A Day in The Life

Happy tax day!? Did you do your taxes yet? I had to pay and I set mine up to pay on the 14th, as I am not paying any earlier than I absolutely have to! I hope that you got money back, or did not have to pay too much! 

I know I said I was not going to just talk about the bike trip. but Nicole's post about normal every day life the other day inspired me (plus Engie asked me for the nitty gritty about every hour of my day). I love hearing about other people's different days, so I thought I would do one for my current "routine." Each day is different, but on this day (April 7, 2024), I had wild camped near Lava Bed National Monument. I am going to do this day as a 24 hour period instead of the standard "awake" hours; you will see why in a minute. 

9:30 pm: After falling asleep while reading around 6:00 pm (oops), I wake up, thinking it is morning. Realizing it is not, I puff a few puffs of air into my sleeping pad (it seems to have a very small leak) and I go back to sleep. 

11:00 pm: Wake up, roll over. 

1:00 am: Wake up, roll over. Sometimes sleeping while camping is not fun.

3:00 am: Wake up, realize it's pretty cold out, put sleeping bag over head, roll over.

4:30 am: Wake up, hear snow hitting the tent, roll over.

5:00 am: Alarm goes off, hear snow hitting the tent still, decide to not get up yet, put on a podcast.

6:45 am: After listening to several podcasts, it is still snowing. Thermometer shows that it is 31 degrees inside the tent, so I can only assume it is in the mid 20s outside. After a period of hemming and hawing, I decide to get up and face the music.

Frozen tent

7:00 am: Mobilization tasks include (in this order generally): put on contact lenses, socks (in sleeping bag so they get warm), beanie, long sleeve shirt, hydration pack, buff (on neck), wired earphones (use to save battery, better if they are under jacket) and rain jacket. Take off sleeping shorts, put on hated diaper pants (bike shorts), and long pants. Deflate sleeping pillow (this is a new luxury for me), and sleeping pad and put in bag. Put sleep liner (adds about 10-15 degrees of warmth) in bag. Stuff sleeping bag in bag, filling all cracks. Lastly, put electronics, sleeping shorts and Kindle in the bag. 

7:15 am: Put on shoes. Exit tent. There is snow on the ground and on Bob. It is very cloudy and I am hoping that it does not snow all day. Pee in bushes, which involves removing two layers of pants, peeing, pulling up two layers of pants and tucking in two shirts. Brush teeth. Put on gloves, tighten wrist Velcro on jacket. The less wind getting in, the better. Eat a granola bar and skip coffee due to cold/snow and lack of extra water. Deconstruct and pack up tent. Strap bag with sleeping items on back rack. 

7:45 am: Start Garmin Inreach (this is a satellite tracker and SOS messenger), start Garmin Edge (this is a bike computer that tells me which way to go), start Coros watch (this logs my miles, elevation, heart beat etc.) Plug headphones into phone, start audiobook. Drink water. Leave camp, start pedaling. 

7:45 am - 8:30 am: Pedal, take photos, beat my hands on my handlebars and feet on the pedals because they are cold due to snow and 28 degree temps (according to the bike computer, this may not account for the cold, cold wind though). On this day I go through Lava Bed National Monument, who most of you have probably never heard of, as it is kind of in the middle of nowhere. It is full of lava and caves and is probably pretty cool to explore, but I do not do it this time, as it is very cold and I need to get a permit from the (closed) visitor center to be able to go into the caves. However, check out Skull Cave; isn't it cool? It may be worth coming back someday! 

Lava

8:30 am - 10:30 am: Pedal, take photos. Am kind of glad when there is a small (read: small!) hill as it gives me a chance to warm up a little. I go through the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, where I am sure there are normally a lot of birds, but today there is not much. It snows most of the time, but at least it is not rain! I am craving a coffee, and the road has been a bit straight and I need a break, but there is nothing! I have literally seen no services for the last ~ 80 miles. 

Still cold!

