With the recent heat-wave, we were on the look out for a cool lake dip not far from home.  We found a great spot just a few miles from downtown Oakland, and about a fifteen-minute bike ride from Rockridge BART in Oakland–Lake Temescal.  The trip to the lake can be made by a slightly uphill bike ride from Rockridge Bart (1.6 miles) (route map) or by AC Transit bus 59 (see map insert).  Sunny beach, chilly but swimmable water; great place for kids in a roped-off shallow area, or more serious swimming in a sizeable section of the lake.  Lifeguard on duty.  See their site for more details.

snapshot from the Bay Area Open Space Council's Transit & Trails Map.

link moved to http://postcar.blogspot.com

Here’s a quick and dirty itinerary a few friends and
I had to scrap for a different one for a trip we’re
taking to Pigeon Point Lighthouse for New Years.
Pigeon Point’s all booked up for the 31st, you can try and find a nice spot at  Butano State Park, a few miles inland from HWY 1, close to Pigeon Point and An(~)o Nuevo State Park.  Butano used to have hiker-biker campsites, but appears to have discontinued them.  I’m not sure if this is a seasonal thing.  Will investigate and post when I learn more.

The PDF doesn’t specify, but once you get to San Jose Diridon, you can take a Caltrain back to the Peninsula or SF (anytime before 9pm) or catch
the Capitol Corridor to the East Bay.

Hot off the presses, the Zine/Book version of the blog is now available!

The book is available at these San Francisco stores (in many more stores soon, some outside SF, check back):

Modern Times Bookstore (Valencia and 20th)

The Green Arcade (Bookstore) (Market @ Gough)

Needles and Pens (16th and Guererro)

You can also order books online at the press website, postcarpress.org.

The zine/book features five trips, including Mt. Diablo State Park, Yosemite, West Marin hikes, Lake Tahoe, and Big Sur. In addition to a different medium, we’ve cleaned up the information and images for each trip from those given on the blog. The book is printed on a heavy card stock, each trip printed on a single sheet (front and back), about postcard size, and the binding is a functional screw post that enables you to rearrange the order of the pages or take one card with you on a trip without having to take them all. We’re pretty excited about the design, and have put a lot of time into both the functionality and aesthetics of the book. We plan to create and release additional volumes, including additional trips in the near future–in the meantime the book has something both for the novice and experienced post-car adventurer.

Be in touch if you have any questions. You can reach us here.

A jpeg of the first page.

Front of Mt. Diablo trip profile in the book

Come visit us near the intersection of Montgomery and Jackson Streets.  Friday, September 19th.

Rock City, just above Live Oak Campground, at sunset.

trip profile:
bart + bike
sf –> Mt. Diablo (biking (ascending, descending), hiking, camping, etc.)
easy overnight trip

starter kit:
Bart sf –> Walnut Creek
Bike

Walnut Creek –> mt. Diablo

Description:
It’s summer in sf and it’s foggy and cold (relatively speaking) — this trip is great for an easy night or two away from the city’s fog. There is a varying degree of climbing involved for this trip – The Live Oak campground is located at 1450 ft, the Junction campground is located at 2200 ft, and the Juniper campground, which is at 3000 ft, is approximately two miles from the summit. The view from the top is pretty spectacular and definitely worth the climb (plus the descent is sweet!). If you want to do minimal climbing on the bike, it is possible to take advantage of the network of trails and hike to the summit from the live Oak Campground.

Transit:
Hop on BART and link up with the Pittsburg-Baypoint line, disembark (approx. 40 minutes from SF bart stops) at the Walnut Creek station. Bike the easy 10 miles to the base of Mt. Diablo (along either Danville Blvd. or the Iron Horse trail) and begin climbing south gate road. (for zoomable map of the exact route, click here).

side trips:
Close to the live oak Campground is ‘rock city’ where there are some really amazing wind caves and rock formations.

Stop by the Rivendell bike shop in Walnut Creek, just a few blocks from the Walnut Creek BART station

particulars:
It gets pretty hot here during the summer — if attempting to do a lot of the climbing it is better to do it early in the morning or later in the evening,

Campground reservations: http://www.mdia.org/spcamp.htm

Every so often you can find a good article in the Chron (archives). Here’s one that has some banal reflections on what it’s like to be in a car whizzing past some cyclists biking up hill, and some ideas for very close trips, Angel Island, etc. Read the article here.

This post has moved to:  http://postcar.blogspot.com/2009/06/cheaper-easier-to-get-to-yosemite.html

I used to use my car-share to hike in the Olema Valley (between Bolinas Ride and Inverness Ridge) and into the Point Reyes wilderness. To get to the trailhead from SF took about an hour at best and cost me at least $50 (plus the $5 bridge toll) if I wanted to hike for more than thirty minutes. Now I pay $4 and take my time. This post describes how you can get around West Marin’s natural and recreation areas quickly and cheaply without a car, using the Marin Stagecoach.

From San Francisco, catch the Golden Gate Transit 70/80 express bus at 7th and Market Sts (on the east side of 7th St near the intersection, this is right next to the Civic Center BART station) or the GG transit #10 bus (runs across Geary Blvd) to the Marin City transit center (trip takes 35 minutes, $3.75) and then catch the Marin Stagecoach shuttle to Mt. Tam, the Tourist Club, Stinson Beach, Bolinas or points in-between (i.e. Pan Toll station, Bootjack picnic area and trailheads) (takes about 20 minutes to Pan Toll, about an hour to Bolinas, free with a transfer from the 70/80 bus or $2 without a transfer).  The buses are really comfortable compared to MUNI and they run on-time.

It’s a quick bike ride to Marin City to catch the stagecoach from SF is you prefer to bike across the bridge. If you want to take your bike on the stage, there are racks that can fit two bikes on the front rack.

If you want to get to Fairfax, Lagunitas, Olema, the Point Reyes Bear Valley Visitor center, or Point Reyes Station, stay on the 70/80 GG transit bus until the San Rafael transit center and catch the northern line of the Marin Stagecoach.  Check schedules and websites for the most up-to-date information.  The stagecoach segments of the trip run more frequently during the summer months.  The GG transit buses run about every 20 minutes or more frequently.

Golden Gate Transit.
Marin County Stagecoach.

Carlos, SF Randonneur and inveterate bike tourist, has a nice write-up with pics and itinerary points at his site of a moderately challenging overnight trip to Point Reyes Sky Camp, here.

Another version of this trip is to bike a couple miles further (on a beautiful descent) down Limantour Road towards the beach and either camp at Point Reyes’ limantour beach campsite, or stay at the Point Reyes Hostel.