Well, that was a great weekend. A group of 10 of us biked from SF to Montara (on the coast, between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, about 30 miles), stayed overnight in the Montara Lighthouse Hostel ($28/night, includes linens, fully booked most Saturday nights months ahead of time but the web site availability is often incorrect– you can call them directly to make reservations, and should if you’re going with a group), and biked back the next day. ...
I’m planning a ride to Montara (near Half Moon Bay), leaving Saturday morning 1/15, staying overnight in the Montara Lighthouse(!) Hostel, and coming back Sunday morning. About 25 miles each way, some hills and deserted/derelict highways (see below), and about $30/person for the hostel. If you’re interested in joining, let me know ASAP– I got tentative confirmation of some space at the hostel but need to call back in the next few days to confirm and put down a deposit. [edit: whoa, 10 people interested so far!] [edit edit: up to 12-14] ...
The rainy season has some time for rides, and some time for dreaming about rides to do next summer. Here are nine ideas for Big Rides (I’ll try to actually do 3 or 4 of them): January: Overnight bike trip down the coast to Montara via Old San Pedro (“Planet of the Apes”) road. [edit: did it, a great weekend] April: Bike to Point Reyes during wildflower season for a three-day weekend. Carry gear and camp overnight, have a day to bike/hike and enjoy Point Reyes, then bike back. About 43 miles each way. [ edit: did it, awesome ] ...
Halfway from SF to Mt View, stopping for water as the sun rises. (from last week)
I tried commuting from SF to Mountain View by bike a month ago– it’s doable, and actually quite beautiful (morning fog, birds, marshy swamps along the bay) but involves getting up early (a 3 hour ride at a casual pace = leave home around 6AM). Here’s a GPS track of most of the route:
*July 2022 Note: This post is from 2010. I took another camping trip up here recently with some folks with a slightly different route for the American Canyon->Napa part of the ride (less time on the main roads: there are some new bike paths since 2010, and we found some unconventional shortcuts). Possible new route based on that ride is here, but use your own judgment: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/52755794. As a rare long post: Bike camping in Napa Valley was a great weekend– it felt like a vacation even though it was only two days long. The debrief: ...
I’m planning on going self-supported bike camping for the first time the weekend of 9/11. I’ve had about 5 people say they might be interested, so probably at least a few of us will end up doing it. The rough plan is to take the ferry from SF to Vallejo Saturday morning, go on a 40ish mile ride through Napa Valley (Napa / Yountville / St Helena / Calistoga) at a steady but non-racing, no-one-left-behind pace (we’ll be carrying all our gear), stop periodically for wine tasting, and then camp in Bothe-Napa State Park. ...
I spent a week biking and camping across Iowa with 10,000+ strangers. It was one of the better vacations I’ve taken. Here’s a map of the route, about 450 miles (50-80 miles/day, only one day with serious hills). I emailed some updates and photos to this blog from my cell phone while I was on the ride– I’m combining all those updates into this post (link below). Saturday: Starting off the trip with a near-disaster: the airline (Fronteir/Midwest) lost my bag (tent, clothes, cycling gear, everything except my bike itself). The bag wasn’t even in their system– they had no idea where it was. Then an agent in Milwaukee called me because he’d found my bag and it had my number on it. He didn’t know I was in Omaha. They said they could get it to be a few days later– not useful since I was about to get on a bike the next morning. They said there were no flights left today to send it on. Then I asked someone else and he found a flight to put it on. 4 hours later, it showed up at the airport! ...
I didn’t organize a ride this week, but went with Adam & Becca on a roughly 50-mile ride combining Berkeley->Orinda (via Tilden Park / Inspiration Point / Wildcat), the “Three Bears” loop (a.k.a. San Pablo Dam loop, but nicknamed after the three moderate hills in a row), a ride through Moraga (less scenic), and then a switchback-filled climb among redwoods and fast descent on Pinehurst. GPS map of the route. It was a good day, at a modest pace (5+ hours, 4 hours actually in motion). Fauna sightings included wild turkeys (including a fluffy little baby turkey), sheep, deer, many trailers of horses, and roadkill.
Rode Alpine Dam again today on the new bike, leaving the house at 6:40AM (ouch…). Here’s a quick overview image of the route (you can also check out the GPS track I recorded, though it’s approximate). The ride was about 70 miles and 4500’ elevation gain, and I wrapped it up with a visit to La Taqueria (3 tacos con aguacate) and Humphry Slocombe (peanut butter curry ice cream).