Day 1
My friend Mark invited me on a two-night bikepack to China Camp and Bolinas Ridge. I gladly accepted, and after some logistics, arrived at our meet-up place in Richmond around 4:30 on a Friday. I thought I'd packed everything I needed, and I was pretty sure I'd packed some things I didn't need. After dropping a car at a BART station for my wife later than I intended, I discovered I'd forgotten, or couldn't find my Garmin GPS unit, so I recorded day 1 on my phone.
Aaron, who I'd met on a previous bike camping over-nighter, joined us. We were a good group, traveling at a modest, conversational pace, focused on the experience rather than on any sporty bike riding or Big Goals. We crossed the San Rafael - Richmond bridge against the worst headwind any of us remembered; I had to pedal hard on the downhill to the San Rafael side to avoid coming to a complete halt. It was like being in a fight.
We rode more of the bicycle-specific routes than I'd done before on the San Rafael side, then took the bike path along 101 north to North San Pedro road, then went east to pick up dinner at Santa Venetia Market - shout-out to Dante at the grill out front for the excellent half rack of ribs. We'd ridden together at April Fools Rides in the past.
Heads-up, the grocery and the butcher / deli where Dante works are two
separate businesses. Took me too long to figure that out.
We arrived at the hike / bike camp sites at China Camp. The camp host sold Mark some firewood and Mark and Aaron paid cash for three spots. I had no cash, oops! The two sites were occupied, one with a father and two kids, and one with a single woman. We introduced ourselves at the latter camp, #2, and asked if we might join, and she, a bike-packer graciously allowed us to share her spot. There was a mysterious tent containing only rocks that was later explained and removed by its owner; the actual reason for its existence was way less interesting than our theories. We had a nice fire. My friend JP joined us later, after wandering around campsites looking for us after sunset. We were all getting ready for bed. He was ready for more fire, food and good cheer, and we disappointed him, but we did provide him with some chips, salsa and guacamole from our dinner. It worked out.
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| Home to China Camp, part 1, 43.07 mi, 3,907 ft |
Day 2
Next morning, JP offered to make me an espresso. How could I say no? He had his little Bialetti pot, and boy was that good. I'd picked up some ham, cheese and spinach croissants and cookies at l'Acajou, near my house in the Oakland hills. They were breakfast. JP had to get back to reality, so we said goodbye. I think he did some challenging singletrack with a bunch of climbing on his way home; that's JP's style.
I found my Garmin, it was at the bottom of my handlebar bag. Stoke! I recorded days 2 and 3 with it.
This trip was Mark's idea. He had a plan, and I was happy to be a part of it.
I like Mark's way of planning; it is goal-based, and he's willing to let the specifics sort themselves out. After visting Buck's Landing and looking at the brick foundations of what were the Remillard brick kilns at Gallinas Creek, we went north through Santa Venetia, aiming at a saddle that would deliver us to Fairfax.
Mark treated us to coffee and donuts at Northgate mall; I still was cash-less. That was a nice pause.
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| Aaron's cool bike |
We experimentally took back roads, trying to avoid traffic, and succeeded at both, finally taking Del Ganado ("of the cattle") road to Del Ganado fire road, up some steep pitches of dirt in the hot sun to Terra Linda Ridge fire road, to Fawn Drive, to Butterfield Road, to the Marin Museum of Bicycling.
I'd heard one of my old bikes was a recent addition, hanging there; a Retrotec single speed Curtis Inglis built me in 2008, red frame, gold parts. (See Bay City Wheelmen later, it's a theme.) It was a bit of an homage to a second-hand klunker I had in 1982 that was also red and gold, an old Laguna frame with a mish-mash of parts, and the Retrotec was also a fun, 29er single speed that I rode a lot.
Mark wanted to visit, so we did. I was hoping to see Joe Breeze or Otis Guy, but neither were there. I paid for a tour of three - my treat, since I
could use my phone, and hadn't paid for firewood or lodging the night before.
Ross and another guy led our tour, but it was mostly self-led; between Mark
and I, we knew most of the bikes and stories there. Mark even made the parts
on many of the bikes there!
