Training ride 7/22: Ride around the peninsula/south bay

I met my friend Debra very early for this ride.  We don't live very close to each other and trying to find a place to ride that is a reasonable distance for us to both travel to is sometime challenging in the summer.  To beat the gnarly Bay Area commute traffic we agreed to get up and at them early, a task more challenging for me than her.  I am not a morning person.  Debra and I met at the arthritis training group rides in 2013 when we were both getting ready for the SF to LA ride.  

We were pretty successful in not getting stuck in traffic.  We met at Canada Drive and Edgewood Road in Woodside. From there we went down Canada to get to King's Mountain Road.  We went up King's Mountain.  It was nice to be on the road on a weekday with very little traffic.  Despite starting up it at about 7:30 in the morning, it was a hot and sweaty climb the while 5 miles up to Skyline Blvd.

At the top, I noticed that Skyline was some kind of weather dividing line.  Warm and sunny on one side and fog coming up the other.  We crossed it, had a brief pause to put on arm warmers, and then we went down hill. The name changes to Tunitas Creek Road on the other side of Skyline. I've always been up Tunitas Creek, never down, and have wondered what it would be like to go the other way.  Now I know.  While it was grey and cold on the way down, it was also a really fun ride.  It was 3 miles of swoopy road with almost no traffic of any kind to the Bike Hut where we regrouped. 

Chickens across from the Bike Hut.  I have never noticed them before.

My fingers were very cold at end at that point, so it was good to stop for a few minutes.  After the break, we continued to the end of the road and then went about 1.5 miles on highway 1 to Stage Road.  We turned down Stage to the town of San Gregorio and then headed up highway 84 (La Honda Road). 

We continued on La Honda until veering right on to Old La Honda Road.  I've always been down this part of Old La Honda, never up. I envisioned it being a really tough climb because of how fast you can go down, but it was only moderate, had great scenery, and no car traffic at all.  It was a treat.  

At Skyline, we turned down toward Alice's Restaurant to reconnect to highway 84, which we took to Portola Valley. In Portola Valley we stopped for lunch at Robert's Market.  From there we took Atrascadero to Foothill Expressway.  While we were pedaling toward Sand Hill Road, we noticed a tandem bike on the other side of the road that looked familiar.  It turned out to be friends of ours, Bill and Gail.  They were on their way home from a week and a half trip down northern California on their tandem.  What a coincidence to be in the same place at the same time!  They were riding all the way to their house with about another 20 miles to go, but had their sights set on a ice cream before getting there.

After seeing Bill and Gail, we continued and then went up Sand Hill Road. Sand Hill has mild climbing and a wide shoulder, which is great until you come to the part with all the freeway exits and entrances.  It can get pretty tricky in that segment.  Once past that, it is pretty much down hill all the way to Manzanita, then Mountain Home, and a return to Canada.

All that by 2:15 pm!

Time to load up to beat the traffic back home.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite beat it on 880 and 80, but it could have been worse.

Stats:
61.61 miles
5,476 feet of elevation gain (Debra loves to climb)