10:30 am: Finally, I get to the Oregon border and there is a liquor store/bar/market on the corner and I fling down the bike and go in! It reminds me of home; there is nobody inside but the bartender points me to the coffee machine and lets me sit in front of the fire. As I sit there, I hear the cook or someone in the back talking about his night last night and it is entertaining to say the least. I look at the map, book a room in Klamath Falls, and warm my toes. A few locals come in and sit at the bar and they start asking me where I am going, and upon learning that my next stop is KF, the proceed to give me advice on which route to take that is the most scenic (and flat, I hope!) I end up taking their advice, because why not!? 

My new favorite bar

11:00 am: I pay for my coffee and drag myself outside, where the sun has come out! It is probably still in the high 30s, but having the sun at my back is priceless. I can hear three guys in trucks admire my bike set up as I leave. I follow the route that the bar guy told me to take, and he was right! It is pretty and there are not many cars, and the ones that do come give me lots of space. 

Lower Klamath Lake Road

2:00 pm: I arrive at KF and after having a bit of a harrowing ride along the main drag in town (no bike lane, fast cars), I get to my motel and check in. They do not have a room on the first floor, or an elevator, so I drag Bob up the stairs. He probably weighs about 75 pounds without me on him. I get into my room and complete my normal room review. Does the room have: a coffee machine, a refrigerator, a microwave? In this case it has the last two, which means I can buy cold things from the grocery store! 

2:15 pm: Before leaving to get food, I do the following: remove bike shorts and wash, hang to dry (they are thick and need time), put on sleeping shorts, remove wet tent from bike and hang to dry, start charging my power bank, get my Chico bag. I walk to the grocery store and buy too much food. This is very common. I always have eyes bigger than both my stomach, and my bike bag capacity. I will figure out a way to make it work though. I do buy a salad and some frozen peas, which I will have to eat right away. The rest, even the cheese and brats, can be stored on the bike the first day, as the temps are supposed to be pretty cold the first day (25 - 45 degrees). My weakness is tortilla chips, AND they take up too much room, but I buy them anyway. I also buy ice cream, which I will eat for dinner later. :) However, to my credit, it all fits in the Chico bag! Not only that, but this food, along with a few other bars and things that I already have, need to last me for the next four days, until my next grocery store.

Grocery haul!

3:30 pm: I am back in the room. I remove all of my clothing and wash it in the sink, and hang it up in front of the heater, which I have put on full blast. Even without clothing on, I am sweating, but needs must! I need my clothes to be dry by tomorrow. I eat the salad and some peas, and repackage some of the food (rice, coffee) so that I don't have any boxes. 

Dinner #1

4:30 pm: Done eating. I swap my charging item. I only carry one square, so need to do one thing at a time unless there are USB ports in the motel. Luckily, this one has two of them, so I can charge three things at once! Yay. However, I have eleven items that need to be charged! Isn't that ridiculous? What ever happened to going out in the wild with a map and a compass and a hunk of jerky? Actually, several of these items will last a few days, or can be charged with the power bank, but I always fill them up when I do have power just in case. 

4:30 pm - 6:30 pm: I shower and put on the game show network. Who knew there were so many games that are just like Family Feud? Also, when did all of the hosts become so annoying? Also, clearly older people are watching this channel, as there are a lot of commercials for medications, some of which may give you pain or swelling in your perineum! Really? All you need for that is to ride a bike for several days in a row. I go through my route plan again for the next week, while eating ice cream. I note down where the water sources are, how far it is between towns, possible reroutes I may need or want to do. I check the weather for the next few days. It is supposed to get warmer, with highs in the 60s in a few days, but it is supposed to rain after that. I hope that the second part is wrong. 

6:30 pm - 8:30 pm: I do some administrative things (write a blog post, pay my property tax, make sure everything is running smoothly with the house etc.) since I have WiFi and probably will be camping in the wild for the next several days. I also download some new books from the library, and make sure they are usable offline, and back up my photos that I recently took. However, the WiFi is NOT fast, and it ends up taking over 12 hours to upload my recent photos to the cloud. Annoying, but at least I can get some things done. I have some nachos (tortilla chips with melted cheese - I love having a microwave!) for dessert. 

8:30 pm: Brush teeth, take out contacts, pee (in a toilet! Yay!). Get in bed to wind down. Send a few text updates to people since I may not be in service for a while. 

