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Sep 25: Little wheels prepare to climb out of the mist into Marin County: Ben Piper, Chris Bell, Moi, Dan Kaljian
COMPLETE HANDSOMEST MAN IN CUBA USA TOUR CHRONICLES
SUN Sep 26, 2004: MT TAMALPAIS & THE PORTOLA VALLEY
OH MY GAHD. Just spent an incredible couple of days riding what must be some of the best of the Bay with some great folks on little wheels.
Saturday, five of us met in the mist of the Golden Gate Toll Booth parking lot: Dan Kaljian (Air Friday), John Chamberlain (Dahon, Air Glide, Litespeed ...), Chris Bell (New World Tourist), Ben Piper (ditto) and yours truly (Crusoe).
Destination: Marin, Mill Valley, and then Mt Tamalpais, a 2,500+ foot climb well known to the locals, but new to all except Dan, who knows large chunks of the Bay area like the back of his handlebars.
I've cycled Marin a couple of times on previous Bike Friday visits - the really steep descent over the back appeared a lot flatter with the fog obscuring the expanse of ocean far below - interesting trick of the eye. I doubt I'll return someday to find the hillsides of Marin cul-de-sacked, three-gar-garaged and gated-communitied ... but you never know.
We stopped at the Depot Cafe in Mill Valley where people with nice cars and centerfold pooches relax and nibble spinach, feta and toasted walnut cranberry salad - which seems to be the salad-of-the-moment in many eateries as far as I can tell.
While I went to buy sunscreen there was a stylish skirmish at a pedestrian crossing involving a woman in a BMW and an irate pedestrian who claimed she tried to run him over.
'I've lived here for 24 years, and you just tried to run me over with your car!' he yelled crossing his arms and standing his ground and refusing to let her continue. Sheesh-sheesh. No level of surburban sublimity stops people from being people.
The climb up Mt Tamalpais (2500+ feet) took us a good couple of hours, with opportunities to give up and head back at various points - but we pressed on - Dan hadn't been up there for 25 years.
It is hard to describe the feeling of elation on reaching any summit under your own physical steam, a feeling lost on those who whizzed past behind tinted windows, I'm sure. OK, maybe I'll take a blast in an open-top VW Cabriolet as a close second. The sweeping aerial views at the top were heightened by my tired calves, like a panoramic movie with a soundtrack in Sensesurround (a feature downunder where they wired movie theater chairs to shake at dramatic moments).
All the time I felt reassured that this was perfect prep for my PACTour Highest Paved Road in the World (16,000 feet) trip coming up Oct 22 ... erm ...
For the descent we took the excellent gravel route - a gentle pebbly descent all the way. Several mountain bikes bunny-hopped past but on our skinny tires we took it easy. As Tim Cowles of Brattleboro said, 'people don't realize just how versatile roadbikes are.'
You can even stay at a neat rustic place on the trail called the West Point Inn. Some au natural dream houses are tucked against the side of the mountain along the trail - one had a box on the fence marked 'Bike Repair Kit' and 'First Aid Kit'. How kind. Now I know why biking is so big here, and why mountain biking was born in Marin. How great to live in SF, knowing that you can easily bike to this spectacular location without getting in a car, in pretty perfect weather.
As the darkness fell like an axe we missed the ferry, so simply biked back over the bridge and into SF in the warm night air. Dan's endless patience delivered us safely and he rode off into the night. Total miles: 61.
Dan has many more routes to explore. Contact him for a probable spur-of-the-moment ride, as well as BF Club leader Diane Savard, via the BF Club SF webpage. Check out the photo gallery above!
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The Pub With No Beer is a famous Australian song. This was the store without food - touch, but don't eat. L to R: Dan, Mateo, Jeff, Larry, me.
Sunday, a small group met for the Portola Valley ride in Palo Alto: Larry Epstein (a double-bass-playing New World Tourist), Mateo, who was on a TREK but we won't hold that against him, Dan and I, plus Terry Folk (Air Friday) who caught us down the road.
