MONDAY!
Ate breakfast #1 and then packed up the bikes. We made Berkeley home base and took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) across the San Francisco Bay to meet up with some other soon-to-be partners in crime. Turns out my ability to pivot a fully loaded touring bike is pretty awful. The good news is that strangers really don't care if you make a fool of yourself, as long as you don't block the exit to the train. En route. Success!
Made it to the mission for breakfast number two and a rendezvous with accomplices #3, 4 & 4.5. Had a chance to marvel in the sunny, mild San Francisco morning (atypical in my experience). At this point I'm very curious (read: mildly concerned) about the fact that I haven't ridden my bike in over a month and a half and was leaving for a 25 mile ride in minutes. Why not drink coffee and eat a ham and cheese croissant? If Melissa where here, she might have reminded me to make good choices. But, she's in Belize. So I ate the damn croissant.
Game time. Alison and Safety Nate roll up, ready to ride. Nate's got a buddy on board the cargo bike named...
Shorty! Known to some as the tennis ball killa', this small dog had her own fancy setup (Alison sewed a fleece-cover for her camping pad and set it in the bucket of the cargo bike). Nate harnessed Shorty in to the front of the cargo bike to keep her safe from voluntary or accidental evacuation during the trip.
Jason, patient and wonderful person that he is, got us all motivated to head for the hills. We loaded up and headed out from the Mission and up to the Presidio. We made a pit stop at a doggie park, where a small sweatered dog tried (and failed) to make friends with Shorty. Jason, lucky sir, took home a souvenir squished into the treads of his front tire. Mmm...
On our way! I'm not sure if Alison should take the look of terror on Jason's face as a personal dig, but it seems both urgent and entertaining... P.S. Completely unrelated, the smell of eucalyptus trees in the foggy morning breeze is wonderful.
After a detour through the Presidio and a stop on the city-side of the bridge, we headed over to take the east side of the Golden Gate up to Marin. The tourism trolls let us through with minimum harassment and mama nature kept the usual gusts of wind to a mild breeze. Ranks right up there with one of my more lovely bridge crossings.
Took a break after the north tower (side closer to Marin) to grab some freestyle walking pictures as we waited for Alison and Nathan. Jumping off the bridge is a huge deal at the Golden Gate (hence the high fence).
Not far after the bridge we whizzed down the Sausalito hill past the tunnel I would have taken if I were cutting over to the Headlands. In all the time I rode in the vicinity of Sausalito I never had the gusto to ride down there (for fear of never making it back up!). We made it down through town and over to Larkspur and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading up the Corte Madera hill. Jason and I shared a vegan hodgepodge with quinoa, hummus, almonds, avocado and an aioli dressing that was both spicy and wonderful.
Then, we jumped onto the Larkspur pedal path and stayed parallel to the water for a bit. I'd seen this path a bunch all the times I took the 101 north towards the farmer's market, but I'd never quite caught on to where it picked up in town. Now I know how to connect Sausalito to the neighborhood where I used to babysit.
I was the newbie to bike camping. Nathan, Alison and Jason have all done this same trip before, and they were amazing about offering tips, tricks and words of encouragement. Alison gave some good advice about choosing a saddle for my inevitable touring bike purchase, and I felt good about all of the adventures that are possible in amazing places like Hawaii and Utah. In between daydreams about all the amazing places I want to go next weekend, we caught beautiful fall colors riding through all the neighborhoods.
What Ross and San Anselmo had in ornamental maple trees, Fairfax made up for in golden, rolling hills.
As we headed closer to Samuel P. Taylor state park, I started enjoying Central/Northern California's more redeeming qualities, like ground cover and foliage. The blackberry bushes were speckeled with the oranges and reds of the turning poison oak that is nestled into the shrubbery. Heck if I was going to touch the stuff, but it looked beautiful.
This is one of the best shots Jason got of Safety Nate and Shorty. The bike is one of a small handful of its kind. Add up the weight of a 20 pound dog, a huge, sturdy frame, panniers...and then ride it 20mph up a giant hill. What a guy!
Then, change scenes and there's me, easiest gear possible, huffing and puffing up the giant hill wondering what part of my zero training could have been responsible for my lack of cardiovascular preparedness. Oh, right...all of it. I'm proud to say that I had enough momentum to stay clipped the whole time, and I was definitely inspired and amused by the donuts Jason circled in the turnout as he waited for me.
But the good news about bicycles and giant hills is that they usually have downhill counterpart. This one was no exception, and once we got over that one it was almost time for our destination. Alison ended up with a flat not far after this section, but good company and extra gear got us back in motion super fast.
Hey ma', look, I'm riding my bike!
So, a little background information... There is a pretty popular route people take biking the west coast from Portland down to San Francisco, and Samuel P. Taylor State Park is a standard stop. All the California State Parks (to my knowledge) have at least one hike/bike campsite, which is a super affordable camping option for people passing through the area.
Instead of paying $35/car for a site, you get to pay $5 per person to stay a communal site for anybody who backpacks into the park or is bike camping/touring their way through the area. For a solo traveller, it's a huge savings, and it's one of the best ways to get to know other awesome people interested in the same hobby. We stayed at the H/B site located down in the Creekside loop.
By the time we were rolling through the forest on our way to the campsite we were losing light fast. We pitched the tent, started dinner and bought some firewood from the campground host with the perfect amount of ambient light to enjoy the evening. Then, in an effort to keep from losing Shorty, Nate put his rear light on her harness to give her a beacon-like appearance. You could trace the dog through the sorrel and sword ferns in an entertaining and futuristic way. She enjoyed the freedom and dug a hole Alison tripped in between her spells of playing "chase" (not really legitimate fetch) with the dirtiest tennis ball in the history of the redwoods.