9:00 pm: Put on a podcast and fall asleep. 

Is your normal morning or evening routine the same every day? What is the most random national park or preserve that you have been to and loved? 

Episode One: Plan G

You know how there is plan A and then plan B etc.? The last few weeks have been a lesson in always having a backup and/or being willing to go with the flow. I feel like I am currently on plan F or G of my trip already. The original plan had been to start from Grass Valley, CA and head over the Sierra toward Klamath Falls, OR, where I would meet up with some friends for about a week near Bend, OR before heading back to Klamath Falls to start north again. 

Things were looking pretty good for a while; the snow was melting and Punxsutawney Phil had said that spring was coming early, which I was a big fan of. However, about a week before I had planned on starting, there was a big snow storm in the Sierra and things started looking bleak for me. I told my Dad that his ski season was going to need to be cut short, but in the end, he got lucky. This was not a horrible thing; it just meant that my plan to try to stay on dirt paths for the bulk of my trip just went out the window, and instead of going over the hills, I would need to take the road around through the valley. However, this did not mean I did not need to go through the mountains still; I would just do it in a lower place instead. 

Country road, take me home...(table mountain in the distance)

In the next couple of days, I got to Red Bluff via backroads, and then cut east to head up and over the mountains. Well, this day it started raining, then snowing and then I actually hit snow at about 4,200 feet, which is a bit lower than expected. So I tried to plod through it for a while, but ultimately it was very hard and it was uphill and my feet were getting cold, so I decided to head back down the hill to regroup. I was going to try to hitchhike to the town of Burney, but nobody would pick me (a very wet person) and Bob (a very wet bike) up. Luckily, I found a feed store that was on the side of the highway and I went in and begged Sonny, the owner (we became good friends), if I could use his heater to warm up and asked him if he knew anyone with a truck who would be willing to give me a ride. 

After reviewing the weather in Burney and surrounds, I determined that the upcoming snow would make this journey a bit unpleasant and possibly dangerous, so in the end, I decided to go back to Redding, which is along highway 5 and wait for my friends there instead of in Klamath Falls. Luckily Sonny's friend was headed to town and he gave me a ride right to my motel! Thank goodness for friendly folks. After a week in Oregon, I was back in Redding, but ironically, though it had been nice for the last five days, it was set to snow again in the mountains! I decided to take a bus to Burney and start from there rather than trying to go up the snowy slopes of the highway. 

Yup, those are my tracks (and a bunny)

The pass I wanted to avoid

This turned out to be a wise decision. The highway (299) to Burney was uphill, windy and had very little shoulder and there were a couple of snowy passes. In the end, I skipped about 7 miles, but I am okay with that. I started off in Burney and headed east and then north again. However, lest you think it was easy, it was uphill, snowing part of the time, and in the 20s in the mornings! But I made it to Klamath Falls safely in the end. The weather is still supposed to be a bit hit and miss, but this week's lows are supposed to be in the 30s and highs in the 50s/60s so that is much better than 20s! I have spent a lot of time looking at weather, routes, and webcams lately, but hopefully things will become more (and stay more) spring-like after this. 

View of Mt. Lassen from highway 299

A few stats --> Dead animals seen on side of the road: snakes, squirrels, cat, deer, vole, birds, lots of unidentified bones. I have also seen lots of cans (but not as many as in Washington), cigarette packets, and beer bottles. Good things I've seen: many farms/ranches/live animals including goats, donkeys, ponies, horses, sheep, ducks, geese, hawks, unidentified birds, dogs & cats, many sunrises, many empty roads, fun small towns.

Now the fun part, the Q&A! If you haven't gone and asked any questions yet, you can do it here. Don't be shy! It can even be anonymous if you want it to! I thought I would answer a few in each post, except for some of Engie's questions, for which the answers will likely be an entire post! This time, I will answer a few logistic questions that I have recently been asked. 

