I picked a Saturday/Sunday in the middle of May for this month's BAM. Mark would join me. I hadn't done a bikepacking trip with him since he had to leave the Oregon Outback early, so I was glad that he wanted to do an overnighter with me. At the last minute, JP said he'd meet us out there, after coming back from Bolinas. The NIKE site, at the end of the Nimitz trail in Tilden is close to his house.
A weekend BAM presents the challenge of when to start; if it's close enough, eat dinner at home, then ride, if farther away, or you want more of a Saturday adventure, leave earlier and make, or buy a meal en route. In this case we agreed to eat at home, then roll. I missed my estimate for start time by an hour. I had a nice Saturday with my spouse before leaving at 7:52 PM. The sun still hadn't set yet.
I rode dirt to meet Mark at Skyline Gate, and we rode a mix of dirt from Sibley, north on the "Great Northern" route, (our name for it) skipping the section from Fish Ranch to the Steam Trains, before climbing up and over Vollmer Peak and descending Seaview Trail to Wildcat road and Inspiration Point.
I let JP know our location, and he replied that he was already there. Oops. We rode the paved Nimitz trail all the way to the end, where the Kennedy-era NIKE missile sites were, now just cement slabs.
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| From Nike Missile Launching Sites SF-08L and SF-09L & Nike Radar Acquisition Site SF-09C: 1 February 2015 |
JP was there, already in his bivvy. He said he was dozing and listening to an audio book. I should have started earlier. We had a little chat, set up our bivvys and were soon down for the night.
The weather forecast showed a 49º low. I brought a very light M90 Ultralight Bivvy from Borah Gear, my 30º bag from Marmot, and aside from a long-sleeve Capilene top and wool boxers and socks, only my favorite hoodie from Farpointe, made of Alpha Direct, the Alpha Cruiser. I slept on my Nemo Tensor pad, on a tyvek ground sheet.
I was cold. I couldn't get warm, especially my lower body. There was a breeze, but thankfully no wind. I couldn't fall asleep. I ended up tossing and turning all night, too cold to sleep. Whoops.
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| I think I caught a bird in flight, in this photo. That's JP, sleeping. |
The sun woke me up. I tried hiding from it inside my bag, but thought my friends would be annoyed with me for staying in bed so long. Turns out, I was the first one up, and it was only just after six. The dawn was beautiful, and I took some photos. I put my sleep gear on Coyote Brush bushes to dry in the morning sun - there had been a mild dew - and made coffee. I had brought a croissant from l'Acajou, a bakery near my house, and oatmeal. JP got up and joined me, and made a little espresso on my stove. We both waited for Mark to appear, and chatted, before JP had to go. He and his wife were going to see Lena Dunham in San Francisco. JP said goodbye, but Mark still hadn't gotten up.
I thought about waking him, but having recently pondered how precious sleep was, didn't. I read a story on my phone, then Mark joined me. He had coffee and hot cereal, then we packed up.
I had a few varriations for a route back in mind, and we followed one; down the "land bank" fire road to El Cerrito, then the Old San Pablo Road from the dam south-east, then San Pablo Dam road to Moraga. I was envisioning lunch at the Canyon Club, a brew pub in Moraga, but Mark wanted to add another loop before returning to our homes via East Ridge. Since Mark was gracing me with his presence, I deferred to him. We continued south-east on Camino Pablo to its end at Rancho Laguna park - all that remains of the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados. We sat and ate some snacks we'd been carrying, sitting on a bench, watching kids play, then rode the Kings Canyon trail around the back side of the San Leandro Reservoir. Mark wanted to point out a site he felt would work for a BAM. It's rough from spring cattle using it for grazing, the hoof prints now eternalized for the summer in the dried adobe of the road, and it was built by a bulldozer without much concern for grade. The spot could work, looking out over the water, but there were a lot of people out on the trail this Sunday.
We stopped at Valle Vista for another snack, then continued up East Ridge. I took a small side trail I'd discovered to the site of an old mill pond I'd found, looking at lidar data, high on the side of Redwood Canyon, on a little promontory off the canyon wall. The pond had two flat spots, probably for structures, which would now work well for a bivvy. I think it was the pond that delivered water to the Prince Mill, which operated in the 1850s, depriving us of old growth redwoods. This was close to Mark's house. I said goodbye to him at Skyline Gate, got home in time to do a little bit of prep for company, then had a nice night with new neighbors.
Next time I'll bring more warm clothes, and/or maybe a bag liner to increase the warmth factor. This bivvy is really light, doesn't offer much protection from wind or cold or water, mostly just bugs and dew. My spot wasn't perfectly level, and the bivvy slid off the tyvek pad in the night. I think I'll add some strips of silicone to the bottom of the bivvy or the tyvek pad. The Hudski Dualist bike did fine. Oatmeal, dried mango, an energy bar and some of Mark's beef jerky was the menu. Sunday night's shrimp tacos hit the spot.
That's 5/5 for 2026, 6 in a row since I started doing BAMs in December of 2025.
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