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There we found Evelyn & Don, Elise, Iris, Dave O, and his buddy Mike waiting patiently in the fog for us. Given we had a few new faces, we spent a little time yacking it up then headed up to San Rafael to gas up before hitting the backroads (Dave was chomping at the bit to get going and was quite vocal about that pursuit!). Once everyone was all gassed up (so to speak), off we went via Lucas Valley, Nicasio Valley, Petaluma-Pt. Reyes Rd., Hicks Valley, Wilson Hill, Chileno Valley, Tomales Petalmua Rd., Hwy 1, Marshall Petaluma Rd., Hicks Valley again, Petaluma-Pt. Reyes Rd. out to Hwy. My, oh my, what lovely roads... while overcast, it lent for comfortable temps (still on the warm and humid side) and very little traffic so we had most of the roads to ourselves without being hindered by the dreaded snail cages. And the roads were paved on either side with poppies and lupine. We finally alighted at Pt. Reyes Station Cafe for some well earned grub (and there were many probing questions of "When are we going to eeeeeeeeeat? I'm not saying anyone was whining but...). We ended up sitting in the bar (where else does a bunch of bikers go to eat?) and there was live entertainment to boot (I told everyone I arranged that... hehe) From there we headed back up Petaluma Rd., Platform Bridge Rd., Sir Francis Drake (man that road needs some repair BAD!!), stopping briefly in Fairfax as Evelyn, Don, and Elise headed for parts home. Iris, Dave, Mike and I headed for Bolinas-Fairfax, an e-ticket ride for sure. Dave and Mike headed out from the dam leaving me and Iris to our own devices. This hearty duo continued up Fairfax-Bolinas to Ridgecrest where we enjoyed a lovely view of fog... and lots of it! We also had to contend with a motorcade of crazed scooters who didn't seem to know what the heck they were doing or where the heck they were going. We finally managed to dodge them and came out to Panoramic Hwy and through John Muir Woods Rd. We joined the convoy up Hwy. 1 (is there ever a time when you DON'T have to deal with cars slower than fricking molasses that refuse to pull over?!?) and, after following one of said molasses cars for too long and almost losing the speed to get through the hairpins, we played a little game of tag, stopping in the road at a point where we could see any traffic coming up behind us, waited for the slowpokes in front of us to get further up... and then when we saw the poky mini-van coming slowly up the hill, we gunned it and had a BLAST catching the rhythm of the turns until we caught up with the molasses car again... and repeated our technique again... to the glee of us both... wheeeee!! Stopped off for gas before 101 and then it was back into the fog. At the GGB toll booth, Iris headed for home in SF and I decided to take the back way through the Presidio and along the Great Hwy which was clear from the day's earlier B2B madness. Stopping next to the beach, I took in the view of the ocean and the small strip of light that shone through the clouds just at the horizon line of the ocean. Big sigh, time to head home... but I took as many side roads as was humanly possibly to avoid the freeway and delay the arrival home (managed to stretch a normally 45-minute trip out to two hours!)... Black Mtn. Rd., Canada Rd. Old Mtn. Home, Sand Hill, Alpine, Arastradero, and then venturing into Los Altos Hills via .... and Elena Rd. (in fact, did Elena twice because it was so nice), stopping to take a few pics along the way... until finally, I could avoid the slab no more and headed for home. It was an AWEsome ride ... hoping you all were doing something equally as wonderful. And if you weren't, come out for the next ride!! Peace,
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Have
you ever had one of those days when you just didn't want to stop riding,
even when your hands and wrists were aching from manipulating the controls
of the beast? Today was one of those days! Started out in Los Altos
with coffee and then Audrey, Bill and I headed up north. We had a bit
of an adventure getting through SF due to the Bay to Breakers (note
to self - next year, no Marin ride in May!) but actually made it to
the GG Bridge pickup point not much later than if we had gone via the
Great Highway.