In Oakland (Rockridge) for 1 week, need place to run

How far? Down to Lake Merritt or up to the hills, but you are mainly roads around there.

East bay wrote:

How far? Down to Lake Merritt or up to the hills, but you are mainly roads around there.

6-12mi

Go to Transports running store on College Ave. in Rockridge. They will probably be able to set you up.

Hopefully somebody who has actually lived in Rockridge will post. That area is a bit rough to run from. If you can get access to a car, that would make a huge difference. Driving 5 minutes will get you to 3 or 4 great trails, but I can't think of any good way to run directly from your door if you are staying in Rockridge.

Worst case scenario, you will have to figure out a way to run up to the botanical gardens and claremont canyon. It will be hilly, not that close to run, and potentially hard with dodging traffic though to get there.

Rockridge really is one of the more difficult places I can think of in the Bay area to try to run directly from your door.

Bay Area wrote:

Hopefully somebody who has actually lived in Rockridge will post. That area is a bit rough to run from. If you can get access to a car, that would make a huge difference. Driving 5 minutes will get you to 3 or 4 great trails, but I can't think of any good way to run directly from your door if you are staying in Rockridge.

Worst case scenario, you will have to figure out a way to run up to the botanical gardens and claremont canyon. It will be hilly, not that close to run, and potentially hard with dodging traffic though to get there.

Rockridge really is one of the more difficult places I can think of in the Bay area to try to run directly from your door.

It's correct that you are out of luck if you want to get to a nice dirt trail directly from your door. But if pavement is OK, there are a couple of options that are not bad at all. One, as surprising as it might seem, is to run a big loop through the interior of Mountain View Cemetery, which is directly east of 51st and Broadway. Quiet roads, some good hills if that's what you want, and interesting scenery. Locals go on walks there all the time.

Another reasonable option is to run north on Broadway to Highway 24, and continue on the Highway 24 frontage road to Lake Temescal. There are paths all the way around the lake, dirt on the west side, and paved on the east side. It's uphill all the way there. In general, the terrain is hilly north of 51st Street, and much flatter south of 51st Street.

The run around Lake Merritt is quite nice (you will see many other runners there--it's a major running destination), if you don't mind a run of over a mile through some not-particularly-interesting neighborhoods to get there from your starting point. Definitely take the side roads if you plan to try this, as I wouldn't recommend running south on Broadway from 51st Street. Too much traffic and too many stoplights.

Hope this helps--good luck!

The paths around Temescal are really short and repetitive, but nice.

I'd figure out online how to catch a bus up Ascot Drive or something and exit at the top and jump onto Redwood Regional, take a left and when you get to the parking lot, keep going to the right and you can run forever on a park service / fireroad. After two minutes you will not even remember you were just in a city.

Good Luck

+1 for Mountain View Cemetery. I run here a lot, and although it's all paved it's still nice; peaceful, interesting and beautiful.

Lake Merritt sucks, in my opinion. Dirty, smoggy, not particularly pretty...I suppose it's a running oasis in Oakland, but trust me when I say that doesn't mean sh*t.

Why can't you secure a vehicle? If running is that important to you, renting a car here is worth it and would open up your options to include Joaquin Miller Park and Tilden Park--the latter of which, as another poster may have already mentioned, will make you forget you're in a city.

Thanks guys. I will prob run around the cemetary and the lake tomorrow.

Anyone running the zippy 5k?

+1 for finding a car and getting up to Redwood Regional Park. Not much good running down in the Rockridge area.

If you have to run the roads, none of them are better than any others, really, but generally head north from where you are, and the neighborhoods will be cleaner and safer.

Once you get to UC Berkeley, at least you won't have cars to deal with. And it's a bit prettier, but not really flat at all.

Just run up to the firetrails above the Clark Kerr campus. There's a steep uphill at first but becomes more gradual once you reach the top.

take BART from rockridge to lafayette and run in lafayette. lots of quiet streets and some good trails as well.

you'll smell like sh*t when you take bart back to rockridge after your run, but then again, it's bart so it already kind of smells like that anyway.

I live in Rockridge, not far from where you're staying, and the previous answers are good. It's easy to make your way to Lake Merrit - Run down Broadway to Ridgeway Ave, then take Linda Ave to the Morcom Ampitheater of Roses. From there, take Grand to the Lake and do a lap or two.

You're also close to Berkeley. One path I didn't see mentioned is a kind of bike trail that runs along the BART in north Berkeley and connects many of the parks to the UC campus, called the Ohlone Greenway. To get to it, run to UC Berkeley (I like Hillegass), and then run on through campus on the Grinnell path to Oxford St. Take Oxford to Hearst, and then run to Ohlone park, where you can find the Greenway. You could take it all the way to Richmond if you wanted. (You don't.)

Oakland? Run for you life if you are not a son of Obama.