My wife and I were hiking in Foothills Nature Preserve, Palo Alto when I saw a sign that said something about Bay to Ridge trail. Hadn’t heard of that one before. When I came home, I searched around and saw various FKT (Fastest Known Time) runs on this route! Looked pretty fun and well, different. The route has a mixture of trails, sidewalks and bike trails, except for one small segment around Hwy 280. Here’s my Strava activity:

Bay To Ridge To Bay 55K

I changed the starting point a little bit, mainly because there’s gated parking at the Baylands Sailing Station which doesn’t open until 8am. So I parked in the 24×7 parking lot by Byxbee Hill and headed out at 6am.

With the Oregon Expressway overpass and the Alma underpass, the only traffic lights on this route are crossing El Camino Real and Junipero Serra Blvd.

There were two sections along this route with one-way trails – Los Trancos and Stevens Creek Nature trail.

I made it to top of Skid Row trail (the ridge) in about 3 hours. Turned around and followed the one-way on Stevens Creek Nature Trail to connect back to Canyon Trail. Was starting to get warm and had to peel off my arm sleeves.

This was definitely the highlight of the run. Found big patch of Warrior Plumes when I rounded a corner and they totally brought a smile to my face. Stopped briefly at the restroom in Foothills Preserve to douse myself with water before heading out again. The last section through the city streets with traffic was a bit of a drag, but got back to the car right around 6:28. After running that last segment on sidewalks (warm!), it was good to get the bay breeze.