Where do you sleep? (Michelle and various other friends) - I am doing a mix of wild camping, established camping, motels and staying with friends. Most of this will not be planned in advance, as I will not really know how fast or how far I will go each day, but my expectation is that I will likely try to have a warm bed and a shower about once a week. If it rains or snows on me a lot, this number may increase. [edited to add: given the snowy conditions, I have so far stayed in a motel 4 nights and wild camped 2 nights, but I am hoping to do a lot more camping over the next week.]

Wild camping in Modoc County, temps around 40

What do you eat? (Michelle and various other friends) - I carry enough food to get me to the next town, which will likely mostly be only a day or two's worth of food. However, there will be sections where I will need to carry several days worth of food or several liters worth of water. What I carry will be similar to backpacking food, like rice, beans and oatmeal, but I will also be able to carry some heavier things or fresher items like peanut butter, bagged salad and fruit/veggies. I will also stop in towns and eat real food from time to time! My favorite grocery store foods in town are ice cream, cheese and meat, but I will also be splurging on an omelet or a hamburger sometimes. I also do carry a stove and so I can have hot food like instant rice, oatmeal and coffee. 

Typical snack food

Coffee maker (aka the stove)

Where do you use the bathroom? (My friend K's 10 year old daughter L) - This really depends on where I am. The first few days I was in small towns or rural roads. If there is no traffic and/or I can hide, I usually just pee in the bushes. If I am in a town, I may use a park restroom or a gas station restroom, but I don't really like leaving my bike out too long. If I am camping, I will go in the bushes. If I am in a motel, I will use a toilet! 

Will I carry a weapon? (My aunt and my friend G) - Not this time. I am going to leave my Glock at home, but will likely get bear spray when I am closer to or am in Canada. 

Progress report: 352 mi / 563 km | 7 days | 42 hours (6 per day) | gummy bears eaten: 76

How was your week last week? Did you get any snow? Is it cold where you are? What do you do to warm up when you are cold? 

Buses, Boats and Bicycles

Normally each year I pick a fun international destination and spend a couple of weeks there for my annual vacation. This year, I decided to stay local and instead of eating my way through France, I opted to instead torture myself for two weeks by pedaling Bob (the mountain bike) across the state of Washington. Not only that, but I wanted to do it on dirt, so it was not a straight shot. Instead I wound my way around the state and up and down some mountains before getting to the end. After that, I still had to get back to my car, so the adventure was not done. Then I was like John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, except my adventure was Buses, Boats and Bicycles. 

The adventure started by driving from California to the Olympic Peninsula and the tiny town of Forks, Washington. This may be familiar to you if you are a Twilight fan, as it is the setting that the author used for the series, and also one of the rainiest places in the US, according to Wiki. Luckily it did not rain when I was there, nor did I see any vampires. I parked my car there and got a ride to La Push, which has the westernmost zip code in the contiguous US, and also many beautiful beaches. As is customary, I dipped my back tire in the water and then started my journey. 

Sign outside of Forks, WA

I will not bore those of you who don't care much for a play by play of my entire bikepacking trip. However, there were a few highlights that I think everyone can appreciate! 

The Olympic Peninsula is beautiful. There are huge ocean beaches with enormous waves that remind me of the crashing waves of the Pacific where I live, but that doesn't make them any less intriguing. I could sit and watch them for hours! There are also tons of hiking trails, many tiny towns where you can get a coffee or a breakfast, and lots of places to stop and just take in the view. 

The lovely Pacific coast

Bob hanging out near Port Angeles

But the thing I utilized the most was the Olympic Discovery Trail. This is a mostly flattish bike trail that goes all the way from La Push to Port Townsend, which I think is about 135 miles. Right now, some sections are on the road, but you could easily find a 20 mile stretch that is mostly bike paths and quiet streets. There were a ton of blackberries along the sides and I think I spent more time eating them than I did riding. The other highlight was an alternative section called the Olympic Adventure Trail, which was a really smooth and fun single-track section that I really enjoyed, especially when it started raining and the canopy kept me halfway dry! They have a great set of maps on their website that you can even download to your phone and get turn by turn directions if you want. 

