Two Weeks to Go

9/2 Training ride: Cancelled due to excessive heat and poor air quality.  A heat advisory was called for the entire Bay Area through Saturday night.  Temperatures soared.  San Francisco had two consecutive days over 100 degrees!  I went to a spin class Saturday morning where the AC was on full blast and it was nice and cool.

9/4 Substitute training Ride:  Temperatures had come down to normal-warm.  Mary and I decided to do a 60 mile ride that would mostly hug the coast.  We left from Nicasio and headed over Platform Bridge and out to western Marin via Sir Francis Drake Blvd.  It was somewhat muggy and warm, but reasonable.  The further west we got, the cooler and winder it got.  We were headed for the lighthouse above Drake's Beach, but found the wind so difficult that we decided to stop where Sir Francis Drake goes off to the right (west) and Drake's Beach Road goes straight.  In addition to some strong headwinds, we were also experiencing a lot of cross winds, making it difficult to maintain a predictable line while riding, in turn making it difficult for the cars trying to go around us.  I had some concerns about this as well as being blown off the road.

The wind receded as we headed back, with a detour through Pt. Reyes Station.  On Pt. Reyes-Petaluma highway we started getting some random rain drops, which turned into full-on rain with big, fat drops on Nicasio Valley Road.  We had considered adding some miles from Nicasio on Lucas Valley Road to make up for the 10 we cut off by not going to the lighthouse, but with the rain, we decided not to.

As it turned out, the rain stopped not long after we left in the car.  Traffic-wise, it was probably better to have gotten on the road earlier than later as it would have been if we added the miles.  No pictures from this ride, but below is one from the last few weeks where I am wearing the same clothes ; )

It's me at Castro Ranch Rd and Alhambra Valley Rd.

9/6 mid-week evening training ride:  I hit my usual route earlier than previous weeks so that I could get home before dark.  Due to the elevated humidity, I thought it might be a pretty warm ride, but mostly it was quite pleasant.  Skies were grey, but otherwise it was a nice night to be out.  Traffic was a little heavier, especially on Happy Valley than I have been experiencing, but that was probably because I was out a half hour or more earlier and experiencing some commuter traffic. 

After all the heat we have had recently, I expected Orinda to be warmer than it was, but still nice.  I ran into someone from my bike club as I was waiting for the signal to turn from San Pablo Dam Rd. to Wildcat.  It is a large club with over 600 members, so I don't know many of the members, but he had the Grizzly Peak Cyclist jersey on.  We chatted about the weather for a minute and I was about to ask him if he was our new club president, whom I have only seen once, but didn't get the chance.  From his tan extremities and lack of any body fat, I suspected that he would be pretty fast up the hills and he sure was.  It didn't take long for him to be out of sight.

As in the past, as soon as I rounded the last bit of the climb before Inspiration Point, I could feel the cold air crank up and see heavy fog blowing in.  It is amazing how the weather changes right at that spot.  For a brief period it was hard to see due to the dense fog!  It was also condensing on the trees and then dropping on me like rain.  Fortunately, the heavy fog didn't last too long and I was well clear of it before the Brazilian Room.  The rest was literally all down hill from there.

9/9 Training ride:  Eleanor, Ray, and I met at the steam trains in Tilden Park.  It was a little foggy when I got started, but it got pea soup foggy by the time I got to the steam trains.  Thank goodness for the little light I always have on the back of my helmet for when I stumble into situations where I need to be seen and wasn't expecting it.  I am also thankful for the cars that had their headlights on.  There was times when I could barely make out cars in the opposing land.  I also have to wonder what was going on with those folks who didn't put their lights on.  The left turn off Grizzly Peak into the steam trains parking lot was a bit treacherous with such heavy fog.  Cars traveling the other direction were so hard to see that I could have turned right in front of one.

My estimate of how long it would take to ride from my house to the steam trains was off and I was running late, but not too bad.

We descended South Park Rd. and, although cold, we were out of the fog right away.  By Inspiration Point, the sun was starting to burn through.  We proceeded to San Pablo Dam Rd. and continued into Moraga.  Along the way, some strange guy tried to attach himself to our ride.  I don't mind inviting new people that I meet along the way to join a ride I am on, but I definitely don't like someone forcing their presence on me and getting in my "personal space."  I picked up my pace enough to drop him, but he was very persistent and when I got a couple of red lights and then slowed for a turn and to locate our re-group spot, he caught me.  Fortunately, when he saw that I was getting off my bike and sitting down at a cafe, he left, but he did follow me right up onto the sidewalk in front of the cafe.

We had a nice break at Si Si Cafe on School Street and from there could easily get on a bike path and then a dirt path that took us past the closure on Canyon Rd.  We continued on Canyon and then ascended the south side of Pinehurst, continuing on Redwood Rd. and then proceeding up to Skyline for another re-group.  I haven't been on those paths ever, so that was interesting to learn and haven't been up that side of Pinehurst in years, which was a nice change of pace. 

At Skyline, we each took a different route, depending on our distance and climbing goals for the day.  I continued on Skyline through Redwood Regional Park and beyond to Grizzly Peak and then home again.

I didn't take any pretty landscape photos or shots of us riders, but I did get a few shots of things seen along the way.  This one is a picture of heavy equipment at Skyline and Grizzly Peak in the exact spot where we had our bake sale a few weeks ago.

A "Berkeley Stands United Against Hate" sign in the window of a house in the hills.

 

Just a few blocks from my house, I stopped to consider this free couch.  I'm not handy so decided not to return for it.  It needed it's back leg(s) reattached and the hole was stripped already.