Iron Horse Trail
Trail Review
I parked at Gene’s House and rode the Iron Horse Trail in an out-and-back fashion.
This trail reminded me most of the Stevens Creek Trail as it was a paved trail that also followed a highway and ended near wetlands.
Because of the presence of water, there were lots of bugs, even though it was winter.
There were lots of people walking the trail, especially near Danville, where I thought the trail was the nicest.
It’s a multiuse trail so there were plenty of people walking, riding their bike, skateboarding, etc.
North of Walnut Creek, there were some impressive—for a public trail—looking bridges that the trail went over.
There was very little elevation gain over the entire trail meant an easy ride, but a monotonous one.
There were water fountains and benches at various parts of the trail, but I don’t think I saw any bathrooms. Thankfully, there were businesses at various parts of the trail.
Thankfully I did not run into lots of wind. There were parts of that trail that had wind, but they were far and few between.
Media Consumed
Last Ride of the Pony Express—finished!
The Summer I Turned Pretty—finished!
Friends
Gene rode with me for the first 7 or 8 miles before he headed back. It was nice to warm up with Gene who gave me some good tips on avoiding the roads w/the most amount of cars on the way to the Iron Horse Trail. During the ride, we chatted and caught up with each other about life. After the ride, we hung out for a bit to compare headphones, talk about the video games we weren’t playing, and some books that we had recently gotten into.
What Happened?
50.7 miles, 5 hrs 20 mins, 675 ft of ascent
I recently socialized a personal goal of mine to ride 100 miles in a day on my bike. Surprisingly, this other person was psyched and asked when we could ride it. Given that I hadn’t ridden my bike for a while, I knew I needed to get back on the proverbial horse and train my legs.
Given that, I thought a good way to get training would be the Iron Horse Trail, since it’s the easiest long distance biking trail in the bay area that I found. I mean, what other ride gains less than 600 ft over 50 miles of biking distance?
On the day of the ride, I meant to get over to Dublin earlier, but I got out of bed much later than expected. I also meant to start at the official start of the Iron Horse Trail in Pleasanton, but I didn’t feel comfortable parking my car in front of a random house, so I skipped the first few miles of the ride.
I parked at Gene’s place, we geared up, then we headed for the Iron Horse Trail. We biked at a pleasant and easy pace and we gabbed various things until Gene had to head back to his house for a Thanksgiving lunch with his family. I picked up the pace and biked through unfamiliar towns and landscapes—with the exception being downtown Danville and the sight of Mt Diablo.
When I got to the end of the trail in Concord, I was a bit tired, so I stopped for about 10 minutes to eat a little snack and sit down on a bench to rest.
On the way back, I did also stop by a Whole Foods (which I did not expect to be open given that it was Thanksgiving day) for a small lunch (sushi and probiotic soda). I think my energy level was a bit erratic as at parts I felt tired, but at other parts, I felt like I could bike more and more miles. It’s probably a function of not eating enough and listening to an audiobook that didn’t quite steal my imagination.
In the end, I biked the 50+ miles that I wanted to hit and when I got back to Gene’s house, I felt that I could have done another 20 miles without any issue, which is a good sign for my general fitness. I still think I want to do another 70-80 mile bike ride to feel great about a 100+ mile biking attempt, but am now pretty confident that I can hit my goal. So yeah, one more practice/tune-up ride and I’ll be ready.
Thanks to Gene for both of these pictures