Olympic Discovery Trail near Forks

Bob and the ODT near Lake Crescent

The next fun thing was taking the ferry across the Puget Sound. Did you know that if you do not have a vehicle, riding the ferries eastbound is free? You have to pay $10 for the westbound trip but unless you have a car, you only pay one way! I have taken the ferries in the San Juans before, but I have never done it with a bike, so that was a first for me! It's quite exciting to zip in (and out!) before all of the cars come rushing up behind you and you have to get your bike out of the way and tied up before they run you over. Also, just like in San Francisco, taking the commuter ferry is a great way to see the bay (or the sound in this case) without paying for an expensive "bay cruise." For $10 I got to see the Seattle skyline and watch the sailboats in the Puget Sound. I call that a win! 

View of Seattle from the ferry

I also rode for a long time on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, which I started on in the town of Carnation, which is east of Seattle. It goes along the Snoqualmie River into the mountain towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend. This was a steady uphill but it was shaded and cool and since it was an old rail trail, it was not very steep. I would really recommend going there; you can camp at the campground near Carnation and ride east to North Bend and get a hamburger at Twede's cafe. For those of you who are fans of the show Twin Peaks, this is the location of the famous cherry pie diner. I found it a bit kitschy of course, but I got a seat right away, my food came out fast, and they had bottomless French fries, so yay! After gorging yourself on fries, you have a downhill ride back to your camp. By the time you get back you will be ready for a swim in the river right next to your campsite! For me there is nothing better than a swim in the river on a hot day. 

Snoqualmie Valley Trail

Twede's Cafe in North Bend

Last but not least, the Snoqualmie Valley Trail links up to the John Wayne Trail, now known as the Palouse to Cascades trail. This is also a rail trail that has been converted to a bike trail, and is again all dirt and slightly uphill for the first 20 miles. I ended up loosely following this trail almost all the way to the Idaho border. The highlight of the first section of this trail is a more than two mile ride through the Snoqualmie tunnel! If you do not want to ride all the way up the hill from the start, you can also start at the town of Hyak and then it is less than a mile from the tunnel from there. It was very dark and kind of damp and chilly but pretty fun and was a new experience for me! We used to run through the train tunnels when we were kids; it was such a thrill to see if we could get through before a train came. I don't think the Snoqualmie tunnel had that same element of danger, but it was eerie being alone in the dark for several minutes, and you literally cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel

Camping along the PTCT with the Enchantments in the background

In the end, it was a grand adventure! There were many hard days; I rode my longest ride ever so far (80 miles) in one day, and one day it was about 100 degrees out and of course this was in eastern Washington where there are no trees, so I think I baked my brain a little bit that day. However, I rewarded myself with a lot of ice cream when I could, and had fun seeing the small towns (and I do mean small! One was about 500 people) and farmland along the way. I saw a lot of dead animals, banana peels and trash, specifically aluminum cans. On one stretch of highway, I counted over 100 cans in a one mile stretch!! I ended up getting to Idaho via Spokane, where I then took my buses, boats and bikes back to my car before driving home. 

This photo was taken on the hottest day

Made it to the border!

Hottest temperature:     100 degrees

Longest day (miles):      80 miles

Total elevation gain:      31,784 feet

Total mileage:                688 miles

Have you ever been to Washington state? If so, what is your favorite place/thing to do there? Are there any fun bike paths or rail trails where you live? What did you do for your vacation this year? 

North Bay Overnighter: My First Bikepacking Trip

You have already met Bob, and you know that I have not really had a lot of experience with mountain biking, but that did not keep me from deciding to try bikepacking out as soon as the bomb cyclone had passed and we had a sunny weekend. I figured why not, since I already have a lot of backpacking and camping gear, so all that I needed was something to put the gear in and attach it to my bike and I would be good to go. I figured I could learn the rest as I went.

Bolinas Ridge Trail

What is bikepacking? It is basically the same as backpacking except instead of carrying all of your stuff on your back, you carry it on your bike. Your stuff includes a tent (unless you are going to cowboy camp, aka lay out your bedroll under the stars) and sleeping gear at the very least and can include a stove, pots, food, bike tools, extra clothes, electronics and toiletries. So, like I said, pretty much like backpacking. Usually the route consists of more trails than pavement, also like backpacking, but can be on highways, gravel roads, bike paths, logging roads, forest service roads or fire roads. 