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| That's a Paragon Machine Works chainring on Jammin' Jimmy Deaton's Yeti. It is a Big Cookie. |
It was enjoyable.
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| I think this one was my favorite, Joe Murray's Fisher race bike. Oh man. You can browse the pictures I took at the Museum, here. |
One of the displays had a photograph from a joint run of the Acme Wheelmen (Oakland, emblem; flying acorn) and the Bay City Wheelmen. (San Francisco, emblem; Maltese cross)
I just happened to have found the newspaper article(s) describing that joint run, on June 2, 1895:
"The joint run of the Bay City Wheelmen of this city and the Acme Club Wheelmen of Oakland, to Camp Taylor, was attended by nearly one hundred riders under Captains Dodge and Kitchen, The long climb up White's Hill, which it is believed has never been ridden before, was accomplished by Theo. Schleuter of the Acmes. The road was in good order and there were no serious mishaps."
I'd previously shared them with Joe Breeze, along with an Oakland Composite jersey featuring our recreation of the red, white and black flying acorn emblem, which Joe had on display with the photo. It made me happy. :) I'll put up the whole story in a blog post.
Next we went to Gestalt Haus, I think it was Aaron's first time there, and also at the Museum. We hoisted our heavy, loaded bikes up on the hooks inside, bumping into patrons, who were very accommodating to my oafishness. The place was packed. We ordered beers and food. Somehow my extra-large kolsch and Aaron's pint of hazy IPA got swapped. I ended up with an XL hazy, and he got a pint of kolsch. I offered to swap, but he declined, so I drank way too much alcoholic beer for a lunch in the middle of a bike ride, but I wasn't not happy about it. We hung around long enough to see a (gasoline) biker gang, including at least two in Hells Angels gear, arrive and order food and drink. My friend Karl also showed up, and joined us for a bit. We had good conversation, and I left with quite a buzz.
We slowly rode west, riding the dirt Old Railroad Grade from Whites Hill school to the summit of Whites Hill. Mark pointed out where the railroad tunnel daylighted on the west side.
We took the back roads through Woodacre, where a lady in a Range Rover reminded us that cyclists should ride single file. The back roads were nice and quiet, otherwise, finally putting us on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard near San Geronimo, which we took to the Lagunitas Grocery, a classic store for bicyclists, now under new ownership. They opened a week before we were there, odd to be in an old place with new people running the joint, but they seemed nice, and hopefully they'll keep it going for another long time. Mark and I got sandwiches, and we all got beverages for camp.
We witnessed a fire / paramedic response at the Inkwells, where a bunch of swimmers and sunbathers were gathered. I hope no one was seriously hurt. We rode the Cross Marin trail - an old railroad line - where we met the bikepacker we'd camped with at China Camp, riding with her partner on their return leg towards San Francisco. We stopped for water on the Samuel P. Taylor bike path, then climbed past the site of Tocaloma, up the hill towards Olema, then left on the Bolinas Ridge (dirt) road to our camp spot for the night. We made a light camp at the first bench, listened to the coyotes sing, watched the sunset and went to bed. I slept better the second night.
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| China Camp to Bolinas Ridge, part 2, 30.44 mi, 2,274 ft |
Day 3
Bird calls woke me around seven. We had quite a bit of dew, and it took about two hours of sunrise to dry out our gear enough to pack up and say goodbye. Mark and Aaron would go back the way they came.
I wanted to do a lap of the Bay, so I decided to head south on Bolinas Ridge. I hadn't ridden the entirety of Bolinas Ridge in a long time. It starts out exposed, very much ranch land terrain, bumpy and rutted double track, lots of open grass and some oaks and pines, climbing in a stair-step fashion, transitioning to redwoods, with a trail made of duff and loam, interspersed with tree-less rocky sections. There was a second bench.
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I stopped at the end of the Bolinas Ridge trail to look at the fairly obvious former location of the Summit House, which burned in 1904.
