Canal Trail Ride

This bike ride is all trail (with a few of cross streets) and takes about 45 minutes to do a loop. Easy! And pretty too. I stopped along the way to take some photos. I left the house at noon on our first very hot day of the season—a bad time to ride and to take photos. Without a lot of fuss, here they are.

These poppies are in great abundance along the trail, along with some purple flowers. I can't get poppies to grow in my hard, and there they are, seemingly by magic. Maybe I'll try planting seeds again next year—I'm inspired.

At this point—a glimpse of Mt. Diablo in the distance.

These homeowners painted a little mural on their shed, facing the trail behind their house.

I let these sleeping ducks lie (in the shade—it was in the 80s today).

More flowers. I think these are a type of marigold. A nice municipal golf course is up ahead.

My trusty steed.

The golf course. My son took lessons here this year. He loves golf—who knew? Beyond this is an orchard, one of very few that exist around here. There used to be hundreds of acres of orchards in Contra Costa County. My childhood home was surrounded by them (since razed and developed for housing).

Lime Ridge. There's hiking trails here.

You have to go in this spooky tunnel under freeway-like Ygnacio Valley Road. It's much better than attempting to cross the road, so thank you tunnel-providers.

You pop out, like a gopher, on the other side of the ridge.

Then you ride past a billion mustard plants, down the hill and loop back to civilization.