Here is Bob, all loaded up and ready for adventure!

How did I find out about this? I have no friends who do this. To be honest, and I am a little embarrassed to admit this, I found it on YouTube. I was looking for ideas for summer hiking/backpacking and I stumbled across this channel where two regular people completed part of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) and I thought, "I want to do that!" and I started looking into it. I found a great local route that I could get to without driving and off I went. Of course, before this, I went pretty deep into a YouTube wormhole. You know how that goes. 

The route that I found can be found on Bikepacking.com and is called the North Bay Overnighter. It is an 80 mile route that goes from the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB) through the Marin headlands to Samuel P. Taylor park near Point Reyes and back a different way to the GGB to finish the loop the second day. These are mostly trails that I have run on before, so I felt pretty comfortable with the route-finding aspect of the trip although this also meant that I knew exactly what I was up against in some cases, which was a little bit daunting! 

Day 1: The official route starts and ends at the Anderson parking lot on the Marin side of the GGB. However, since I live in Oakland, I decided to get there by bike rather than driving. I started off by riding my bike from my house to the BART, which I took to the Civic Center station in the city. It was pretty early in the morning and the only people on the street besides me were the homeless, the druggies and the prostitutes. This is not the most beautiful part of the city, let me just say that. From the Civic Center, I rode down to Fort Mason and then went past Chrissy Field to the end of the GGB. I crossed the bridge in the fog and wet and finally got to the official start around 8:00 am with about 9 miles under my belt already. 

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from the headlands

From there, the route goes up the road to the Coastal trail, and the sun was just starting to break up the fog and I had some really nice views of the bay. I then cruised down the Coastal trail, which is a very gradual downhill, although there were a few rutted areas that made me realize that I had no idea if was best to ride in the rut or try to stay on one of the side lumps, and at one point I heard another bike behind me and I was not sure if I should pull over or get off to the side or...what the rules were! The route goes down, crosses the road and then heads back up Bobcat, which is really just one big mile and a half long uphill and is a trail I have run many times, but have never been able to run the entire uphill without walking a little. However, I rode the bike without stopping the entire time and I was so proud of myself that I stopped at the top for a snack before heading down towards Tennessee Valley. 

From Tennessee Valley parking lot, the trail goes back up the Miwok trail, which was my first experience with the hike-a-bike! Also by now it was actually getting warmer and I shed yet another layer on my way up this hill. After the uphill, Miwok is a nice gradual downhill that crosses highway 1 before going back up towards Dias ridge. Dias was my first true single-track and I had "fun" learning how to manage the hairpin downhill turns, although I did  have one slow speed fall in this section. Side note: the completely packed bike is probably about 50 pounds, which is hard to control on the curves! You live and you learn, I guess. 

Dias Ridge Trail

After going down Dias you get to Muir Beach and this is where I had to break out the GPS. The trail was hard to find, as the route takes you basically up the side of a hill in what looks like someone's backyard, but I think it is just an attempt to not make you ride on the road for that section. However, it is a little strange, as you come out at the top on the road, which you then have to ride on for about a mile and a half before you go back onto the trail again. I was a little afraid of the road as I have driven on it and seen cyclists and it seems a bit scary (it is a windy coastal road) but people were polite and the traffic was still not yet too bad. 

Getting off the road and back on the trail toward Cardiac/Pantoll

The trail takes you to Cardiac and you cross the Dipsea before heading to Pantoll, which is a parking lot, bathroom, water fountain and camping area. Apparently there is hike in/bike in camping here but I was only about 21 miles into the official 40 that I was supposed to do this day, so I kept going. From Pantoll, you ride on the road uphill for about 2 miles; again, this was with cars, but there were also a lot of bikes and the cars were pretty polite. Then came one of my favorite parts of the ride: Ridgecrest Blvd. This road was mostly downhill and is very flowy, with barely any cars AND a view of the ocean for days, and then you go into a redwood forest and it's dark and moist and magical. It is super cool! It was so SO fun. 

