Met up with JimG on the first day of July.
He and Carlos had been putting together a 60 mile mixed route from SF
through the GGNRA Headlands and Mt Tam trails. I rode down and crossed
paths with him near the stables in Tennesee Valley, and we rode a good
chunk of the route together. It had been a while since I’d ridden some
of the trails, and found that my memory had definitely edited out the
steep bits of Coastal Trail as it climbed out of the Tennesee Valley
toward Muir Beach. Those crunchy bits are just my knees….
But, we fell into a good cadence and had a good time.
For
most of the ride, we’d been encased in a reasonably heavy coastal
fog. As we climbed up of Deer Park Fire Road from Muir
Woods NM, we broke into bright sunlight, with a nice breeze still
blowing over us. The photo here is of our bicycles recovering from the
2.2 mile climb. They don’t seem too tired in the photos, but
assure you, they felt the effort. JimG had ridden his Cannondale mtb,
to give an A/B comparison on the route against the Fuji Cross he had just built up. I rode the Poprad CX
and periodically reassessed the the whole double chainring setup
idea… JimG said that he was impressed, but honestly, it was just same
pain with a different cadence.
W
hile we were near the top, I made JimG point at something - and he kindly obliged. Now, if you want to see a good selection of photos from the ride, I’d encourage you to head over to JimG’s Flickr selection
- he carries a Pencam which is pretty slick - leading to action shots
and a much more copious array of images. Me - I’m borrowing my wife’s
nice compact camera which I keep wrapped up in the backpack, so it only
wanders out infrequently.
It was a beautiful day to ride - enough heat to keep things comfy, but
not overwhelming. We covered a number of Mt Tam trails which I
hadn’t ridden in some time, and it was a good reminder of the varied
types of riding which are so easily at hand. After we dropped down to
Fairfax, we rolled over the roadways for a while and then I peeled off
as he headed back towards the city. Managed a shower and some
food before I passed out on the couch for a while.
The next day I took the Quickbeam out for a bit, just to spin the legs
again. Stayed away from anything looking terribly hilly, and tried to
flush some life back into the legs. Felt pretty spent from the efforts,
and was content just to work on the cymbidiums on Monday.
From JimG’s Flickr stream - Click one to see the whole bunch
July 7th, 2006 at 11:53 am man, I look like a scrawny dork in my orange jersey in that photo! ;)
July 7th, 2006 at 11:01 pm Now, now… that just ain’t the case. Wait’ll I get my PenCam so I can take those fancy action photos like you have on your Flickr stream…