Nancy and Cathy last led this ride, which they created, in June 2025. Not content just to slog up Mama, Papa, and Baby Bear they added in the short climb up Wildcat to Old El Toyonal to beat us into the ground before heading to downtown Orinda for some well-deserved post-ride grub.
The March heat wave was still regaling us with some of the best riding weather in months, not that I would know as I hadn’t been riding since October. You all know the Three Bears. It’s the classic ride in the East Bay that happens to be in my backyard. It’s become my Tiburon loop to the point that I don’t ride it much anymore; familiarity breeds contempt. Every cycling club in the East Bay does this ride and on some weekends it shows, with good reason because it’s one of the few remaining outposts of rurality that has survived our Growth-Is-Never-Bad mentality. As much as the Greenbelt Alliance has done to slow down suburban expansion into East Bay open space, it’s ultimately a pointless rearguard action against an inevitable megafication of the Bay Area. The only open space that will remain will either be ‘undevelopable’ land–which is laughable because any site is developable with enough money–and land that is strictly in the hands of a park district or a public utility. Private rural land is just future homes and roads, folks. For now the Three Bears is a combination of dedicated open space, utility land, and private ranch land. What’s holding back suburbification is the lack of sewage and water access, a problem that money will eventually solve. Our only hope is that the ranch owners eventually sell their property–and sell they will–to a land trust dedicated to preserving open space.
What a beautiful space it is! The pasture land is a verdant green right now but soon to turn to straw brown, so enjoy it while you can. During the week Alhambra Valley and Bear Creek Roads are actually cut-throughs for commuters from Martinez. But on weekends it’s less trafficky, being mostly the race grounds of local motos and sports car enthusiasts. And a lot of cyclists!
Roger and I had ridden the Bears just ten days ago and we were anticipating more poppies blooming on the hills. Alas, the cows apparently mowed them all down and we could espy only the patches that were high up on the hilltops. Ironically the most bountiful spreads of California poppies turned out to be next the road because the cows can’t graze there.
Cathy and Nancy managed to entice not only us but Roger S from SF, who only the day before came over for welcome heat at the Happy Hour ride and Ken from Solano, a long drive for such a short ride.
Usually we do the Bears clockwise and so it was this time. Ken asked which way was easier. Well, opinions vary. Roger likes to do it counterclockwise while I prefer clockwise. Clockwise you get the most dangerous leg done first—riding on San Pablo Dam Road. It’s more downhill so you can go faster and get away from the high speed traffic more quickly. Counterclockwise you get the worst hill out of the way first, Papa Bear (Baby Bear is actually before but it’s all downhill in this direction). Papa Bear is steeper going counterclockwise. On the other hand, Mama Bear is steeper in the clockwise direction. So, pick your poison.
Speaking of poison, the condition of San Pablo Dam Road is execrable. But that’s an improvement. Five years ago it was double-plus ultra execrable due to extensive rain damage. In addition to the plethora of remaining heaves, cracks, debris, and dropoffs on the shoulders, to reduce head-on car collisions bollards were installed almost the entire distance from Wildcat to Castro Ranch Road to “prevent” head-on car collisions. Maybe it’s good for cars but for cyclists it’s hell because cars no longer move over when they pass cyclists. And you go into the road lane at your own risk. This is dumbfounding because the plastic bollards are scattered along the roadside, having been smashed and sliced off by cars anyway. So many of the bollards are decapitated that the county has to replace them on a regular basis. It’s not like the bollards cause drivers to hesitate moving over anyway. I suppose that tells you something about the drivers on San Pablo Dam Road.
About the Three Bears: amidst the pastoral beauty there is some serious uglitude. Alhambra Valley Road and Bear Creek are go-to places for the local household dumpers. Those self-employed haul-your-crap-away businesses forego the county dump fee and just take your junk to Alhambra Valley Road. Massive piles of household crap—broken furniture, concrete debris, black plastic garbage bags of who-knows-what, washing machines, refrigerators, you-name-it—periodically populate the roadside. A few years ago I counted no less than thirteen piles. I thought I was in West Oakland rather than rural Contra Costa. Signs were put up to report dumping. At one point someone put a security camera on Alhambra to record dumpers. This time it was stuck high up on a pole by the road. Now it had a loudspeaker barking in its best Obey Authority voice, “Warning! You are trespassing! Leave immediately! You are being recorded!” even though we were merely riding on the road. This time we saw only one pile. Oh yeah, and instead of just one section of road collapsing into the creek, there are now two necessitating a one-lane-only set of K-barriers. The last time these road collapses were repaired was after the rains washed away the bridge connecting Castro Ranch to Alhambra Valley. In less than ten years we now have two more road collapses.