Ridgecrest Drive

After four miles, you turn off on the Bolinas Ridge trail, which is dirt but doesn't have too many steep ups or downs and goes on for several miles. However, the very end, when you are headed down toward the turnoff to the camping, is a lot of bumpy downhill, which was quite jarring at times. When you get almost to Point Reyes, you turn off and go to Samuel P. Taylor park, where there is a hike in/bike in campground and for $7 you can put up your tent! I got there around 5 pm, put up my tent, made dinner and then spent a wonderful few hours listening to my audiobook before heading to bed. I did this trip in January and I was the only person in the shared campsite! 

Bolinas Ridge Trail

Samuel P. Taylor hiker/biker camping

Day 2: The next morning I got up early, realized I was out of fuel, drank a cup of cold coffee, strapped on my headlamp and hit the road. Well actually it was a nice flattish paved trail at first, but very soon afterward, I went straight uphill into the fire roads again. Seriously, my first 2 miles were flat, then the next 8 miles were about 3,000+ feet of climbing. Again, I embraced the suck of the hike-a-bike, but I spent a long time wondering when the joy of the downhill was going to come. When the downhill finally came thought, at first it was not very joyful. It was very rocky and rutted and I actually had to push my bike on some of the downhills! 

View from the top of the hike-a-bike near Kent Reservoir

When I got back to the Bolinas Fairfax road, I decided that instead of going into Fairfax and then back up the hill to Tam and then down again to Tennessee valley and then up again to the start line where I would then have to cross the bridge and ride the BART, I would rather skip the extra hills and the public transportation and head back home via the Richmond bridge. So I went through Natalie Coffin park into Ross and from there I took a series of bike paths into Larkspur, where I rode out onto the Richmond Bridge. Once I got to Point Richmond, there was only about a mile of street riding before I got onto the bike path along the bay. A lot of this part of the route was on the San Francisco Bay Trail, which is a trail that goes all the way around the Bay Area. Some of it is on an actual dirt trail and parts of it are on roads and bike paths, but all together I believe there are over 500 miles! 

Larkspur bike path

View of the city from Richmond (SF Bay Trail)

Once I got to Emeryville, I had to go back onto the streets to get to Oakland, but I have to say most of them have pretty good bike paths, so it was not too intimidating. However, I was definitely ready to be done and I even briefly considered taking the BART although by this point it would not have saved me any time or even very many miles! To add insult to injury I let Google maps tell me which way to go and it took me right up a hill that I normally try to avoid (MacArthur Ave.) However, avoiding it would have added a mile probably, so maybe in this case it was really half a dozen of one and six of the other. It sure was nice to get back home though and I celebrated by taking off my bike shorts and walking around without pants for a few minutes before making myself something hot to eat. (TMI? Too bad!) 

Thoughts/What I Learned: Sometimes riding on the road can be fun. I need to bring more food next time. I am stronger than I think I am. When riding down hills, lift your butt off the seat unless you want to be sore later. Samuel P. Taylor is very beautiful. Pushing a 50 pound bike up a hill makes my arms feel like noodles. It also makes me VERY hungry. I probably need different shorts (I am wearing hiking shorts over bike shorts). A screw top water bottle is a lot of work (will bring squeeze bottle or hydration bladder on next trip). 

Comments: Bikepacking.com says that this route in 99.9% rideable with a difficulty of 4/10. I would agree with the latter, as is it mostly fire roads and there are not too many rocks or things to avoid, so even a beginner like me can do it. However, 99.9% rideable is perhaps a stretch as I don't know who can ride up the 14% - 20% grade at the beginning of day two. Maybe I am just out of shape, I don't know, but 99.9% would mean that less than a tenth of a mile is not rideable out of the entire 80 miles. 

Total Miles: 98.3

Total Elevation: 11,300 ft.

Total Time: 15 hours

CalTopo Route

Download the Ride With GPS GPX file here. I get ideas and inspiration from: Bikepacking.com, Ryan, Chris and his buddy Rob, John and Mira. 

Have you ever gone bikepacking? Tell me about a YouTube or internet wormhole you have found yourself deep in, and how did it turn out?