East Bay Bike Party

On June 14, of 2025, I wrote that the day before I got my bike and left for East Bay Bike Party at 7pm. I went to the empanada place before boarding a train and going to Mosswood Park near MacArthur Station in Oakland. I found some close friends at the entrance. I finally was able to meet a personality from social media from Las Vegas who I had known for a long time.

I noted that other social media personalities I knew were there also. An old school cyclist with a penchant for posting pics of sandwiches was there which was really cool. Turned out I know the lady who was marvelously leading with the flag was there too. She was leading the ride with a cyclist who normally brings his disco ball trailer.

The ride went one way and another, but ended up on California. I noted that my buddy from SF took a turn. I chatted with two riders with cargo bikes just like mine about how my motor had died. The ride leader’s daughter did North Berkeley turns.

The ride ended up on an alley in Berkeley. There were plenty of old school Butter Lap and SF Bike Party people. I saw a guy I knew from North Beach. I reconnected with an acquaintance from Butter Lap.

We left leisurely and went to a place in Emeryville near Amtrak. It was called Big Tank Park or something. The dancing was marvelous. I told the ride leader it was wild. People I knew but had never seen together were asking about each other.

We departed a bit late. The ride leader took us to Seventh Street via Target. By Mandela we had lost a lot of people, but there was a lot of dancing at Lake Merritt. I got selfies with the regulars including my buddy who has a tall bike. I saw the ride leader’s roommate.

I hopped a BART train home with all of the people and when I got home, I had a grilled cheese sandwich.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life.

This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

China Wall

On a Saturday in June of 2025, I wrote that I got up seven in the morning I got my 8 year old boys awake. We left at 10:45 on our bikes and took BART to the East Bay. I showed them some geography from the train windows on the way. The boys wanted to know how long Caldicott Tunnel was.

At Pleasant Hill, we stopped at Starbucks on the way to Shell Ridge. The ride up the Ironhorse trail and Canal trail went quick. The grounds staff yelled at us in Diablo Hills Golf Course but we passed them easily. The boys complained at the crossing of near Muir Hospital. However, we managed to get past that as we entered the open spaces.

The first and second climb were hard. I had to fix one of the boys’ had to fix his derailers. I showed him how to do it. I probably should’ve taken his bike to the shop the week before. The third climb was really hard though. It was literally 500 feet. I had to help the boys with their bikes again.

We descended to Borges Ranch where I caught my breath. The boys drank water and had snack snacks. There was a Boy Scout troop from Lafayette. Their tents were in the Sun which I thought was funny. We climbed to Borges Vista then. We actually had to walk some of the way.

However, the boys were in good spirits. We headed on towards China Wall then. There weren't any names for the paths, but this one had a pond and was “the west route.“ I noted that there was a water tower near the top of that path.

We encountered a herd of cows. I asked them to get out of the way. After that, one of the boys abruptly got off his bike and freaked out a horse who had been following us. I tried to get the bikes above the trail, but that made the horse gallup away.

When we crested there, we only had one valley to go. I took a wrong turn and had to go back, but one of the boys bombed a hill at that point and it was really cool. We got to China Wall around 4 o’clock and I got photos of Mammoth rock.

We rode back much of the same route, but after the cows and water tank and pond we stayed on the western route to avoid Borges Ranch to save elevation and time. I noted that that meant we had to skip getting more water.

We descended to the trailhead but opted to go to downtown Walnut Creek instead. The view was great. We managed the traffic along Homestead and Lakewood well enough and stopped at a good but expensive taqueria Broadway.

 
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The SNRR Crossing

On May 26, of 2025, I wrote that the day before I had gone swimming in Lake Natomas near Nimbus Dam on the way to our hotel in Rancho Cordova. We got up at 7:45 and I found that an old college roommate who lived nearby suggested I visit. So, we packed up and rode over the pedestrian crossing at highway 50 through White Rock community park and onward to his place.

He made us pancakes and coffee was good. He and his family live in a cute little house near the Jedidiah Bike Path. His kid has a lot of toys. The boys played with him outside. When we left the kids across the street we asked Hank to come out and play.