With a campfire, a down jacket, some fleece pants and good people, I think I made it to about 9:30 pm before I hit the hay. Wild and crazy times! Before we turned in Jason took some open aperture photos, the team drank some fancy hot chocolate with small, small marshmallows and we ate mac and cheese with canned peas added in for extra flavor.
I enjoyed nearly every part of the evening, with the exception of my terrible sense of direction. Every time I tried to head over to the restrooms I got disoriented and ended up wandering through this one dude's campsite. I'd apologize, scramble down to the road and then miss the turn back up to the hike and bike site. I looked at a map, tried to remember what trail we took up in the first place and just had a brain fart each time. I figured it out the next day, but not looking like an amnesiac in the forest could have been a highlight if I were more on my game!
TUESDAY!
I tried dedicating half a day to sleep, but we got up and enjoyed some redwood scenery since it was daylight. No banana slug sightings, but there was a huge goosepen inside one of the trees burnt through completely enough for Nate to show off his wingspan.
I felt a little bit silly when we met up with another hiker/biker and heard that they rolled in minutes after we went to bed. They saw the bikes leaned up against the main picnic table for the H/B site and was worried they'd disturb us. The two dudes who were hanging out for the evening ended up going over to the day use area and had a campfire in the bbq stove then meditated through a portion of the night before grabbing some zzz's. It would have been super chill to have met up and hung out with them. Instead, they headed out to Pt. Reyes Station for some breakfast, and we packed up the site. It wasn't exactly hammock weather (super dewey), so we smushed the soggy rain fly and its tent back into its bag and packed it on up.
I had no idea how absolutely ridiculous I looked wearing my hat over top of my helmet. At the time I was just super impressed that it fit and was so comfy. It was a crisp morning for sure and the chill was still lingering in the air before we took off from the redwoods. It was such a different experience than having worked in the Southern Humboldt during the summertime. All our breaks were squeaky from the moisture, the mesh on my shoes were damp from having sat out overnight, and the breeze was goosebump enducing. Fun Fact: I rode the whole ride with my panniers (bike bags) facing the wrong direction. See how one side is angled? That's a feature to keep them from hitting your heels as you pedal. Whoops! It worked out just fine, but it was a bit of a rookie move.
The ride out of the redwoods on the bike path was beautiful. Nate let Shorty down to run, and Jason ran laps back and forth between the caravan to tucker her out before we got back on the road.
I knew once I made it to the campsite the night before that I had fallen in love (...with bike camping). I know it's self-defeatist to admit, but I never really thought I'd be able to handle it. It's a big deal to have the confidence to plan a route, the skill to handle whatever might happen to your bike, the gear to be able to care for yourself in wet weather overnight without needing to bring a trailer and the team of people who want to do what you want to do.
I was probably only about 15-20% self-sufficient on this trip, (brought most of my own camping gear & pushed myself on the bike), so I know I still have a lot to learn. I borrowed the bike I was interested in test riding, so now I know what size I need and that I'm willing to make the investment. I found my knee's personal limit, so I feel like I could plan a trip without breaking myself. I saw what was frivolous and what is more essential in terms of camping amenities on this particular adventure, and I realized that gears make hills possible that you wouldn't normally imagine riding.
INTERLUDE:
I don't tend to allow myself to have nice things, given my record for being unintentionally abusive to gear. However, I borrowed the Surly Long Haul Trucker that was riding from a lovely lady named Aimee, so I had more incentive than ever to keep it riding smooth and looking pretty. Well, after a casual conversation about organic matter (i.e. leaves and sticks) lying on the road, I went to turn a corner in Ross the day prior and lost traction, nearly falling over on the bike. I stepped out of my clips and caught my footing before I toppled over, but the bike kept sliding out from beneath me. Somewhat instinctively I cinched my legs together to try and catch the frame of the bike between my thighs, and I took a serious digger in the baby-maker. I saved the bike, priority, but I chafed my pride a little bit that turn.
Needless to say, sitting down on the saddle for the first time Tuesday morning was a refresher that lacking basic skills, like balance, is yet another reason I should not have nice things!
[End Scene]
So, riding home, our tires got to rest after topping over 30mph heading down the hill to town. We had first breakfast at the campsite, so we rode over the hill to Fairfax (much less epic heading back...) to grab second breakfast. I tried to rally the troops to indulge and go to Fairfax Scoops (a local homemade icecream shop) for brunch, but we made good choices and went to a deli instead.
After a stop at a bakery, then the deli, then a return stop to the bakery, we said adios to Nathan, Alison and Shorty. They rode back to the city, over another hill, through the woods and across the Golden Gate Bridge. Jason's knee was on fire, metaphorically speaking, so we decided to ride to the ferry and avoid having him self destruct. The bike path headed back through Larkspur started warming up in the sunshine, and we had nearly the whole thing to ourselves. Mount Tamalpais is the peak to the right in the horizon in this picture. I hiked it back in the day with some friends from the Headlands, and rumor has it that the Fairfax/Mt. Tam area is the birth of mountain biking. Oh, history.
The finale of the trip was an exhaustion that is absolutely wonderful. It's the feeling of tired muscles and totally open, clear consciousness. I feel like my brain melts on a semi-regular basis from decision making, general worrying about circumstance and being legitimately challenged by the ins and outs of an average cup-o-joe kind of day. To sit on a ferry and then a muni bus and smile like an idiot from having had more biking fun than my quads really knew how to handle...felt very lovely. It's so awesome to find a hobby that you can do almost anywhere with so much flexibility. For so many reasons, it'll be a wonderful push to find a reason to keep bike camping, maybe even doing a tour one day.
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