The Search for dry dirt
Location: Livermore
posted 1.3.06

Sadly, the Pleasanton park is not ridable in January. When we rolled up, we found it to resemble a pond more than anything else. The gate to the park was locked and completely inaccessible. The good thing is that because the facility is closed to the public, the jumps are all still looking good. Once it dries out, the amount of work needed to repair the lips should be minimal.

This was a bummer though. We were looking forward to hitting some dirt jumps. Our friend Sean came out with us today, and it was to be his first time out riding with us, as most of his time is taken up with his band, the Lucky Stiffs. Since he hasn't been out for a while, I wanted to hit some dirt so he could get back into it slowly. We did have a few options- it wasn't raining so park riding was possible. Pleasanton and Livermore both had skateparks we could check out; while they aren't bike friendly, the word was they aren't currently a bust. And then there's Sandhill Ranch. However, no one was into the idea of paying the $10 to ride today, so we headed to Livermore to ride the local BMX track.

This track takes some pedaling to get around.

Apparently Sean remembers how to ride his bike.

Chipper jumps out of frame

The bmx track was pretty fun; the weather held up, and the dirt was in good shape. It was nice being able to hit some jumps after all the downtime from the injury. We all wore ourselves out racing around the track and then decided to move on.

On the way to the Livermore skatepark, we spotted a ridable drainage ditch. However, the no trespassing sign and the posted $500 tickets were enough to persuade us to ride it.

We ended up riding the Livermore park for a bit, but the local vibe was pretty sour, so we headed on. On the way back to the city, we took a detour to check the conditions at Carlmont out. It's ridable- and most likely the destination of next weeks mission.