Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory Ride Report

Well, we did it again. We found some of the nicest people to go riding with. And on such a nice day too!

We started out at McGuire's, where we counted 33 bikes in the parking lot. It turned out that some of those bikes were not there for our ride, so we actually wound up with around 28 bikes. After our pre-ride briefing we staged in two groups on Pine St and then made our way through town, heading over to Civic, up to Oak Park, then zig zagged our way through Pleasant Hill emerging on Reliez Valley Rd. We followed Reliez, which turned into Alhambra Valley Rd, cut over to San Pablo Dam Rd at Castro Ranch Rd, and followed San Pablo down to Hwy 24. We jumped on 24 heading west and took the Fish Ranch Rd exit heading north. Then onto Grizzly Peak Blvd, Shasta Rd, Wildcat Canyon Rd, Central Park Dr and Euclid Ave down to Cedar St in Berkley. Somewhere around Shasta Rd we made an impromptu stop, but not till we'd taken a tour through a parking lot where we amazed a couple of unsuspecting tourists and their young child as we all turned around and headed back out. We eventually found an appropriate place to pull over for a couple of minutes to kill some time. Turns out we were making good time and would arrive in Berkley too early for the tour. After folks used the facilities, and we'd killed enough time, we continued on our way, descending the hill into Berkley and onto Cedar. We turned onto 6th and followed that for about a mile before turning onto Heinz Ave and into the parking lot at the chocolate factory.

Several of the riders stayed for the tour, some opted to eat at the cafe there, while others opted to find nourishment elsewhere.

It was a beautiful day with clear skies, temperatures in the mid seventies, and some fantastic people. The scenery looking out over the San Francisco Bay as we rode along the ridge line was spectacular. It was so clear that we could see a blimp over the Golden Gate Bridge. Another great day spent with friends. I hope to do it again real soon.