Four of us biked a loop from Menlo Park to Pescadero, mostly on low-traffic back roads, through redwood and eucalyptus groves. The 63 miles and 7000’ of elevation gain (most of it in two major hills) made it a bit of a challenge as well. ...
18 Reasons threw a Full Moon Barn Dance party at Circle JR Ranch in Sonoma recently. Eating, drinking (Linden St beer and Sodacraft soda), horseshoes, tours of a Bi-Rite garden, lasso lessons, dancing… I could have driven up with a friend, but I figured– why not bike? The most direct route would have been through San Rafael and up on the 37 to the 121, but after looking at the excellent Marin Country Bike Coalition map’s warnings of missing shoulders and reading a few online posts about those road segments, I decided I was willing to add 9 extra miles and some hills to ride via Fairfax / Nicasio / Petaluma: ...
Circle JR Ranch, Sonoma
Three weeks of solo bike touring and camping, across 600+ miles of The Netherlands and Belgium. Riding over massive man-made dikes, on paved bike paths cutting through dark forests and rural farm fields (where I might not see another person for hours), to Trappist breweries and old towns, along canals, on muddy back roads and unsigned border crossings, and to a bonfire with a band playing under a rusted crane. ...
It started over a drink with JF, who mentioned The Fat Cyclist’s “100 Miles to Nowhere” (which in 2008 was a crazy decision to ride 100 miles on rollers indoors with snacks and TV, and is now a distributed challenge/excuse to ride 100 miles on a short loop course near your house and also raise some money for Livestrong). We decided to do it. Why? Well, why not? This is exactly the kind of arbitrary structure and Just-Because event I like, and I’m less interested in heavily-organized bike events or races (RAGBRAI excepted). And since I’d be out of town on the official date, we did it last Saturday, joined by KE. ...
“100 Miles To Nowhere”: 14-lap photo collage
A few weeks ago, I did something I’ve wanted to do for years– a bike camping trip to Point Reyes, self-supported (carrying everything, no car support). I wanted to camp in Point Reyes National Seashore itself rather than nearby in Samuel P Taylor, to be somewhere more remote that wasn’t drive-in. I picked Sky Camp (based partly on this SFgate article), managed to get two nights reserved, and we ended up with a hardy group of 11 (friends, friends of friends, riders from last year’s SF RAGBRAI contingent). ...
Joining others for a 65-mile hilly Alpine Dam(n) ride.
Point Reyes bike camping: view from Sky Camp (a rare fog-free evening)
Point Reyes bike camping: through the woods