Biketown: city bike share in Portland, OR. Unlike most US cities, you can temporarily lock the bikes around town (not just at a bike return station), and can check them out for more than 30 minutes per ride. Well organized, plentiful stations, though very heavy/clunky bikes even by bike share standards.
I haven’t been organizing many long rides this year (though I’ve been going on a number of solo or just-with-a-friend rides), and life changes have me spending less time here or on email– but I’m going to still use this to document some good rides from 2016– and I hope to be back organizing more group rides in a few months.
Bike counter and pump, Stockholm
48 hours of Stockholm’s Bike Share
Something I’ve always wanted to do– ride from SF up to the Healdsburg / Russian River / wine country area (88.8 miles via the scenic route a friend and I took this weekend). Lush green hills, a few hours of rain and wet socks (hey, at least it wasn’t 103-108 degrees like a few summers ago), two cheese tastings (Nicasio Valley Cheese Company and Marin French Cheese Company), wildflowers, a stop for a burger and salty snacks at Lagunitas Brewing, coffee and cocoa in Santa Rosa to fight the chill, and then expanding my personal biking map (Santa Rosa having been my previous farthest-North-from-SF ride) and plugging along the final 20-odd miles to a campground in Alexander Valley. ...
seen in New Orleans
I’ve been riding a variant on this 30-mile loop once or twice a year for 6 or 7 years and it never gets old. From Pleasant Hill or Walnut Creek BART along off-road canalside trails, then up the long but not steep uphill of McEwen between rolling hills of flowers and cows, down to the quirky Port Costa for a picnic and drink among pallets, potholes, and old theatre signs outside the Warehouse Cafe, then back along the twist, car-free Carquinez Scenic Drive along Carquinez Strait: ...
Striking out solo on a Sunday to explore trails in the East Bay hills, from Nimitz Way -> Fire Trail #3 -> San Pablo Ridge Trail -> Belgum Trail -> Wildcat Creek Trail: ...
Roadblock (riding in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park). Reminds me of 5 years ago.
On a ride with six friends: low tide, egrets, a large hawk, industrial detours, smooth paved waterfront bike paths, and some excellent beer, bluegrass, and mexican food with fresh-made tortillas.