The turn onto Bear Creek is roughly midway along the Three Bears. It’s the usual regroup spot. You may notice that the wide turn now has a crapload of Botz dots in the corner. Why is that? To encourage drivers and motorcyclists not to cut the corner and to take it wide. And why is that? So that they slow down slightly and not mow down cyclists who have a tendency to stop at the curve. Apparently this happened to Ken some years ago. He was hit by a Porsche there.
That intersection also coincides with a fast downhill from Martinez along Alhambra Valley, a thrilling descent off Pig Farm. Back in the day the road was in not-so-great shape and on a club ride Walter Teague, a retired Pan Am purser and probably the second oldest member of the club at the time (Gene Howard of Bike-A-Thon fame being just slightly older) hit some gravel at the turn onto Bear Creek and went down, breaking both wrists.
I was riding alongside Ken and he said “You write a lot!”. Being aged and full of decrepit parts including ears, I thought he said ‘You ride a lot”. I told him I hadn’t been riding since last October because of surgery. He corrected me and I thought, “Somebody actually reads the club blog??” That number is solidly in the low single digits, all the more to bolster my increasing irrelevance to the club. But I do love my adoring readership!
Roger was stopping, as usual, to take photographs of the scenery including the explosion of poppies we encountered by the road. We all crept along at our own pace. On every Bear we were surmounting Cathy was bemoaning her lack of climbing to date. By now it was past noon, the sun was high, and although being warm it wasn’t at the uncomfortable level. The descent down Papa Bear is fast and not for the faint-hearted. It’s wide open, steep, and you pick up speed immediately. Back in the day it was the club challenge to see who could go down the fastest. I never recorded anything above 39 MPH on my old Cateye Solar computer. At that point cowardice always got the better of me. I don’t recall precisely but it was likely Bruce Matasci who went the fastest. He was a skilled bike handler and fearless. Keep in mind in those days we were riding 20 mm wide tires pumped up to 110 PSI, which made for a rough ride and the ever gruesome fantasy of hitting a rock or pothole, exploding your front tire, and ending up a miserable pile of road rash. Or worse. Today I’m even more of a coward and hit the brakes well before 35 MPH, and that’s even using 42 mm tires with disc brakes, which I was this day.
Back at San Pablo Dam Road Ken bid us an early farewell as he had to get back home to take care of family affairs. The five of us then went up Wildcat Canyon. Until mid-December Wildcat had been closed for almost three years after it collapsed. This was my first time up Wildcat after the completed repair. (Last June we rode up through the collapsed section as the repair hadn’t begun yet.) You would hardly know it had collapsed except for the suspiciously clean galvanized guardrails.
I’ve never enjoyed climbing Wildcat, not even when I was young and strong. It’s only about an 8% grade but it feels way steeper. On weekdays it’s also a commuter cut-through so the car traffic can not just be bothersome but menacing. On weekends it’s mostly folks heading up to Inspiration Point or Tilden Park to go hiking. But the impatience of drivers still astonishes me—close passes, following too closely, passing on blind curves despite a double-yellow line. The last time Cathy led this ride it was right after she had completed the Sequoia metric, a Midpeninsula climbfest. This time she was decrying her lack of training and willing herself up the hill. Nancy is amazing. I’ve done innumerable climbs with her. She spins the cranks like a hamster on a treadmill and it doesn’t matter how steep or long the climb is, she just keeps going and always has a cheerful demeanor. Riding uphill with Nancy is like a feel-good mood pill.
We finished the day by climbing up Old El Toyonal and descending to Orinda. Old El Toyonal was always sort of a secret byway for local cyclists. But after Wildcat collapsed three years ago it’s been discovered and become a mainstay for local cyclists. I view that development with some dismay because I liked the quiet and privacy afforded by its anonymity. Now it’s common to see cyclists on it probably for the same reason I cherish it. Wildcat may be quicker, less steep, and easier to navigate but Old El Toyonal is definitely more peaceful, has little traffic, and feels like you’re on a forest path.
We took tiffin at Petra Cafe at Theatre Square in Orinda. Tiny downtown Orinda has a handful of restaurants in two blocks and just about any would do for a weekday lunch. Although ‘bustling’ might be a stretch it would be fair to say that Orinda seemed to have a lot of folks enjoying the sunshine and warmth. We sat outside eating our gyros except for Roger S who was saving his appetite for Loard’s ice cream around the corner. We chatted about weekday club rides. The club has enough members interested in weekday rides but the problem has been nobody can agree on a good day because schedules are different. For now Cathy and Nancy are plotting more rides for either Tuesday or Thursday. Stay tuned.
The Chain Letter 