Windy, solo bay lap over Tam, the story in pictures

I was feeling good, I had a day to ride. I tried to interest people in coming with me, but no takers. It was cold & windy! I wanted to do another lap of the Bay, over Tam, this time up Railroad Grade, along Ridgecrest, down to Alpine Dam and then to Fairfax on the Fairfax-Bolinas road, and return. So I did.

Here's the story, in pictures:

If you browse the strava link - I guess you have to follow me on strava to see it - you can see where I took these photos.

Rolling through Oakland, there's the Tribune tower on the right. I should have gone down Grand Avenue to the Bay Bridge approach, but went around Lake Merritt because that's the way I ride to work.

I'd heard about de Fremery Park, but never been there. (the namesake) Will have to blog about it some time.

Some giant art

Glimpsing the rest of the Bay Bridge, from Treasure Island, after having ridden across the first part into a significant, (20+ mph) cold headwind

Treasure Island is as far as you can get, on the Bay Bridge, by bicycle. If you ride from the rock part of the island to the land-fill part, you can catch a 25 Muni bus to the city. They run every 20 minutes on the weekend. If you have two buddies with bikes, one will be out of luck; there's only two bike racks on the front of each bus. It drops you off in the new transit center, near the Embarcadero, where I embarked on the rest of my journey.

Funky door tower art piece along the Embarcadero. I had some bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, leftover from my breakfast, in tinfoil, in my back pocket. Had a half, here. It was so cold, I wasn't worried about them going bad.

Ferry Building

Fort Mason

Art in the Great Meadow, at Fort Mason

Pretty, but cold day at the Great Meadow. This was Super Bowl Sunday, so a lot of people were indoors to watch millionaire gladiators blah blah blah

Fort Baker, after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. No pictures from the bridge. It was a windy, cold ride, dodging lots of tourists on rental bikes. The ride down to Fort Baker was nice.

I snapped this pic of SF from Railroad Grade, where it briefly becomes an asphalt road

I stopped to pee, and had to pose my bike in front of Mt. Tam's welcoming bike signage.

A glimpse of the summit; if you zoom in, you can see the old fire lookout.

If you zoom way in on this photo, also taken from Railroad Grade, you can just make out all three bridges that were part of this ride.

After summiting Railroad Grade, I went left on Ridgecrest and continued climbing. This was my first unobstructed view down the coast, from about 2600'.

Looking west on Ridgecrest, from the same spot as above. 

I was low on water and really cold. I walked up to the picnic benches above Rock Spring trailhead, hoping to find a faucet or fountain, but no luck. I did get this idyllic snapshot. My garmin record shows that it was 37º here! Brr.

Looking west, to north on Ridgecrest. That's Bolinas down there. This is why I did the ride. It's like going to church, or playing a beloved piece of music, for me.

More Ridgecrest

Bolinas

Bolinas, and the Seven Sisters

Right after I snapped this pic, I rolled toward the cars in the middle left and a very healthy, nonchalant coyote walked right across the road in front of me, then loped down the hill to my right. I've seen coyotes and bobcats here several times. Also, I saw another cyclist. I said "Beautiful!" and he replied "Yes! I just rode from Oakland!" Me, "Me too! I came from near Joaquin Miller Park!" Turns out we were doing very similar rides; he counter-clockwise, me, clockwise. "Good job, buddy!" I said. Should have snapped a pic of him, told him my name. I later ran across Steffan, also doing a giant loop from Oakland.

I didn't ride Bolinas Ridge, this time, but I couldn't pass up a photo op at the intersection. This was one of the most important places for me, as a young man.

This corner

Lake Alpine. Just imagine, for a moment, that this is a valley with a creek in it, and a dirt road along that creek. Then go read this. (Search ahead to "Lagunitas to Liberty.")

Another shot of the dam. You can tell it was getting late in the day. I still had to get back home to Oakland by bicycle!

Climbing out of the valley on Fairfax-Bolinas road, Lake Alpine to the right

Looking across at White's Hill from the Meadow Club

Kelly and Etienne bought a beautiful house in San Anselmo. I stopped by for a quick visit, they filled my bottles and then kept moving. My goal was to cross the San Rafael - Richmond bridge by sunset.

The strong winds of the day were still blowing, but for the first time of the day, at my back! Right after I made land-fall on the Richmond side, my garmin switched to night-time mode, meaning sun had officially set. On West Cutting I ran into Steffan, also from Oakland, also finishing a giant bay lap. He was talking to Erik Zo, who was west-bound I think. Ironically, I first met Steffan on my second bay lap, a few weeks ago. He and I rode back to Grand Lake Avenue together, a little faster than I'd gone for most of the day. It was dark, cold, and my light was almost out of batteries when I got home. Big day! 

Take a look at the bottom chart; temperature. It was a chilly day!