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| You will have to zoom in to see the two banks of earth, at right angles, which was likely the level foundation of the Summit House. |
I stopped to eat a snack, and spoke with a woman who was doing three summits of Tamalpais on road bikes with her friend. They were on their second climb of the day, from Bolinas, and had one more to do before their day was over. She planned to do the same thing on another weekend; three gravel bike summits of Tam. I was impressed! I continued south on Ridgecrest, where they caught me right before the split to East Peak. I have to admit I gave a good effort, trying to get to the crossroads without getting caught, first.
I descended to Pantoll, where I got water. Three bike bottles and a nalgene full of water were just enough to get me there, after our last fill-up a Samuel P. Taylor park, including a dry camp, on a pretty warm day. I ate another snack, rode Panoramic down Sequoia Valley, Edgewood and the Google-recommended, very narrow Janes Street to Mill Valley, then through Tam Junction and Sausalito to Alexander Drive, across the Golden Gate Bridge to the SF Ferry terminal. I got to the ferry terminal right as an Oakland ferry was boarding, so got on without lunch, and texted Lauren, asking her to order me a burrito about 45 minutes from home. (She has the special burrito-ordering account.)
She did, even tho she was on a bike ride, so sweet. I ground my lowest gears up the final 1100' climb to my house, sweating profusely in the hot sun, regretting bringing so much stuff. I stopped at the Woodminster Market for some post-ride Modelo Michelada tallboys to go with the burrito. A quick unpacking of the bike, a shower and a burrito and two beers later, and I was happy. It was a good trip. I arrived home tired, sunburnt and in need of a shave, to paraphrase my old friend Craig. That's just how I like it. Lola the dog was happy to see me, and Lauren the human was, too.
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| Bolinas Ridge to home, part 3, 43.07 mi, 3,907 ft |
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| Here is the route I did. Per my GPS, we did 101.72 mi and 7276 ft climbing Friday June 20 - Sunday, June 22, 2025. |
Gear
This trip I decided to try sleeping in a bivy sack for the first time, and I also brought a new sleeping pad. The bivy was made by Borah Gear. It's very light and packs small, and I suppose it did its job; no critters slept with me, that I know of.
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| Here I've got the bivy with sleeping bag and liner inside, on top of pad, on top of tyvek ground sheet. I also tried it with the pad inside. I made a mistake and tore open the mesh trying to anchor it to the table. Oops. |
Getting into and out of a bivy, containing a sleeping bag and sleeping pad, with a sleeping bag liner inside the sleeping bag is... not quick, or easy. I like a sleeping bag liner so I can sleep dirty and not have to wash the sleeping bag every trip. If the ground isn't perfectly level, (night two) the Borah bivy is like a luge, sliding down the Tyvek ground cloth. I suppose some people put silicone on a surface to reduce slipperiness.
I brought a Borah Gear tarp as well, but didn't deploy it, as it appeared we'd have clear skies and no fog for both nights. The pad was a NEMO Tensor All-Season Pad in the Long Wide size. I like the inflation sack method for airing it up. It took bout 5 sack-fulls of air to get it firm, and it was comfortable. I felt slightly better supported than my old Thermarest NeoAir, but it wasn't a huge improvement. I'm a side sleeper, and hip soreness is a thing I experience. I did get a NEMO foam pad, but didn't feel I had a good place to carry it, so left it home.
I rode my 2017 Falconer steel gravel bike with "Extra Bomber Action," (painted crimson and old gold, the Bay City Wheelmen colors, with a gold Maltese cross on the head tube) 42T chainring, 10-52 cassette, 45c Panaracer GravelKing X1+ tires at about 34 rear / 32 front psi on ENVE M60 wheels.
I used a new Tailfin AeroPack Cargo rear rack / bag for the first time. I'm really happy with it. I used their 1.0 thread pitch thru-axle to replace the Syntace X1 thru-axle on my bike, with a few spacers, including the conical one, so that I could do the direct mount at the thru-axle.
