rd.  That last short drop isn’t particularly fun, and it’s a real grind coming back, so unless you have a strong Zigarnik I give you permission to skip it.

View from Felter Road: the Calaveras ride rolls along the hillside to the left of the reservoir

The ride back is just as good.  The first 8 miles of rollers gains about 600 ft, so don’t exhaust yourself on the ride out.  After that, it’s a very nice 3-mile descent that’s of a pleasant pitch.   If there’s one knock against this ride, it’s that the descent is so mellow the thrill factor is low—I rarely got over 25 mph.  Once you’re off the hill, 3 miles of near-imperceptible descending (and more gravel trucks) take you back to your car.

If by chance you get to the turn-around T and are desperate for water, turn R down what is still Calaveras and shortly you will hit Ed R. Levin County Park, which has drinking fountains.

The Calaveras climb

Adding miles: This is another Best of the Bay leg, so you’ve got rides from our list to the north and to the south.

Going north, six miles down very trafficky, narrow Niles Canyon Rd. takes you to the turn-around point for the Palomares Road ride.

Our ride’s turn-around point is at Felter Rd., the northern half of the Sierra Road/Felter Road ride.  Felter to the Sierra Road summit is a great out-and-back, more built-up with hobby farms than Calaveras and much more work ascending (1400 ft of vert in 6 miles, vs. 1400 ft in 14 miles), with several 8-10% pitches and some moments of 11-14%.  For that reason the descent is literally hair-raising, a thrill ride if there ever was one.  For details on Felter, see the Sierra Road/Felter Road ride.

Welch Creek Road

“Nibbles,” a Bestrides reader, tipped me off to Welch Creek Road, a 4.7-mile (one way) out-and-back beast on your L off Calaveras, just north of Geary Road.  It’s a gorgeous, delightfully gnarly climb.  The scenery is prettier than Calaveras, and the road is half the size, so you’re right in the midst of it as you crawl up a narrow creek canyon.  Check out Nibbles’s excellent description below.  It’s absurdly steep—c. 2000 ft in 4.7 miles, which pencils out to about 10% average, with plenty of 18% stuff.  Probably the hardest 4 miles of climbing I’ve ever done—took me almost an hour.  Much of the ride down is too steep to be fun, but the flatter parts are as playful as a young colt.  A must-do ride at least once.  To my surprise, there are a few houses at the end of Welch Creek Rd, so a car or two is possible but statistically unlikely.  One reader differs, because there seem to be popular hiking trailheads accessed via WCR.

Welch Creek Road

Distance: 20 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1770 ft

(A Best of the Best descent)

This ride is one of a trio of East Bay rides that are similar in general contour: Palomares, Calaveras Road, and Morgan Territory Road.  They’re all about-five-mile climbs, at first gentle, then moderate, up through pretty wooded canyons along creeks.  To tell them apart: Palomares is the simplest and has the most domesticated ambiance; Calaveras is the easiest (though none is Mt. Diablo hard), has no backside descent, has the best open hillside views, is the only one of the three that has great riding contiguous to it, and is ridable only on weekends (because of car traffic); and Morgan Territory has the roughest and narrowest pavement, the best isolation, and the longest backside descent.   Morgan Territory’s pavement is poor on the north side of the summit, which doesn’t bother the ascent but puts a damper on coming back down that way.  If you’re riding on a weekend and are just going to ride to the summit and back, do Calaveras.  If you want to climb to a summit, descend the back side, then turn around and ride back, do Palomares.  And if you’re in for a bigger adventure (or a BART ride), do Morgan Territory.

Palomares has the best road surface of the three—it ranges from good to excellent—and the five miles of downhill heading south are as good a five miles of cycling as I’ve ever ridden.  It also has the fastest descent of the three—the first mile of descending on the north side of the summit is 11-13% and relatively straight, so you can easily do 40+ mph.  It probably has the most climbing miles (10), since you climb the hill twice, once from each side.

Palomares is as simple as a ride can get: start at the beginning of Palomares Rd. near Hwy 580 and ride to its end, then turn around and ride back.  It’s a perfect little ride: you do a little flat stuff to warm up, then climb gently, then climb a bit more steeply to a summit, then descend down through an exciting curvy series of esses to the end, all of it through pretty hobby farms and wooded creek canyons.  Then you get to do it all in reverse.  Piece of cake.