After some semi-serious miles we made a beeline for ye olde Woodside store, mistakenly thinking it sold food as well as a worthy historical story, but no - the triple layer chocolate cake was a model, as were all the fruits and vegetables. It felt a little surreal to be standing in that store with an empty stomach!
The 30 miles drifted by in the form of delightful shady lanes and some fast highway pedaling, punctuated by a mandatory stop at the Woodside Deli, stocked with so many gourmet interpretations of the word 'lunch' I got full just looking at them.
Every time a big wheeled cyclist zipped by Dan leapt into high gear and chased them down on his 'toy bike'. At 65 he is in supreme physical shape and says he has finally found the perfect bike - his Air Friday.
So tomorrow ... I present to the Davis Cycle Club. This entails negotiating the BART and AMTRACK with the Bike Friday and trailer. Been there, done that!
Lynette aka www.galfromdownunder.com
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SAT SEP 26, 2004: LANDING IN SF
Dan no-he-can't-be-65 Kaljian with his 'perfect bike' above the clouds in San Francisco.
WELL, here I sit in the clouds in the apartment of Heather Marr, with a heavenly DSL connection so I can finally attempt to keep you more up to date with the shenanigans of the Galfromdownunder and the Handsomest Man in Cuba.
So far, I have managed to leave behind just the following:
My battery charger in the house of New World Tourist owner Camille Connolly in DC.
My Hind track suit pants between the sheets in the house of Anna Kleinfeldt, Bike Friday Club of Boston leader.
Not bad for a gal lugging a Bike Friday and trailer from Vermont to Virginia through the thick and thin of train stations, narrow doorways and extra wide SUV's, right?
At this precise moment I am ensconced in the apartment of Heather Marr, a gal who found my book shrink wrapped in a shack marked 'Barnes and Noble' somewhere in Nepal, and emailed me offering her own Cuban hospitality. Wonderful.
The last two days were spent in El Cerrito, where I gave a talk to 35 folks at the local library. Bike Friday owners who showed up included Patrick Wheeler, Ben Piper, Chris Bell, Derek Liecty (who thought I would not remember him from our April 2004 visit but I did - he is the one with the silver Bike Friday!), plus some others who I know are thinking about buying a Bike Friday, but didn't dare approach me lest I twist their arms out of their sockets. They need not worry. I am a customer evangelist only 95% of the time.
I stayed in the clifftop house of 4x Bike Friday owners Lee and Ivy Robinson, who of course run the increasingly popular Sutherlin Inn Memorial Weekend Ride every year, based out of their hotelito close to Eugene. Join!
My passage from El Cerrito to downtown SF was smooth and easy thanks to BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system that is one of the reasons to live in a city.
Heather's apartment is in a part of SF that sent visible shudders through everyone I asked directions of - but it simply reminds me of the colorful gritty neighborhoods of the Little Indias, Turkeys etc I have encountered in the grittier part of any city. OK, so there is a strip club over the road. But wonderful, cheap Turkish food. I have a giant stuffed pide in the fridge.
I am now about to take the Bike Friday several floors to street level to meet The Bike Friday Club of SF at the Toll Booth of the Golden Gate Bridge, for a Marin County ride organized by Dan Kaljian. Tomorrow we'll head to Palo Alto for a Portola Valley ride. All part of the job!
Oh, I just got an email from Bike Friday owner Carl Hemmings in Australia, who sent me this link about Yoanka Perez winning a track race in Melbourne. For those of you who have read my book, you will recognize Yoanka as the cyclist who I met in a truck, who took me to her Sports Institute, who rode alongside my loaded Bike Friday and said "I've never ridden this slow, I think I'm going to fall over sideways."
Lynette Chiang, lynchiang at yahoo dot com
COMPLETE HANDSOMEST MAN IN CUBA USA TOUR CHRONICLES
All words and images copyright 2004 Lynette Chiang
For more information, follow this link http://www.galfromdownunder.com/cuba.