Back-2-Back…

This past weekend (November 8 and 9) was the first weekend where I’ve ridden ‘moderate’ miles on consecutive days in quite some time. On Saturday I had a few hours of work to do so I rode from SF to Palo Alto and Caltrain-ed it back home.

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While the pitter patter of the rain on Saturday evening was nice and relaxing, the sun was shinning brightly as I woke early to get ready to ‘lead’ a DSSF ride up Mt. Tam. I met Doug at Peet’s Coffee on Market St. in the Castro shortly after 8:45 am and rode out very quickly. I do not wait around for others to show up at the 9:00 am ride-out time that I published if they don’t RSVP. It was rather a good thing we left a tad early because I had a flat tire just as I was riding the short climb into the Presidio on Arguello. We stopped and quickly changed the tubes finding glass embedded in the tire. Once the glass was removed I used a CO2 cartridge to inflate. Not being satisfied with the tire pressure we rode downhill to the SportsBasement to use their pump to inflate it adequately. From there Doug and I climbed to the Golden Gate Bridge to meet Will.

The forest just before descending to Alpine Dam.

We took off from the south side GG bridge and crossed for the nice descent into Sausalito and onto the Marin Bike Path which we quickly fell off staying on route 1 into Mill Valley. The left in Mill Valley continuing on Shoreline marked the beginning of the first major climb of the day, nearly 3 miles to the Panoramic Hwy. After turning onto the Panoramic Hwy there are a few rollers as you approach the turnoff for Muir Woods. At the turnoff we continued straight for the 2nd climb up to the Pan Toll rest area. After a regroup and some water we headed up the steepest part of the climb, Pan Toll, to the intersection with Ridgecrest. I hadn’t planned on taking the right to climb all the way to the ranger station on Mt. Tam but Will and Doug were wanting to so I gladly went along. The view towards the city is gorgeous.

Above: The view from near the top of Mt. Tam looking back towards SF. The picture below is looking in the same direction except a little lower as we were climbing Pan Toll.

The next series of rollers were the ‘seven sisters’ to the Bolinas-Fairfax road and a very technical downhill to Alpine Dam. The rain the previous evening had made sure to leave plenty of debris to watch out for. Sunday happened to be the last day the road would be open to through traffic because the road is now closed for a few months to repair some landslides. The thing about getting to Alpine Dam is that it is located in a valley and once down at the dam there is nowhere to go but up to climb back out. We climbed towards Fairfax and I encountered two turkeys along the side of the road. The decent into Fairfax isn’t all that technical but after nearly 4500 feet of climbing that day and riding the day before I started to cramp. I have never cramped on a decent before. Usually if I cramp it is on the climb, but the coolness of the day and the previous climbing was getting to me. We stopped at Coffee Roasters for some food that I badly needed. After some nourishment, we slowly rid back to SF where we all departed tired after a good ride. I was sleeping by 8 pm.

Saturday: 52 miles, 2442 feet of climbing

Sunday: 65 miles, 5793 feet of climbing

Above: Doug stopping on the climb up Pan Toll as I snap a pic.

Below: Ridgecrest Road

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