The lush back side of Palomares

Park near the intersection of Palo Verde Rd. and Palomares in Castro Valley.  There is abundant shoulder parking on Palo Verde just west of the school (which is just west of the intersection).  If you’re BARTing, Palomares is a straight 4-mi. shot down Castro Valley Blvd., which is big and busy but with ample shoulder.

The ride is roughly symmetrical—5 miles and 1000 ft up to the summit, then 5 miles and 1000 ft down to the turn-around—but the character of the two sides is very different.  The north side is 4 miles of fairly straight, very mellow climbing followed by a truly tough mile, topping out at 13%; the south side is much curvier, thus more dramatic, and steadier of pitch, probably never exceeding 7%.  You can start at either end, but it’s a better ride the way I’ve mapped it, because from the north you begin with 20 minutes of easy pedaling as a warm-up.  Starting from the southern end has you doing real climbing from the gun.

Both descents are rewarding.  The south side is almost constant curves, smooth and graceful. You’re following a creek the entire way, and in the latter half of the descent the canyon gets steep and dramatic and the trees begin to swallow you up—beautiful.  The north descent, on the way home, is at first idiotically fast, then it’s just a sweet, rolling descent, pedaling effortlessly at 20 mph through hobby farms.

Shortening the ride: Ride to the summit and turn around.  Absolutely definitely the southern side is the better ride.

Perfect curves on Palomares

Adding Miles: Palomares is smack in the middle of the Best of the Bay century route, so you’ve got great riding just to the north and south of you.  Our starting point is close to the south end of our Grizzly Peak ride, and the turn-around is a short, unpleasant shoulder ride on Hwy 84 from the start of the Calaveras Rd. ride.

I’ll mention two not-great rides worth doing if you’re in the neighborhood.  Five and a half miles away from the start of our ride is a pleasant little climb, Norris Canyon Rd., recommended by RH below.  It’s a small road that has little room for you and cars together, so it should be ridden at some time other than rush hour.  To get to NCR, ride down the extremely unpleasant, nerve-wracking Castro Valley Blvd. and turn on the big and busy but well-shouldered Crow Canyon Rd. I’m not sure NCR is worth that, but if you drove to Palomares and want a nice little climb as an add-on it’s an easy drive. NCR is 7.5 mi out and back, straight up and down over a summit in each direction, with a couple of 10% moments (one on either side of the summit)—otherwise it’s mellow to moderate. It’s wooded and a bit rugged on the southwest side, polished, straight, and wide with gated mansions on the northeast, so you might turn around at the summit unless you crave a short 40-mph descent.

Morrison Canyon Road

From our turn-around at Niles Canyon Rd., you can ride 4.5 miles down unpleasant NCR, L on huge, busy Mission Blvd., and L on Morrison Canyon Rd. and ride the curiosity that is Morrison Canyon Rd. (recommended by Nibbles below—read his excellent description). It’s only 5.2 miles out and back, but they’re memorable miles. Signs at the start say “road width 9 ft,” “No turning,” and “No stopping.” It’s in places little more than a driveway, and it’s steep—1.5 miles of 10%+, maxing out at 15% right after the intersection with Vargas Rd., which is also very short and worth riding. The descent on MCR is too steep, broken, and gravel-strewn to be tons of fun—think of it as braking practice. It’s a novelty ride, worth doing once.  MCR is now closed to cars (see COH’s note below), which is a plus.  COH also offers a route from Palomares to Morrison that avoids busy Mission Blvd.

Distance: c. 44 miles 
Elevation gain: 4510 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

There’s a line of hills and ridges that make up the spine of the East Bay from Tilden Park in Berkeley to Fremont.  Along that line is a series of four nearly-contiguous rides, all outstanding: this ride, Palomares Road, Calaveras Road, and Sierra Road.  The Best of the Bay Century (see the regional introduction) strings them all together, with filler.  As always, I’m going to give you just the good stuff, working north to south.

