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? :)