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Riding in the evenings while the weather / light / job situation permit: Leaving work a little early Monday (today) to meet up at 5pm at the Presidio Sports Basement with a few people for a jaunt into Marin. Butter Lap on Wednesday (7pm at the Ferry Building, low-key loop around the city and then a beer, see more notes in previous posts). A few of us biked Paradise Loop yesterday afternoon, and it was a great day for it– sunny, warm, and fairly low-traffic so we could just zoom. We took the ferry back from Tiburon (and were considering stopping at Angel Island for a bike around it before catching the next ferry home, but that didn’t work out– next time?).

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It was a generally good day, and a fairly long one (I racked up 67 miles, though it was much less hilly than the Alpine Dam loop). Three of us went on the ride, which was a mix of the usual nice Presidio / Golden Gate / Sausalito ride, a lot of boring suburban and busy-streets riding up by Larkspur / San Rafael, and several few-mile sections of good views in China Camp, and on Irwin and Corte Madera (taking the less direct, more hilly, back streets route on the way back was worth it). Fun, but I didn’t like it as much as some other rides I’ve done. ...

I just recently heard about “Butter Lap”, a laid-back 17-mile ride every Wednesday evening, ending with a beer at Bender’s, Zeitgeist, or so on. I have other plans this Wednesday, but I plan to check it out in the next few weeks. It sounds like it kicks off from the Ferry Building at 7pm. Map: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/san+francisco/836271138504 Bike blog mentioning it: http://bikesandthecity.blogspot.com/2009/06/butter-june-it.html

After a few weekends out of town, I’m back to biking. This Sunday: the China Camp State Park loop in Marin (the road-bikeable route, not the many mountain bike routes). A little under 50 miles round trip from the Presidio Sports Basement. Details TBD (I have some maps to dig up– I’ve never done this route), but here are a few bikely maps for a high-level overview: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Sports-Basement-to-China-Camp http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/China-Camp-Loop http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/China-Camp-loop47402 http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Sausalito-China-Camp-Loop http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/China-Camp-Loop62624 http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/China-Camp-Loop30911 Optional extended 61-mile version including Paradise Loop: ...

Four of us went on a roughly 25-30 mile ride (depending where you started). Here’s an approximate map. It was a neat route I’d never taken from the Mission to Ocean Beach via Corbett (a low-traffic, modest-slope street between Market and 17th) and Taraval. We stopped at Trouble Coffee for the requisite excellent espresso (elbow grease blend) and cinnamon toast, then headed south to take a loop around Lake Merced (dragon boat racers were practicing in the fog), and returned via golden gate park and Page, with a stop for a bloody mary and a few beers at Zeitgeist. Another good day.

Post-ride, surprisingly-empty Zeitgeist (not shown: during-ride, surprisingly-packed Trouble Coffee)

Great Highway was closed to cars in places.

Giant Tire

The Alpine Dam Loop last weekend is my favorite ride in California to date– I highly recommend it. It was scenic enough to make me swear out loud in amazement on several occasions (a crystal clear day with views of SF and the Farallones didn’t hurt). It was also a moderately challenging 65 miles door to door, with a fair amount of climbing (about 4500’ ascent total) and fast twisty downhills. Here’s a route map based on CC’s GPS track. ...