This ride is really four different roads.  The first, Grizzly Peak Blvd., is one of the few rides on our list that’s city riding on purpose (i.e. not as filler).  In the beginning it’s densely populated residential, and the traffic is dangerous.  It’s not relaxing.  But there’s a magic to the Berkeley Hills that leads hundreds of cyclists to brave the dangers every day, and every time I go to the East Bay I can’t wait to jump on my bike and get up there.  The views of the Bay are unbelievable.    The second road, Skyline Blvd., is less built up, and the views are even better.  The third road, Redwood Rd. is the antithesis of Grizzly Peak Blvd.—a sublime, solitary, and thoroughly unexpected ride through the bowels of a primaeval forest (hence the name).  You’ll expect to see Ents.  And finally the fourth road, Claremont Ave., is a Best-of-the-Best, breath-taking plummet which also figures in our Tunnel Road/Claremont Ave. Loop.

Navigation on this route is moderately complicated—you’ll want a map the first time.  Begin where Spruce St. and Grizzly Peak Blvd. intersect and ride south up GPB.  The road is almost entirely up for a long time.  Take the time to enjoy the architecture and horticulture you’re passing.  Each house and yard is a unique work of art.  As you gain elevation, the views of the Bay to your right get better and better and the land becomes less built up.  The best view of the Bay is from a small turn-out on the first curve after you pass Claremont Ave.  The pavement from Centennial Drive (see Adding Miles) to Claremont is brand-new pavement as of 12/2013 and it’s dreamy.

When Grizzly Peak Blvd. T’s loosely into Skyline Blvd., take Skyline to the L.  At the next (very noticeable) four-way intersection, you’ll see Pinehurst dropping down and out of sight at about 10 o-clock while Skyline angles to the right and continues on.  You can take Skyline or Pinehurst.  Whichever road you take, you’ll come back to this point on the other.  Take Pinehurst if you want a short, steep, very curvy descent and, later, a mild ascent up Redwood Ave.   Continue on Skyline if you want a mild descent down Redwood and, later, a short, steep ascent up Pinehurst.

Oakland, San Francisco, and the Bay Bridge between them, from Grizzly Peak Blvd

We’re going down Pinehurst.  Exercise caution on the descent—the corners are sharp and often gravelly (I once met a crew sweeping the road here and a guy hollered at me, “We’re making it nice for you!” as I rode by—very thoughtful.)   At the bottom of the descent you enter a silent fairy-tale forest of redwoods.  This is the East Bay?  Impossible.  Ride past the Canyon School, which will make you wonder why you had to go to that institutional place you called elementary school instead of here.

When Pinehurst dead-ends on Redwood Ave., take Redwood to the L and continue on the way you’ve been going.  The scenery gets steadily less idyllic, because perfection can’t last, and you climb gently into the outskirts of Castro Valley.  Turn around when you no longer love what you’re riding through (the map goes to the edge of Castro Valley) and return to the intersection of Redwood and Pinehurst.  Go back whichever way you didn’t come out.   Since we came down Pinehurst, continue up Redwood, a straight and unvaried but beautiful climb through lovely woods, to Skyline and follow Skyline (don’t miss the almost-immediate R at the Y and go straight onto Joaquin Miller by mistake) back to Grizzly Peak Blvd.

Retrace your steps along GPB to the prominent intersection with Claremont Ave.  If you don’t want to explore (or you don’t want to add another substantial climb to the ride), just ride through the intersection and stay on GPB back to your car.  If you’re up for an adventure, at the intersection go L onto Claremont, a 2-mile curvy, blisteringly fast, hang-on-to-your-hat-exhilarating 10% plummet that is 1/3 of our Tunnel Road/Claremont Ave. Loop.  See that ride for a detailed description.

At the bottom of Claremont, our route ends, because the great riding ends.  You’ll need to find your way back to your car via Berkeley surface streets, and there is no one right way to do this.  Unless you know Berkeley, you’ll want to have a map to consult repeatedly.  The standard route from central Berkeley to Grizzly Peak Blvd is up Spruce—for a more challenging and rewarding route, try Euclid paralleling it just to the east.  Berkeley has a network of “bike boulevards,” where cars are discouraged and you can ride with confidence—try to map out a route that uses them.  Riding through or above (east of) the UC campus is a bit more work but rewarding.  If riding through a busy city isn’t your bag, below in Adding Miles I’ll show you a lovely climb that takes you from the bottom of Claremont back up to Grizzly Peak Blvd.

