Presidents Day

Over Presidents Day weekend the weather was fantastic for a group ride to Mill Valley to take pictures of the 101s POCs.  After breakfast Saturday morning we chose route and equipment options for the trip.  For instance, the fact that we had trouble arriving at our designated meet-up spot in North Beach pushed back our departure till noon, we decided to ride over the bridge into Marin instead of taking the ferry.  This allowed us to hang out in the neighborhood a little longer to have coffee, buy provisions and solidify our plans.  In the process we settled on mountain bikes rather than road or commuter bikes since the ride was on both dirt and pavement.

We began with a ride through swarming traffic along North Point and Beach and then meandered through the quieter Marina streets to Crissy Field.  We stopped near Sports Basement because I wanted to get a photo of the Doyle Drive bike path.  However, I discovered that construction has rendered this facility little more than a dotted line on the official map.  From here we navigated the President’s Day traffic to the bridge.  We found that the bike path, which leads up to the bridge entrance, was also closed due to construction and this forced us to take a detour through the throngs at the visitor’s center before crossing under and onto the bridge.

Out on the open bridge the weather was amazing.  Normally it is windy and harsh, even in when it is sunny.  However, on this day the sun was out and the breeze was warm.  We then crossed under the bridge to Fort Baker and along the bay side bluffs and past Sausalito to the Richardson Bay Bridge.  While resting we decided that we would have to hurry to Bow Tie Knot, our destination, if we wanted to be back with enough time to catch the ferry.  We took the bay trail to Sycamore Street and stopped in Mill Valley for a quick shot of coffee before the final assent.

We climbed Lovell and Tamalpais to Summit Bl and had to stop a couple of times because it was so steep.  One of the stops was a wooden bridge on the upper portion of Summit before Fern Canyon, on which we turned left.  From there we took the rode slow and rode the dirt road together until we made it to the Bow Tie Knot at around 430.  We ate bread and cheese then.  I am always amazed at how small the Richardson Bay looks from up there.

Up to this point I had been debating how to get back since the rail grade can be steep and difficult.  However, we determined that the time and our lack of shocks would dictate that we would take Summit back rather than the Blythdale Rail Road Grade.  That was when we packed up and plummeted to Mill Valley.  The ride down was half as long as our ascent, even as some of us had to go slow for fear of hieghts.  From there we raced through Mill Valley, along the Bay Trail and down Bridgeway.

Ironically, upon our arrival at the terminal we found that the day was so nice that hundreds of people had gone out for the ride as well.  We even saw some friends waiting in line for the ferry.  Fortunately, all three hundred something bikes were able to board the boat and the party sat down for the ride with some cold refreshments and a nice view of the bay.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.