Hey there, we haven't posted about our annual trip to Brentwood, California to pick fruit, but we just completed our 6th annual trip.
Some things have changed. Our route has gotten longer, but more chill. We can now ride on paved trail maybe for more than 50% of the ride. This makes the extra distance worth it.
In order to make this happen, we go out of the way a bit to cut through a neighborhood and then get on the Delta De Anza trail earlier.
Another thing that has changed is that the weather's been getting warmer over the years and cherry season has shifted to earlier in the year.. so we actually missed cherry season this year. But there are still plenty of peaches, apricots and nectarines to pick.
With a more chill route and greater strength from getting bigger, my kid was able to ride the whole trip on their own bike this time around.
The gist of the trip: Multimodal, with BART to bike
The BART trip with bikes
Getting to the BART station is easy. It's only a couple of minutes by bike.
At the BART station, you need to get up to the platform. There is a street level elevator which works ok. BART has done a good job cleaning its elevators in recent years, but my kid still prefers to avoid them if possible. The faregates on the top platform are also super annoying (more later) to deal with by bike, so stairs were a better choice.
IF you're lucky, you might be able to get to a BART station that has up escalators that you can use to get your bike up to the platform. Or you can carry your bike:
I don't recommend carrying your bike if you don't have to.
The BART ride to Antioch
The BART ride this time around wasn't too eventful. When we wait for the train, we try to enter at a designated "bike" door which will be near the bike parking. We strap our bikes to the bike parking and take the regular BART train to the Pittsburg Transfer Station.
Photos are from a previous trip, because our train ride was uneventful enough to not document!
Antioch BART stairs / elevator
Now that my kid is riding their own bike, the elevator/stairs situation is a lot better. With a trailer, our bike didn't fit in an elevator. So we had to carry it up and down stairs. But the bike with a trailer is very heavy and bulky. So it was awkward and annoying to do. If stations have an escalator, it's much easier.
This time around, we could take the elevator.. much easier.
You get a nice view of Highway 4 from the BART bridge. I'm kind of annoyed that you even need to take this bridge though, as I understand that families in the neighboring housing development wanted to keep the "riff-raff" out and didn't want a direct connection to BART. So, to get to Brentwood, we need to go up with our bikes, cross the highway (it's loud if you haven't tried this!), go back down, then ride a mile or two and cross back _under_ the freeway.
In 2019, a resident said "It will simply make that neighborhood's parking unbearable for the homeowners there and have all kinds of randoms in the neighborhood,", which I guess is half true. We just want a bike crossing so we can save a bunch of hassle and 2-4 extra miles of riding. So we wouldn't take up car parking, which I am sure there is no shortage of. But we would be "randoms" rolling through their neighborhood.
They suggested creating a shuttle bus system. But nobody's going to want to get off of a BART train, carry their bike up stairs, cross a freeway, descend stairs with bike, then lift their bike onto a bus, (AC Transit buses only have a capacity for 2 bikes! So we'd likely need to take 2 different buses) ride the bus, then remove our bikes to start our trip.
Anyway, they got their way, and they get to keep the "randoms" out of their neighborhood yet again.
An even longer but even more mellow route from Antioch to Brentwood
Our route is now 16 miles each way, but the extra distance is totally worth it. It looks like this on Graphhopper (map service)
Our original route was 10 miles. We ride through a neighborhood and up a hill or two to get onto the trail. The Delta De Anza trail looks like this for much of the way. Next to the Contra Costa Canal, it's fairly quiet, often hot (but luckily was only low 80s this time around) with green/brown grass and blue skies. There are a few walkers, runners, and people riding bikes but it is not crowded and much preferred over riding on Hillcrest Road.
Car crash on Hillcrest
At some point while riding on the trail just about Hillcrest Ave, we heard a commotion on the road. There had just been a car crash, and there was a lot of yelling happening. We don't know how the crash happened, but someone had somehow gotten their car up onto the curb and into a tree. There were leaves all over the road and a lady was really mad about her car being damaged.
We were very happy to not be riding in that painted lane, as given the force of that impact and the fact that the car was only partly on the road, we would have been in really bad shape if we were there at the wrong moment. A few minutes later as we were rolling away, we could hear an ambulance or fire truck approaching. It seemed like nobody was majorly hurt, but that person was really upset about wrecking her car. Or having her car wrecked? We don't know how the crash happened.
Views of Mount Diablo from the Delta De Anza Trail
You get some nice views of Mount Diablo along the way.
And many pretty scenes with brown grass and deep blue skies:
and vineyards all over the place. You can smell the fertilizer, which is a little unpleasant, but it is pretty.
Empire Ave is still difficult to cross by bike
There's still a difficult connection at Empire Ave where you must cross about 8 lanes of traffic to get to the other side of the trail. But it's nice again when you get to the other side.
The Marsh Creek Trail takes you the rest of the way into Brentwood
You ride through a neighborhood and then onto the Marsh Creek Trail. You roll by some farms, cross a bridge, and then take some tunnels ("ECHO!!") under O'Hara Ave before having to ride on O'Hara for 1/4 mile.
and then we're soon at our lunch destination, Big House Beans in Brentwood.