There are bathrooms and water at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, on Skyline 100 feet south of the Skyline/Grizzly Peak Blvd intersection.

Shortening the route: Ride the stretch along Grizzly Peak and Skyline starting from the Grizzly Peak/Claremont intersection (for the views); or ride Pinehurst and Redwood (for the woods).

Adding miles: The Greater Berkeley area has a plethora of good cycling roads, so you’re close to good riding in all directions on this route.  Here are five options:

1. At the turn-around point in this ride, you’re a short, urban ride through Castro Valley from the Palomares Road ride.

2. At the start of the ride you’re also at the starting point for our Wildcat Canyon Road/Happy Valley Road/Nimitz Way ride.

3. For a couple of miles our route overlaps the route of the Tunnel Road/Claremont Ave. loop.

SF Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge from Nimitz Way (click to enlarge)

4. What you would never think to do, but what I strongly encourage you to do, is putter around the twisty, quirky streets just below where you started the ride, at Spruce St. and Grizzly Peak Blvd.  This isn’t so much about riding as it is about experiencing the Berkeley Hills.  This is a place as beautiful and as culturally rich as Venice or Montmartre.  Each house is a faery cottage, each tiny front yard is a horticultural jewel, and they’re all different.  If it wasn’t “just a Berkeley neighborhood,” it would be a world-class tourist destination with hourly bus tours full of people speaking foreign languages and snapping photos.  It helps to have a good map for this exploration.  The north/south streets are fairly level, the east/west streets can be quite steep.  Stay off Marin Ave., unless, as they say in Rambo 2, “you wish to test yourself”—it’s one of the steepest city streets in America.  Any street that wriggles and that lies west of Grizzly Peak, north of Cedar, and east of Martin Luther King Jr. Way/The Alemeda/Colusa Ave. is fair game.  The shorter and crookeder the better.  I particularly like Yosemite St. and Mendocino St., and be sure to make a stop at Indian Rock Park to climb on the eponymous rock.

5. A user of Bestrides wrote in to ask, Why didn’t I discuss the leg of the SF Bay Trail that goes along the Berkeley/Emeryville waterfront?   The answer is, to me it’s always been a recovery ride so I never think about how sweet it is.  It’s a dead flat, effortless (unless the wind is blowing) cruise along the waterline of the Bay at eye level.  Most of the time you have Hwy 80 on your elbow, but on the other side the views are unique and grand.  You’ll have a lot of company, and pedestrian dodging is just part of the experience.

The Bay Bridge and the SF skyline from Yerba Buena Island

The Trail loops the entire Bay, so you can ride as far as you like, but the plum leg is Marina Bay marina in Richmond to the Bay Bridge and out the pedestrian/bike path on the bridge itself to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island.  You can now ride across Yerba Buena and around Treasure.  Treasure Island itself isn’t great riding (Treasure being dead flat Bay fill full of military base architecture and construction), but the views are spectacular—don’t miss the bike path around the north end of Treasure.  You also get an iconic view of the Bay Bridge from directly overhead as the Yerba Buena road crosses over.  The interesting venues between Marina Bay and the Bridge are too numerous to mention, but my favorite is the UC Sailing Club’s operation on the south side of the Berkeley Yacht Harbor, where small-craft sailors practice their skills.

Distance: 18 miles one way plus ferry ride
Elevation gain: c. 800 ft.

(A Best of the Best ride)

This is a flat, easy recreational ride with lots of company through many of the Bay tourist’s favorite haunts: the San Francisco waterfront, Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf, the SF Marina, Crissy Field, the Bridge, Sausalito, the Mill Valley-Sausalito Mike Path, Tiburon, and the Bay ferries.  Each of these is a treasure worth hanging out in and exploring.  The centerpiece is the Golden Gate Bridge: the most photographed man-made object on Earth.  So this ride isn’t really about “cycling,” which is why you’ll be sharing the route with a few hundred wobbly tourists on rental townies.   If you want to expand the loop to include more work, there are five excellent ways to do that, detailed in the Adding Miles section.  By the way, this may be the most scenic ride in Bestrides, but I’ve skipped posting photos of the Bridge, Alcatraz, etc.—you know what they look like.

