Forget Work: I'm Riding

Memorial Day, the unofficial kick off of summer, as May rolls over into June and the bike tourers see the sun and put rubber to pavement and hit the road. My big one doesn't start for a couple more days, but last weekend was an absolutely great kickoff for another adventurous summer. I came across this bike ride through social networking, legimitely social networking, as I saw the Facebook event and figured, I love bike camping and am always down to meet people who are into bike camping as well, so Saturday morning I loaded up my bike and headed off for BART to catch up with a group ride down the coast and some camping.

Getting set at San Bruno BART

The top of Sharp Park Road.

After some final preparations and introductions at the San Bruno BART, the 14 of us set off around 10 AM, for a week of bikes and camping. As with any BART ride, the beginning was ugly suburbs, and required a heavy climb out of San Bruno with traffic and the gray only made the scene bleaker. We regrouped at the top then dropped down the sweeping descent of Sharp Park Road to the coast, where the sun was waiting to greet us. From there our ride leader, Woody, took us to the Planet of the Apes, sharing it with some people for the first time. There was concern about skinny tired road bikes, but I was the only one to blow a flat on here, way to go me (bad time to experiment with lower tire pressure, oh well).

Descending Planet of the Apes

From Planet of the Apes it was onward to Half Moon Bay, unfortunately, this meant sticking to CA-1, the popular bike touring road, but always heavily trafficked (and thankfully, continually expanding shoulders, but I still think work needs to be done). Half Moon Bay was a longerish stop for lunch and groceries. It was a little tough getting 14 people on the same page, but we finally started out from there. This was where our pace really picked up and we cruised along the coast, despite some rack malfunctions and ingenious tube latching, we made real good time that we made it to our campsite with hours of daylight to spare.

The bikes lined up at Half Moon Bay.

The boats in the Half Moon Bay Harbor, surprised to see so many docked on the three day weekend.

Then the best part about group bike camping began, the cooking, hanging, and chilling at camp. This was something I never really had a chance to enjoy during solo touring, for me, it was mostly about riding, but the campsite, located at Green Oaks Farms outside of Pescedaro, an organic farm with full outdoor kitchen and outhouse (handicamping is what someone called this, I find that fitting). We had some great cooks help out with dinner as well as some vigorous games of Cards Against Humanity. A 55 mile day for day one and everyone had made it with little wear.

Day Two was the off-day, the day to go out and adventure. There was very little plan of what to do. I had found some light trail that I wanted to hit, but wasn't sure if anyone would be into it after the day before's long ride. Originally it seemed as if people were going into town to Pescedaro, but there was only one member of our group who did that, instead it seemed that the trip to the trail and waterfall was the most popular choice, with the rest choosing the beach.

Meadows and bikes.

The trail was the Skyline to Sea trail, a rough hiker route that is an 8 day backpacking hike from the mountains to the sea, but the section near the sea is open to biking so that's where we hit. The ride was a great introduction to mountain biking for some who had never been before, one of our members, Jessica, was even on a Fuji road bike and was able to manage most of the trail (there were a few technical sections that only the experienced Woody was able to tackle). It was the perfect introduction to trail for a lot of our group, then it was a short hike to a waterfall nestled within the redwoods, where some of us bravely faced the chilly water to cool off from the ride.

The group on the coast (early photos because my camera died outside of  Half Moon Bay, d'oh!)

After the falls, we saddled up and raced back to our campsite for pie from the Pie Ranch, an organic pie shop on Highway 1 that grows everything they put in the pie on site. Busting out those trails made our crew hungry for sweets and we all made it back in time for pie (I opted out, but man those pies were tempting me  to break vegan). The second night had another great dinner and great fire to sit by before calling it a night.

The third day our group shrank some as some members decided to catch rides back into the city, while the rest of us chose to bike down to Santa Cruz and figure it out from there. Once again Highway One shared some brilliant views on the way south. We stopped at Swanton Berry Farms (10 percent discount for cyclists and a nice touring bike log) for some more pastries that I could only watch people eat as I stuffed my own face of peanut butter (these are the things I miss from a less restricted diet is these neat little places that I can only marvel at as an outsider, but alas, it's my decision and I am sticking with it). From there we hit some more trail along the coast, zigging and zagging along the bluffs overlooking quaint little coves. The trail brought us right into SC.

Rolling along.

This was now my first time in Santa Cruz, unfortunately, I can't say that I really got a good look at it. We stood at the base of the pier and Woody pointed out the boardwalk and the pier, but people were anxious to figure out how to return. I wasn't. I planned to ride. We had one last meal together at a diner (where I could get vegan food, yes!). Then we all parted ways.

There was a small group that stayed in the Santa Cruz area to ride back tomorrow, there was a group taking the bus home, then there was me and Jessica. We were the only two who took up the challenge of riding to San Jose then taking Cal Trans home. Woody once again pointed us in the right direction and off we went. I had always been wanting to ride these beautiful mountains so was completely excited and now with a group of two we set a good pace climbing the mountain. It was a long sustained slope, not a steep one, but a noticeable one. The best part of the climb was having a climbing partner, we chatted the way up and before we new it we made our turn near the top. We cut north and began the fabulous descent down Old Santa Cruz Highway. The road was the perfect grade with the best bends, I hardly fluttered the brakes as the road swept around the redwood groves and before I knew it we were sitting next to the Los Gatos Reservoir, coming up on our final destination.

The last leg was the peaceful Los Gatos Creek Trail, with plenty of day light to go we gently crushed the last bit and pulled into San Jose. Now it was my turn to eat as we ventured over to the Veggie Grill. We took our time in San Jose and around 8 30 we finally packed in our food and hit the road for the lest leg towards CalTrain. When we got to the Santa Clara CalTrain station we checked the schedule and 9 : 05 was our train, and the last one! We were that close to missing the last train thanks to our complacency at the end, go figure! Thank the heavens we made that train and were able to relax on the way home.

