Winter cycling in Berkeley

9 January 2009

It seems that most of the US is in the grips of a frozen winter. Here in northern California, we are enjoying a cool but not cold winter. We've not had nearly enough rain and so we're feeling a bit anxious about another year of drought.



For the past few days, there has been a gentle flow of air from the northeast, which creates cooler than usual winter temperatures and also produces fog in the inland valleys. Yesterday, it was sunny on the west side of the East Bay hills, but we could see bits of fog hugging the ridge line. During most seasons, our fogs blow in from the west, through the Golden Gate. However, at this time of year, the coast is usually fog free and ground fogs develop in the inland valleys. It's odd for these valley fogs to have enough strength to survive a windblown journey up to the east-bay ridge line with an elevation of 300-500 m.



In the late afternoon, I rode up to Inspiration Point via UC campus. It feels odd to first descend to College Avenue only to then face the climb up Euclid. But this turns out to be shorter than the alternative of climbing directly up Old Tunnel Road and then traversing Skyline and Grizzly Peak Boulevard. And the total climb is about the same.



The round-trip distance is 21 miles. The net climb on the way out is about 260 m (from 60 m on College to 320 m at Inspiration Point). On the return, I have to climb about 110 m from College back up to our house.

The first four photos were taken from the immediate vicinity of Inspiration Point. The sunset was shot from Spruce Street, which is the way I chose to descend back to campus.