The boys lead the way to big Bend Park after we said goodbye. We got water at big Bend. When I got across the bridge, I lost one of the boys and we raced ahead to find him. Eventually, we found him at the next water station farther down the path. I was greatly relieved we had found him.

Later, the boys led the way again. We were running behind at that point but we stayed on the American RIver levees past Howe and onward to CSUS. There was no service to be found on campus so we continued over past the Expo Center and under the 160 highway crossing as well as the SNRR crossing. We also passed the Blue Diamond Plant. We had coffee at a coffee shop on seventh then right before boarding a train at 2:55. Everything turned out perfect. I noted that our next stop while I was writing was Richmond.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Jump in Lake Natomas

On May 25, of 2025, I wrote that I had gone to bed exhausted after the bike ride I had gone on with my 9 year old boys the day before in Browns Ravine at Folsom Lake. The boys got up around 8 o’clock in the morning in the hotel room I had gotten for us for the night in Folsom’s Historic District.

We checked out late and went looking for breakfast. The diner I liked no longer existed so we went to another place with long lines and high prices. When we were ready to go we rode the Natoma Trail. I made a video like I always do. The boys were really fast and they had no complaints. They chased each other, but eventually they were making each other nuts so I asked them to stop.

The bridges along Highway 50 had no jumpers. Normally 20 something year-old kids will hang out on the lake there to jump into the water 10 feet below. However, I did see a lot of bikes parked there. There were also a lot of electric bikes everywhere. I made the boys jump in Lake Natomas when we got to Nimbus Dam. While it wasn’t especially hot that day, the swimming area there is really great.

We rode to the fish hatchery and then we crossed over the Fair Oaks Bridge to visit the small town of Fair Oaks. I noted that the boys are a riot when they ride together. When we crossed back over the Fair Oaks Bridge headed to the Sunrise Bl Bike Path, the boys almost went the wrong way down the Jedidiah Smith trail because the path off makes a big clover leaf there.

As I had gotten a room for us on the far side of Highway 50, I was trying out the Sunrise Bike Path as a way to avoid extra work crossing big boulevards and it has the extra benefit of crossing under Highway 50 and passing near Sunrise Station.

Surprisingly, I found that the route is not only easier to use but it also goes through a group of hotels – two which had amenities comparable to I had booked for that night. I decided to keep it in mind for the next trip I made through the area.

While crossing Folsom Boulevard to Mercantile Road, we inadvertently passed the connection to the Folsom South Canal so we connected to it at Sunrise Bl. So, we were only on it for about a mile. I also missed getting a photo of that area. After that we connected to a neighborhood with a long and well made bike path called the Villages at Zinfandel on International Drive. That got us a stone’s throw from the hotel I had booked on Quality Drive.

We had stayed there a few times and liked the hotel a lot there but the place is literally a giant parking lot. When we had checked in, we did laundry and went swimming. I also found us a Chili’s and when we went back to the hotel, I got the boys mochi.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The Granite of Granite Bay

On May 24, of 2025, I wrote that we woke at 6:45 at a hotel in the Folsom Historic District and I was able to get my nine year old boys to organize by 7:45. We went downstairs and had fppd before riding over the rainbow bridge and up to Folsom Lake crossing by 9:30.

One of the boys was riding pretty slow but we took in the cool air on the way and got photos. The route I was counting on for accessing the lake shore no longer existed so we went to the next available access at Natoma Street. I noted that access to the lakeside was poorly maintained.

The boys and I looked at mafic stones there— it’s called La Colina Del Lago. The joint between the granite of Granite Bay and the Gabro pluton above New York Creek is right about at the reservoir’s main levee. I found levees four and five really interesting. The gravels, which were all likely brought into the area by truck had both granite and mafic rocks in it.

We followed some e-Bikes over to the lakeshore. I had taken a stop to catch my breath, so the boys got a little bit ahead of me and they were so fast that I thought I had lost them. We went to Folsom Point. The air was still cool there and the boys were skipping rocks. Levee Seven was undergoing construction, so the ride ended up being terrible through there. I couldn’t tell if we could get to Brown’s Ravine, but I used our binoculars and that helped.