On top I had a pair of Bedrock sandals and an EAST BAY baseball cap. In the cargo bag was the Ortlieb seat bag that normally lives under my saddle, containing tire plugs, co2 canisters, master links, tube, etc, my sleep gear - Marmot Hydrogen 30ยบ sleeping bag, Nemo Tensor pad, Tyvek ground sheet, Borah Gear bivy sack and tarp, Nemo Fillo pillow, 30-year-old? REI sleeping bag liner, and two dehydrated meals, in case I needed them. I added one Salsa Anything aluminum cage on the non-drive-side leg of the Tailfin rack to carry a minimal camp chair, the REI Flexlite Air Chair, a luxury item.
Up front I used a Salsa EXP cradle on my Salsa 50cm Cowchipper bars, and a Salsa EXP top-load dry bag, with the little rectangular pouch add-on. I've got two half frame bags from Salsa and Outer Shell, but the insides of my knees rub on both of them, so I used an old Jandd Frame Pack Bag for Bicycle bag that's triangular, about half a top tube long, and ends right before where my knees would rub. It carried car and house keys and riding food, and on the ride home, a beer. I also have a very old, very used Mountain Feed Bag, which variably carried ear bud case, snacks, trash, phone, beer. On my Falconer's fork legs, which have the three water bottle braze-ons for fork-mounted Anything cages, I installed two King Manything cages, with a large Nalgene bottle on one side, and a Salsa Anything Bag containing an isobutane canister - upside down, with the nozzle at bottom, so that it couldn't hurt the stove, and a Jetboil MiniMo stove, with some Alpine Start dehydrated coffee that had long ago re-crystalized from a powder into coffee boulders.
To Alpine Start's credit, this stuff was good when I bought it in 2013, and when I used it in 2015, and even when I used in 2022. I think it got damp during that trip. I used this coffee on my last bike camp earlier this year, and it worked OK, but the coffee boulders were slow to dissolve. So, we're talking about twelve-year-old dehydrated coffee. At Bolinas Ridge I tried making coffee with them again, and the boulders just weren't dissolving; they were turning into taffy-like coffee lumps. I tried re-boiling the coffee on the stove to break them up. Well, coffee geyser ensued! Do not taunt Alpine Start coffee boulders, do not boil Alpine Start coffee boulders. I lost about two cups of water to the geyser. It was spectacular. Thankfully, Mark had some dehydrated coffee he shared with me.
I brought some Jabra ear buds to use for navigation when solo - I like to let Google maps guide me with bicycle directions, and one ear bud feels safe to use in traffic. I also brought a bunch of other items I did, and didn't use, and in hindsight I could have left more stuff home, and 1) been happy 2) carried less stuff so that I could 3) climb hills more easily and have a bit more fun riding.
Things I brought, that I didn't use; an Outbound Hangover helmet light, a Patagonia Houdini shell, emergency spares and tube, pump, co2, Borah Gear silnylon tarp, MSR stakes, ZPacks 1.3mm cord & Linelocs
Things I brought, that I used; Deeznuts chamois creme, spork, stove, camp suds soap, Petzl Actik Core headlamp, Anker PowerCore Metro 10000 USB battery, Garmin Edge 540 GPS, Cateye heart rate strap, poop shovel, TP, (mountain money) toothbrush, mini toothpaste, Leatherman Freestyle tool, little bottle of Squirt chain lube, sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, pad, bivy, Patagonia puffy jacket, Patagonia wool beanie, Jabra ear buds, Bedrock sandals, baseball cap
Things I brought, that I could have left behind; chair, about a pound of riding food, dehydrated dinner (1) and breakfast, (1) bivy, tarp, stove & fuel, (could have shared) ear buds, Bedrock sandals, baseball cap
Things I forgot to bring, that I should have; sunblock, lip balm, dehydrated coffee less than 12 years old
Things I wore; Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Hoody; which is always perfect, Club Ride baggie shorts, Race Face Stash bib shorts with built-in pockets on the back and sides, wool red, white and blue FUCK YEAH socks from 8 Lumens, Five Ten gravel shoes, MET Allroad helmet, HandUp gloves. I had a pair of underwear, Patagonia puffy jacket and beanie for camp.
If you read this far, thanks!
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