This ride is a medium-length lollipop-shaped loop that starts from the edge of Walnut Creek and reaches part of the way up the foothills of Mount Diablo. The entire route consists of fire roads. You won't be finding any racy singletrack on this ride where you can hone your bike handling skills, or any lung-busting climbs. If you do this ride during the season when the grass is green (which I recommend for any ride in the East Bay or in Northern Marin), what you'll get is a landscape of velvety looking rolling green hills with sprinklings of oak trees that are almost surreal in their resemblance of a model railroad set or an idealized pastoral postcard. (See for yourself by checking out the photos linked to on the left of this page.)

An even bigger highlight of this ride for me was a section of Stage Road (a fire road) where it quite literally followed Pine Creek. I'm not referring to the trail following along near the creek; I'm talking about a section where the trail itself became the creekbed. I'm pretty certain (though I couldn't be 100% sure) that I didn't make any navigation mistake here. There was no visible alternative trail segment around the creek at that spot, and the trail then correctly picked up back out of the creekbed later on. There was about three inches of water flowing in the creek at the time I did this ride in the month of March. So it was an exhilarating surprise for me. Depending on the time of year when you choose to do the ride yourself, it might be drier or impassable due to water level. So, plan carefully. The length of the trail segment that does this was probably no greater than a few dozen yards, though I can't remember exactly now. But, it was enough to be a nice treat for me.

Another thing you can expect to find on this ride is cows. (The reason the hills can look so golf-course green is that they're constantly "mowed" by grazing cows.) This means that you'll encounter your fair share of cowpies, and also that the trails could be pretty pockmarked if you ride here at the beginning of the dry season. Of course, if you ride here while it's wet, you can expect it to be pretty muddy, too.

This route provides multiple opportunities for extending the ride. One obvious option is to keep going uphill along Wall Point Road or BBQ Terrace Road (both fire roads) toward Mount Diablo. You can even find your way all the way up to the peak from here without interruption, if you're up for it. There are also other side loops you can append to this route via trails like Twin Ponds Trail and Franco Ridge Trail, or Hammill Trail and Costanoan Trail. Study the map and improvize...