Once we made it to the other end of Levee Seven we found a gate blocking access to Green Valley Boulevard near the Sophia Parkway entrance. However, getting into Brown’s Ravine turned out to actually be possible. We went halfway up the lake side to a couple of paths and I was able to find a route into Brown’s assembly.

From there we ascended a couple of other forest paths to Francisco Drive and took a break ata cafe. The boys were righty tired from all of this exertion. We stopped at the store before riding up Kingston Street to visit Lake Forest Elementary where we had ginger ale and visited the playground. Some kid on an E bike kept buzzing us.

From there we followed the path near Inverness and went to Wolf Creek Lane. We had to leave the Lake Forest area around Francisco Drive to enter an adjacent are called Lake Hills. Unfortunately we found gates and fences barring a connection to the “Equestrian Village” near at the end of Wolf Creek Lane. So, instead, we rode Lake Hills Dr to Carnelian where we rode up Norwich to look at a hole under a fence.

From there we climbed Sheffield to Francisco and descended to Guadalupe. We took in the view at Encina both north and south before taking Loma Verde to Lake Hills (we saw the fence with the hole again). We returned to Lake Forest Elementary to take Francisco back to Starbucks. We passed through Brown’s Assembly, but this time went to Lakeridge Oaks Drive and descended to Green Valley, past the fence at Sophia Parkway and along Levee Seven. The last climb was hard.

Once we had rested the ride resumed from Folsom Point to the Johnny Cash Trail. I noted that one of the boy’s bikes was having a chronic problem. The real rear derailer was hard to figure out. It had a lot of problems. However, we descended from there to the Folsom Historic District with no problems beside that. Once we had re-organized at our hotel room, we had some Pizza at Classico and headed to Fat Rabbit for dessert.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The Sunshine Boulevard Train

On May 23, 2025, I wrote that around 11 in the morning, I got my 8 year old boys from school and we took the 1 bus to Market Street where we had stored our bikes. We then jumped on a Richmond BART Train.

I got Amtrak tickets there but forgot to get the return trip which isn’t always a problem but it can complicate the return since we are often in a rush. The air was warm. The boys did fine with getting to the platform and the boarding worked too. Unfortunately, the boys hadn’t understood that we just needed a seat – not necessarily seats together.

We settled in until Davis and got off fine. Not having my cargo bike made the experience a little better. We transferred to Sacramento Transit fine. I thought it was the Folsom train but it turned out to be the Sunshine Boulevard train. I resigned to having to transfer at the end of the line but when we got there our train had a broken door and was taken out of service onto a spare track for the repair instead of going back to sac.

This ended up, causing the flow of trains to be disrupted and there were several turn backs. Eventually after two missed trains, a new train was brought in from the other direction. This indicated it to me that it was actually a better idea to catch the first train out of Sacraento Valley Station because had we opted for the the Folsom train, we would’ve been off boarded because of the turn backs. So thankfully we ended up being only 40 minutes later than anticipated instead of as many as two hours later.

At Folsom, we checked into our hotel. I took a short nap. The boys and I discovered that the pool was closed, which was sad. I took the boys to a cute little pub in Old Town Folsom for sliders. They were pork and beef, which I discovered is really good. Also, I think they over salted it, but I also liked that.

The toy store across the street was great. The boys and I walked down to rainbow Bridge and then we went to the local ice cream shop. We visited the round house and stopped in at the hotel for a beverage. The boys played iPad while I napped. I finally got them to sleep and started writing in my notebook late.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Lake Solano

On May 12, 2025, I wrote that the previous Saturday the boys and I rode to Davis. The arrival in Davis crept up on us, but everything was packed well so we got off quick. I noted that my boys took care of the bags. We only had one kid’s bike so the other one would have to ride on the back of my cargo bike. I got us return tickets because I knew that the return trip is often rushed.

We went to Temple coffee and sat out in front and we ate for a little bit. I sent out some tweets. Then we visited the dorms and rode around the quad for a little bit. As my sons were trading the second bike back and forth, occasionally I would allow them to lead. Other times I would. As we crossed the 113 to Russell Blvd, I let my son lead until the path crossed the road and then they switched.

