Cycling in Mountain View Shoreline Park

Credit goes to Gary Haussmann for the idea for this route. We rode this route on Sept 2, 2000 to scout it out for the October SBAY Geek Ride and make a GPS track map of the route for the web site.

The route as we rode it begins at the Mountain View Transit Center, which is an intermodal train station for both CalTrain and VTA light rail. The route goes eastbound along Evelyn Ave to the bike/pedestrian bridge over the trains and Central Expressway. This bridge is part of the Stevens Creek Trail, which we then take northbound to Shoreline.

The route shown is about 10-1/4 miles, measured by GPS. It can be lengthened a lot by exploring more trails at Shoreline. Though the choice whether or not to do that will probably depend on how stiff the Bay breeze is on the day of the ride. You could technically go all the way to the Dumbarton Bridge along these trails. But since this route is intended to start from and return to a light rail station, our limits for planning a group ride probably stop well short of that. Still, on any given ride, it'll depend on who shows up and how far they want to go.
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The breeze which slowed our progress on the bikes turned to some fun as we watched these people flying kites at Shoreline Park. Not shown here was a really big kite that two guys were flying - they had some problems with it at the time I was ready to take a picture. (It could have been intentional - we didn't push for the picture.)
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From the bicycle path on the west side of Stevens Creek (the side where Shoreline Park is), this picture looks at a bike bridge across the reed-filled creek near where it enters San Francisco Bay. On the other side of the creek, Hanager One is visible at Moffett Federal Airfield. (Hangar One was biuilt as a dirigible hangar in the 1930's for the U.S.S. Macon, one of the US Navy's experiments with a large-scale dirigible as a flying aircraft carrier.)
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Just to get more of a picture of biking on the trails, Gary took this shot of me riding on the Stevens Creek Trail.
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A few seconds after the previous photo, here's another shot of me riding by.
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Here's a view of the wind tunnels at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field. This is as far as we could go on the east side of Stevens Creek, where there's a short public trail between two bike bridges. We obeyed the "no trespassing" signs beyond this point and took the bridge back to the Shoreline Park side of the creek. (All cyclists are requested to honor the no trespassing signs, whether posted by the military or private property owners. Plans are being made to open more of these trails as part of the Bay Trail but the negotiations will be easier on the people on our side if we all behave well.)
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Again, trying to get more bikes in the photos this time, Gary took this shot of me riding on the Stevens Creek Trail. Visible behind me is where the trail goes alongside Hwy 85 under Middlefield Rd.
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SBAY Geek Ride Coordinator Gary Haussmann is crossing over the bike/pedestrian bridge over Central Expressway, Caltrain and the VTA light rail.
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Another picture of Gary on the bike/pedestrian bridge.

Other links about Mountain View Shoreline and the Stevens Creek Trail


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