I know riders who say they wouldn’t be caught dead riding on the Golden Gate Bridge.  Granted, you’re riding on a sidewalk that’s usually full of hordes of pedestrians stopping to gawk and take selfies, not to mention hordes of cyclists riding rental bikes and staring out over the water as they ride.  To these naysayers I say, crossing the Bridge under your own power is the archetypal Bucket List experience.   Just go do it.   Walk it if you’d rather.  I’m a cyclist, so I’m riding it. However, it’s true that at 11 AM of a weekend morning in good weather the bridge is packed shoulder to shoulder with rental bikes, and it’s intolerable, so get there c. 8 AM if you can.  In my experience, summer weekday mornings are pleasantly unpopulated at least until 10 AM (see photo).

The Bridge is open to cyclists every day of the year during daylight hours, but beyond that the schedule is shifty.   I suggest you consult the Bridge’s webpage on the subject for current rules.  If both sides are open to you, you must make a decision.  The west side is much less crowded, but the views are only grand (the ocean), not cosmically marvelous like on the east side (the Bay).

Navigating this route is pretty tricky throughout, so take along some mapping capability.  For the City portion of the loop, the SF Bicycle Coalition has made a great bicycle map of San Francisco, and it will guide you.  For the Marin leg, there’s the Marin Bicycle Map.  Remember, electronic maps often won’t show you bike paths, which is half the ride.

The ride is almost entirely dead flat.  There is only one moment when you will break a sweat, which is the climb from sea level at Chrissy Field up to the bridge roadway—220 ft of gain.  RWGPS gives an elevation total of 1000+ ft, but it’s bogus, due to the oddity of the site recording the elevation of the Bridge as 0 ft, thus producing an illusory climb of 220 ft. when you exit the Bridge.  The real elevation gain is more like 800 ft.

Time management is critical on this ride, because on some days the Tiburon ferry stops running in the late afternoon (typically 4:30 on weekdays), and if you miss the last one it’s a long ride back (or a trip to Sausalito to catch the ferry there).  Check the ferry schedule for the last run of the day, and calculate backwards to find your starting time, remembering to factor in lots of time for a leisurely pace and lots of vista gazing and snacking.  On my last visit I did it at a moderate pace without stopping in under two hours starting from the Ferry Building, but I would guess you’ll want at least 4 hours elapsed time so you can explore.

Wind and fog are always possibilities on this ride—pack accordingly.  Once I did it in August and it was a cold, damp 55 degrees.  Fog also impacts the view—it’s not unusual to cross the Bridge on a foggy day and look out on an impenetrable wall of gray.

About a quarter of this loop, the leg from the Pier 41 ferry dock to the Bridge, duplicates a leg of our other SF ride, San Francisco’s Wiggle Loop.

Friday 10 AM: not crowded…yet

Don’t try to park near the bridge.  Park at Crissy Field or next door at the Marina Green, where the parking is usually easy and free, and ride to the Bridge (by the way, our map starts at Pier 39, because I wanted to show you the whole route and I can’t map the ferry ride, but don’t try to park there either).  For details on Crissy Field or any of the route between Pier 39 and the Bridge, see the San Francisco’s Wiggle Loop ride.  Easiest of all is to BART into the City, get off at the Embarcadero, and ride to Pier 41, a surprisingly short 1.5 miles.  From the Embarcadero to Tiburon is 20 miles.

Navigation here is tricky, because the road system leading to the Bridge is complicated.  There are signs, and you can just follow the stream of rental bikes (any bike with a sign that says Blazing Saddles).

The Bridge has fascinating stuff at both ends.   At the south end there’s a visitor center (at South Vista Point) with interesting interactive displays about the history and physics of the bridge, a statue of Strauss the builder, and a section of suspension cable that awed me as a child and still does.   Fort Point, well worth your time, is under the bridge a short ride below you.  At the north end there’s a parking lot/viewing area with an iconic view of the City and a touching Lone Sailor Statue.