All in all the weekend was about 145 miles, but the miles don't matter, the people mattered. Being a foreigner to their group I was very pleased to feel at home with these people very quickly. No one was snobbish, no one was uninviting, no one was unfriendly. There were multiple levels of riding (as to be expected) but no one felt like they were holding back the group or being held back, everyone was glad to be riding along with people, taking the weekend off to ride some bikes. This is planned to be an annual event (this being year two) and I really hope I can make it work again next year.

Ride Report: Planet of the Apes

I've been pretty bad about getting on the bike once again. It's strange how once I get out of riding, it becomes very hard to motivate myself to get out, especially with the thought of doing a 5 hour+ ride. Then I think back to when I first starting riding the canals of Buffalo and how rewarding and enjoyable those rides were and I keep that in my mind to get me back out on the road.

I had originally heard of the Planet of the Apes Ride from a book I nabbed from the Berkeley library when I first moved here. I remember the author posting this ride with apologies, as if exploiting some forbidden secret of the cycling community. From there I guessed that there had to be something special, so I packed up a bunch of food and prepped for the 20 mile ride from Ocean Beach, SF to Pacifica to this old abandoned road that is the Planet of the Apes Ride.

One of the reasons I've avoided this ride, is that it requires a stupid BART ride (I hate paying 8 dollars round trip to go on a ride). So that's where my ride started, at the Embarcadero in downtown San Francisco. I had some decisions to make on how to get out to the beach and Highway 1. It was rather through the city (a route I've taken many times before) or the tourist route around the bay towards the Golden Gate. I chose for the latter.

SF was nice and sunny, but once I started heading south it was not so sunny.

The tourists weren't too heavy, so riding was actually kind of nice. I watched a bunch of tourists almost get hit by cars for hugging the shoulder on a narrow section of construction (cars passed with about 6" to the end of their bars, it makes me sick how dangerous people drive to save what? 30 seconds? a minute?). I told these nice Euro tourists to take the lane before they die. Onward from there it was through the beach and along Highway 1.

The beach.

Highway 1 felt like tour again. Busy highways for long stretches. It especially reminded me of 101 up north and the beginning of 1, where there is undulating hills with heavy traffic (thankfully more of a shoulder). Not exactly ideal riding, but it was still riding. The weather brought me back to the days of touring the coast too, it was chilly and gray, what everyone told me to expect of San Francisco (thankfully which has been sunny and warm, hurray global warming). I got turned around a few times where 1 doesn't allow cyclists. Thankfully I made it to Pacifica, where a nice short bike path took me down to the beach and then on the path towards Planet of the Apes. Bike route signs led me straight to the path I needed to be on.

This guy was rocking one speed up. I want my fixed gear now please.

Some pretty protected marshes in Pacifica.

The path ended at a gate that looked like a total dirt road, not the paved ride I was expecting. Passing some guys unloading full mountain bike gear out of the back of their Subaru had me wondering as well, but I had gone all the way there and so I figured I should at least check it out. It wasn't much longer that the path turned to somewhat a road. The road was clearly not maintained, I didn't mind it, I actually kind of enjoy the challenge of off-roading somewhat, but I could imagine a real roadie reading about this road ride (which is how I found directions from an article on non-Marin road rides). If roadies complained about Grizzly Peak, this road was clearly unrideable for them.

I remember talking to cycle tourists who said they didn't drink coffee. I wonder how they survived.

This was what most o the ride looked like.

For me, I was loving it. The "road" would shrink down to near single track with brush encroaching in as I chugged along up the hill. Similar to the Morgan Territory ride, this ride was also extremely quiet. The Highway was not far away but it was hard to tell, this solitude is why they call it Planet of the Apes (but I'd assume the lack of road maintenance might have something to do with it too. The road is a pretty straight forward up and down. At the crest I met Ras, a cycle tourist based in SF, also a member of the Bike Kitchen, on his way back home. I guess that time of the year is coming. I chatted with him and a local for a bit. I guess that's one good reason to not keep this place a secret, it's a great spot to meet other cyclists. After chatting some about his Trek 520, touring, and community bike shops, we split directions and I buzzed down toward Montara.

He's covering up the dent on the top tube, but it's a 520, it's meant to last.

I smacked a shin on some dirt at one point, that's how skinny this gets at times.

The descent was a little better going down, there was some times of pure dirt, but for the most part not as many divets. I took my time going down, but still went quick enough to enjoy it (and to get cold). This road was not difficult, but it was fun. The path let out right back on Highway one which I took back north towards San Francisco.

Great views looking out at the ocean.

On the way back I passed through the new Devils Slide Tunnel (a quiet tunnel, but I am already looking forward to when the old road becomes a state park!), then turned off 1 to climb over the mountains between the ocean and bay, specifically looking for San Bruno Mountain. There was a great deal of suburban sprawl in South San Francisco and Daly City, but San Bruno was worth it. San Bruno is a nice gentle single grade climb that was just sitting back and spinning my way up, then bombing back down into the city.

Devil Slide Tunnel, finally solving the problem of a section of road very prone to slides (hence the name).

This tunnel was so quiet and pleasant to ride through.

I put in 60 miles on this trip, staying out for just about 6 hours including stops. I always forget how nice these day rides are. I forget how great it is to be able to get out and explore something totally new and quell that desire to leave everything behind and tour again (at least for the moment that is). It was a little far for Planet of the Apes, but I know that if I ever tour south along the ocean, I will most certainly ride the Planet of the Apes again.