The word for today was "climb". After a final breakfast with the Adventure Cycling group in Olema, we headed for San Francisco via Mount Tamalpais, which offers a stunning 180 degree view of the city, bay, AND ocean, assuming that you tackle the climb up the mountain first! Though we agreed that yesterday's impromptu climb over the coastal ridge to Limontaur Beach was steeper and tou
gher, Mt. Tam, as the locals call it, was plenty challenging. It kept going and going. It was a 4 mile climb to Ridgecrest Road, and then it was another 3 miles of rollers with 3 short steep climbs to the parking lot that was the kick-off point for another 3.5 mile climb to the peak of Mt. Tam. You get the idea. By the time we reached the peak, we had been climbing for 10.5 miles. Mark began to bonk. The heat was becoming oppressive too. After enjoying the views at the top, a coke helped temporarily revive Mark. Unfortunately, on the descent, Jeff had a flat in his rear
tire but it was quickly changed. We continued heading down through the beautiful town of Mill Valley, at one point getting totally lost before a local biker led us to the right spot, and we re-joined the bike path that runs south through Sausalito and back over the Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco. We stopped for a quick sandwich in Sausalito which once again revived Mark. It was across from the famous house-boats of Sausalito -- a colorful "neighborhood" of unique houses on the water. We arrived back in San Francisco to the hostel in Fort
Mason around 2:30 p.m. We rode on to our hotel and then took a cab back to pick up our luggage since we couldn't ride and shlep our bags all in one trip. Then...we were off the bikes after a week of beautiful riding, great scenery, and a terrific group of fellow Adventure Cyclists.
The word for today was "climb". After a final breakfast with the Adventure Cycling group in Olema, we headed for San Francisco via Mount Tamalpais, which offers a stunning 180 degree view of the city, bay, AND ocean, assuming that you tackle the climb up the mountain first! Though we agreed that yesterday's impromptu climb over the coastal ridge to Limontaur Beach was steeper and tou
gher, Mt. Tam, as the locals call it, was plenty challenging. It kept going and going. It was a 4 mile climb to Ridgecrest Road, and then it was another 3 miles of rollers with 3 short steep climbs to the parking lot that was the kick-off point for another 3.5 mile climb to the peak of Mt. Tam. You get the idea. By the time we reached the peak, we had been climbing for 10.5 miles. Mark began to bonk. The heat was becoming oppressive too. After enjoying the views at the top, a coke helped temporarily revive Mark. Unfortunately, on the descent, Jeff had a flat in his rear
tire but it was quickly changed. We continued heading down through the beautiful town of Mill Valley, at one point getting totally lost before a local biker led us to the right spot, and we re-joined the bike path that runs south through Sausalito and back over the Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco. We stopped for a quick sandwich in Sausalito which once again revived Mark. It was across from the famous house-boats of Sausalito -- a colorful "neighborhood" of unique houses on the water. We arrived back in San Francisco to the hostel in Fort 
Mason around 2:30 p.m. We rode on to our hotel and then took a cab back to pick up our luggage since we couldn't ride and shlep our bags all in one trip. Then...we were off the bikes after a week of beautiful riding, great scenery, and a terrific group of fellow Adventure Cyclists.
2 comments:
What a wonderful trip you had - and so beautifully described :-)
I'm glad you guys rode out to Limantour Estero, and also climbed to the top of Mt Tam.
I'm going to recommend to ACA that if they run this trip again they have a layover day at Olema so that everybody can spend a day hiking/kayaking/cycling in Point Reyes National Seashore.
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