San Francisco, Alcatraz, the Bay Bridge, and Yerba Buena Island from the Sausalito breakwater—so much better in real life

Cross the Bridge, stopping often to gawk in wonder.  Exit ASAP on the R and ride Alexander Ave. into Sausalito, one of the world’s more charming artist communities.  It’s full of shops, galleries, excellent restaurants, and other points of interest, including a huge model of the Bay (built for studying tidal flow) you can visit.  As you approach the town you ride along the breakwater, which has a breath-taking view of SF across the Bay—stop and ogle.  Stop on your way out of town at Bicycle Odyssey to salivate over high-end bikes and shop for jerseys (they have hundreds).  As you exit Sausalito you’ll see bobbing in the water on your R the world-famous community of house boats, a curious mix of waterman and bohemian cultures.  Many of them are show palaces of interior design on the inside (there’s an annual fund-raiser house boat tour when you are allowed to enter a select few).

Follow the Mill Valley-Sausalito Bike Path out of town, going straight as the main road bends L and under Hwy 101.  Follow  the path through interesting tidal meadows.  If you want to get to Tiburon as quickly and easily as possible, stay on the path until it intersects  Blithedale Ave. and take Blithedale R.  It turns into Tiburon Blvd., which goes to Tiburon (“Shark” in Spanish), where your ferry awaits.  Blithedale and Tiburon Blvd. is heavily trafficked shoulder riding, so I strongly recommend you not do this.  Instead, before you reach Blithedale you encounter an unmissable intersection on the bike trail and a small sign points R and says “Tiburon.”  Remember what this sign looks like, because signs just like it will guide you on a delightful back route to Tiburon that includes small roads, big roads, shoulders, resdiential neighborhoods, shoreline rec paths, and rail to trail conversions.  Trust the signs, even when they unmistakably direct you into a parking lot (you’re ride out the other side).  At one point, when you’re paralleling Hwy 101 and meet Ricardo Rd., the sign says to go straight ahead in you’re in a hurry or go R onto the Seminary Dr. scenic alternate, and I encourage you to take the alternate.

If you’ve successfully followed the little signs, you end up on the Tiburon Rail Trail and are dumped out in the heart of Tiburon .  As soon as possible, turn R toward the water to get on Main St., where all the charm is.

Tiburon is a small, charming little town,  the unpretentious sibling to Old Money’s posh Belvedere adjacent.  If you want the full Bay Area experience you’ll eat at Sam’s.  Check out the galleries, then find the ferry to San Francisco.   There are two ferries, one to SF and one to Angel Island.  Tiburon has done everything possible to make sure you get on the wrong ferry.  Do not do this.  Keep asking locals until you’re sure you’ve located the SF ferry, which goes either to Pier 41 or to the Ferry Building.  Hint: the ferry is on the water.

You can buy your ticket on the ferry—they’re used to bikes and make it easy.  The ferry ride across the Bay may be the best part of the loop, and it’s something you should do even if you left your bike at home.  If you end up at Pier 41, work your way west along the waterfront through Fisherman’s Wharf, Fort Mason, the Marina, and finally Crissy Field and your car, or ride east back to the Ferry Building.

Shortening the ride:  Ride to Sausalito and jump on the ferry there.

Adding miles: There are at least five good ways to expand this loop, three of them Bestrides rides and the other two worthy of being Bestrides rides:

1. The San Francisco portion is shared by the San Francisco’s Wiggle Loop ride around the City, which will add some miles but not much work to your ride.

2. At the north end of the Bridge you’re at the beginning of Bestrides’ Conzelman Loop.

3. From Tiburon you can take the ferry to Angel Island, another low-key, flat bike stroll on the paved road that circumnavigates the island.   Angel Island was the Ellis Island of the West Coast, a processing station for Asian immigrants, and had an active military presence, all fascinatingly documented in Angel Island State Park.  Of course the views of the Bay and the Bridge are outstanding.

4. Tiburon, where you pick up the ferry, is on the route of our Paradise Drive ride.

The view from Belvedere Ave., with Friend of Bestrides Brian

5. While in Tiburon, explore Belvedere Island, which is the loop part of the Paradise Drive lollipop.  Ride around the perimeter, then explore the inner roads, which can get quite steep, briefly.  Check out the mansions—some of the most exclusive and prestigious property in the Bay Area.