The boys were really into the tractors. Russell Blvd is long and easy to use as a cyclist given the separated bike paths and it is often the case that riding along this type of path warrants no comment. However, it should be noted that this portion of the ride was idyllic and had many sweeping views of the Vaca Mountains, local birds and various crops being tested in UC Davis’ experimental plots.

At Stevenson Bridge we made a quick stop and the boys switched again. Here one of them took the lead. Putah Creek (apparently, according to locals it is pronounced like the state “Utah”) is a long, low traffic road where “roadie” cyclists like to visit. It wasn’t very hot but the boys switched again before the town of Winters. The boys managed ok but occasionally they get worn out.

We hung out in town until I had gotten a few beverages. We had a pancake, eggs, etc. snack. After that we rode to the edge of town to see how the road network connects with Putah Creek. We found a wash there which runs the length of the west end of town. We also found a fun playground which had a lot of kids.

We continued then to Putah Creek Road and one of the boys volunteered to lead. We were concerned about cars since this section connects Winters to a town further south. However, that stream of traffic breaks off pretty quick. The road then turned into a series of right angle turns with short sightlines and a long dull rise.

The boys inevitably got worn out again despite their trading the extra bike. At the Lake Solano Canal we had to take a long break and give each other big hugs. At this point we could see much of the agricultural Lake Solano, with its flooded fields and orchards.

The other boy lead us through Pleasants Creek then and once we topped the hill there we arrived at the campground where we settled on a site. They set up a tent and then we left the second bike behind, got on the cargo bike and headed up Highway 128.

There were so many speeding drivers! They also had boats and other large trailers. However, they were all traveling in the opposite direction as it was late in the day. The ride went fast enough. At the Cold Canyon resort we tried to get some water but the one person we saw their basically said they couldn’t provide us with any because we weren’t customers

We got back on the cargo bike, crossed the Putah Creek Bridge and rode up Thompson Canyon. Monticello Dam loomed above us as we approached. A few cars passed us, but it turned out fine. We had some beverages when we got to the top. At the dam, we investigated the turbidites, which are fossilized remnants of oceanic sedimentation found in the joints between blocks of metamorphic sandstone related to the local geological epoch known as the Great Valley Sequence.

I had us find a shaded location nearby and we sat and contemplated the lake. We had brought a snack of apples and carrots. A short while later, we descended from Monticello Dam back to Cold Canyon Resort. My boys have a tradition when we ride together on my cargo bike down big hills where they hold my hat to avoid it getting blown away.

This turned out to be prescient given the speed we traveled through the hot, windy Thompson Canyon. The ride was not impossible, but it was work, and there was one big truck with a pontoon boat, which passed us at an inopportune moment and that made me really upset.

We returned to the campground, unpacked and started winding down for the evening. The boys did their thing. Later we ate a little food and hung out together until bedtime. The boys came and found me a couple of times but they mostly just played until well after sunset. At the end of the night they drank some milkshakes and crawled into the tent.

I had gotten our site set up for the evening in that period. Only a few sites were available but I still believed that I should’ve found a better spot. Once I had finished up and had gone to sleep, I slept all right but probably could have done better. I gave the boys some allergy medication around 5 AM because I figured we needed it. However, we slept for two more hours after that.

By 9 AM we got packed up near the RVs and ate the last of our food. There was an ok place to charge up the bike’s battery. When we got back on the road, one of the boys lead us to Pleasant Creek and Putah Canal and then they traded with the other boys leading us to Winters. I taught them how to anticipate automobiles coming from behind. At Winters we had French toast at the steak house.

A short while later we returned to Putah Creek Road and the boys were trading the second bike back and forth. This time the boys did really well. They switched once we got to the Russell Blvd Bike path and we made really good time until we crossed 113. I followed as the boys led me through UCD campus and we arrived at Temple coffee.

There we refreshed myself before boarding the crowded 3:10 PM train. There was so little seating that the boys had seats but I did not and I had to shuttle between both ends of the train to check on them. I had a beer while standing watching them look at their iPads.

At Richmond station, we went over to BART. This leg of the trip is always a hard time but I managed. My big cargo bike is a real challenge for traveling by train. We rode home from Civic Center and were really lazy once we finally got back home together.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.