Year-of-Dirt on Velodromedary

Visiting Uruguay. Went for a ride along / in a shallow lagoon.

Mon, 24 Nov 2014 06:30:09 +0000

Visiting Uruguay. Went for a ride along / in a shallow lagoon.

As requested, GPS track from the recent Livermore / Del Valle adventure ride.

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 23:04:51 +0000

As requested, GPS track from the recent Livermore / Del Valle adventure ride.

Taking a "shortcut" back down on an unlabeled rutted path (4x speed). A bit gnarly, especially on our smooth-tired touring...

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 02:16:00 +0000

Taking a “shortcut” back down on an unlabeled rutted path (4x speed). A bit gnarly, especially on our smooth-tired touring bikes… but no one wiped out.

An adventurous 32-mile almost-exclusively-off-road ride in Livermore, some not-even-on-the-map paths, mostly paved, some dirt,...

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 02:06:00 +0000

Dogpatch / Bayview ride

Mon, 08 Sep 2014 00:33:00 +0000

My third or fourth time doing a variant on a 10-15 mile Dogpatch / Bayview shoreline ride, including old industrial buildings, murals, urban goats, the former site of Pound SF, Tire Beach (where some sort of sci-fi-esque photo shoot was going on?), the Heron’s Head park spit out into the Bay, India Basin, Yosemite Slough, a surprise glittering UFO behind a roll-up garage door, and some more and less official dirt paths between all of these. With the excellent All Good Pizza as a post-ride stop.

Bike touring Iowa + Wisconsin

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 06:30:00 +0000

I’m back from a euphoria-inducing 8-day, 600-mile bike camping tour across Iowa and Wisconsin.

The ride combined RAGBRAI (a 15,000-person group ride across Iowa with pork chops, pie, live music, and beer in tiny towns along the way) and a solo ride across beautiful, rural Southwest Wisconsin.

The mix of mostly good weather, wildlife (fireflies, startled rabbits, and red-winged blackbirds), friendly strangers, no email, the ability to improvise and change plans on the spot (the flexibility of carrying a tent…), and plenty of time to ride alone and drift between states of present observation and introspection are why I always come back to bike touring…

Benicia Trails, Two Bridges, Fennel Forests, Hot Hot Hot

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 04:22:00 +0000

Sunday was a good day:

How often do you get to ride all day, along the Bay, and through fragrant fennel fields?

Or bike on smooth, paved, separated paths across two major bridges (the Benicia-Martinez Bridge and the Carquinez Bridge)?

Evening Zen Tour, Copenhagen (Two Strangers, Riding in Silence)

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 13:30:27 +0000

The BikeMike Copenhagen Evening Zen Tour: “One stop only as we let the passing cityscape and natural environment do the talking. Hard to believe it’s a city bike tour. We bike through rural areas without ever leaving the city of Copenhagen. Come and join this wonderful ride through beautiful mood pictures of Copenhagen when she is stressing down from another busy day and try to do the same yourself. The tour experience embraces the philosophy: “When we bike, the city does all the talking, when we stop, we do the talking”. Treat yourself to the luxury of two hours of total calm. You’ll hear more birds singing than cars racing by… Please understand and respect that no talking at all is accepted during the bike tour. Silence is a big part of the experience.”

Biking Kalvebod Fælled wetlands, South of Copenhagen

Sun, 15 Jun 2014 13:30:28 +0000

Another day in Copenhagen, another itch to point the bike in a direction and explore under the wide-open sky. Apparently I lucked out and this was the first sunny week all year.

My phone showed a large green area , labeled “Kalvebod Fælled" criss-crossed with car-free paths (thanks, Google maps bike layer) between the city and the airport. But what is it?

From Wikipedia: ”[Kalvebod Fælled] consists of reclaimed sea bed, with a number of former islets making up small isolated hills; it was dammed and drained during the 1940s to serve as an artillery training range. […] Most of the area, however, lies as lightly maintained parkland featuring a range of nature types, from young forests to tidal marshes […] After years of preparation the area was finally cleared of unexploded munitions and fully opened to the general public on October 15, 2010.“

Biking to the Louisiana Modern Art Museum (North of Copenhagen)

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 13:09:53 +0000

While in Copenhagen, I took a few rides farther afield. Riding about 25 miles North was a great way to spend an afternoon (and about the comfort limit on my creaky rented city cruiser, in jeans), and the Louisiana was one of the best modern art museums I’ve been to.

Denmark’s bike infrastructure extends far beyond the major cities– even through the countryside I was almost exclusively riding on separated bike paths.

Mt Biking the Marin Headlands

Sun, 04 May 2014 18:54:27 +0000

A gorgeous day. Taking a spin on the fat-tired Pugsley along dirt roads and trails in the Marin Headlands (my first time off-road there, remarkably).

Amazing views, trails mostly in good condition, a few uphill grinds, and one slightly gnarly downhill on Old Springs (at least, for a beginner like me): ruts, loose gravel, a long set of shallow stairs to ride down, and a few narrow sections of trail lined on both sides with glistening poison oak (“please don’t fall now…”)

Biking dirt roads (Old Railroad Grade) up Mt Tam

Sun, 09 Mar 2014 20:30:00 +0000

Five of us set off to ride dirt roads up to the top of Mt Tam, along the former route of the ‘Crookest Railroad in the World’.

Starting with a little dirt warm-up on paths through the Presidio:

New off-road dirt shortcut to the bridge, past old concrete batteries (involved some flights of stairs):

Stop at the new Sol Food in Mill Valley (quite possibly my favorite place to eat on a ride) for a plantain-and-hot-sauce-heavy lunch:

Fat Tires on the Beach

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 01:36:38 +0000

Fat Tires on the Beach

4th Annual* Livermore Wine Ride

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 04:59:00 +0000

I declared (to myself) a 2014 bikeit motto “The Year of Dirt”. Not extreme mountain biking or log-jumping, but riding to the sort of places only accessible by a fire road or dirt trail. For example, a break in a day of wine tasting to explore dirt paths to an abandoned winery being reclaimed by vines…

That was just one part of a great day– a casual, scenic ride through Livermore, for the fourth year in a row (a small group of 5 this time, not the rolling party of 31 from last time).