this feels like two separate rides...
to get to the resevoir, i'd suggest mary vs mathilda vs wolf vs whatever. still suburb riding (worse than city riding), but less motorspeedway-like. it hits homestead and a right takes you to foothill. left takes you to the resevoir (and montebello for more climbing and pierce/mt-eden/9 for less climbing).
right takes you to foothill, there are some lights pretty quickly after the turn but there are 'longish' stretches w/ a pretty wide shoulder if you want to work on pacelining. it's gradual up in the logical north direction but so gradual that i'd call it flat.
\p