Bay Area Ridge Trail: Ridge Road and Trail

The eastern half of the Bay Area !Ridge Trail through the East Bay Municipal Water District's Pinole watershed. It consists of mostly singletrack through classic East Bay hills. There is a fire road section near the northern end with some particularly steep sections, while the singletrack generally has more enjoyable grades. This trail was over thirty years in the making. The northern segment of singletrack was laid out in the early 1990s. It is an upgraded cow trail actually, which shows how good cows are at engineering trails as it has a gentle grade around several blind turns that connects from one ridgeline saddle to another via the sidehill. The whole trail was finally completed sometime in the 2000s.