Looking ahead– biking to Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa (about 60-70 miles each way from SF, some hills) is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. And hey– they’re serving Pliny the Younger for 14 days in early February. The plan: ride up either Saturday Feb 4th or 11th [edit: we’re doing it the 11th], early, hang out at the brewery, get a hotel/motel/airbnb for the night, and bike back the next day. With stops for lunch and so on. ...
Bike Tunnel! (specifically, the newish Cal Park Hill Tunnel near Larkspur, which I finally checked out last weekend when I was in the area)
I recently went on a solo ride to San Rafael, and checked out the Re-Cyclery Bike Thrift Shop (and fundraiser for Trips For Kids) while I was there. Quite a place. Outside, a classic Schwinn (for sale for $125): The back patio had many more used bikes, in both adult sizes and kids’: There were many other sub-$150 used bikes: ...
A casual-pace, 40ish mile Paradise Loop ride with a friend, on a cool day constantly on the edge of rain: Cloudy, but fog-free, with the low-contrast lighting that’s good for cell phone photos… Marsh along the Mill Valley bike path: Tiburon bike path: A few drops of rain threatened (and we were lazy), so we bailed after about 35 miles and took a ferry back from Sausalito (we caught it with about 15 seconds to spare, and would have missed it if we didn’t both have Clipper cards to let us skip the ticket machines): ...
Six of us rode the Alpine Dam loop today (starting from various locations– my day was about 67 miles and 6 hours riding time). It’s still one of my favorite non-overnight Bay Area rides – the stretch along Panoramic Highway and the following “seven sisters in reverse” on Ridgecrest are scenic and exhilarating. I only took a few photos: Iron Springs brewery in Fairfax. The enchiladas were fine, but most importantly, they were calories. The dark rye beer was interesting. ...
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
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: empty roads