Tag: Peninsula

Nice morning to bike 40 miles to work:

Yesterday a friend organized a ride from San Mateo to San Gregario (via Kings Mountain road, which I’d never biked), through La Honda (past Alice’s Restaurant), and back up Tunitas Creek (which I’d been on once before). And just for the heck of it, I decided to add on an early morning ride from San Francisco to San Mateo rather than take the Caltrain down. The forecast for 40% chance of afternoon rain fell our way– just 10 minutes of freezing rain and misery on our way into Woodside on Skyline, but otherwise clear, sunny, and cool– great biking weather. ...

Kings Mountain

Got up at 5:30 to go on a 42-mile bike ride before work (as posted on all the social media…). Refreshing!

Four of us biked a loop from Menlo Park to Pescadero, mostly on low-traffic back roads, through redwood and eucalyptus groves. The 63 miles and 7000’ of elevation gain (most of it in two major hills) made it a bit of a challenge as well. ...

As planned, the ride from Menlo Park to the ocean (Pescadero) and back is on, this Sunday. The route is 62 miles with long hills (for example, Old La Honda is about 3 miles of 6-7% grade)– consider it “very challenging” compared to our usual rides, and plan on taking the whole day. Bring water, snacks, spare tube/patch kit, layers (it can get cold), and lights (just in case we’re out late). ...

Wind Harp (south SF, impromptu 17-mile ride with friend)

For variety, on Saturday I joined some people I know who were going on one of the AIDS LifeCycle training rides in the South Bay– a 46-mile loop, taking us from Mountain View (near the Caltrain station) through Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos, and some towns I’d never heard of (Monte Sereno). It was a good workout and way to spend a chunk of the day, with one significant hill and a lot of fairly straight rolling-hill sections where you could get momentum going (while nominally a 10-12mph pace, the pack I was riding with made some solid 20-25mph pulls on the long flat stretches and the road flew by). However, the scenery was nothing special– lots of suburbs, strip malls, cars, and Starbucks. Given that and how slow Caltrain is, I’ll probably stick with mostly SF/Marin/East Bay rides in the future, or try some of the more woodsy (and hilly) peninsula rides.

Well, that was a great weekend. A group of 10 of us biked from SF to Montara (on the coast, between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, about 30 miles), stayed overnight in the Montara Lighthouse Hostel ($28/night, includes linens, fully booked most Saturday nights months ahead of time but the web site availability is often incorrect– you can call them directly to make reservations, and should if you’re going with a group), and biked back the next day. ...

10 of us rode from San Francisco to Montara this weekend, stayed the night in the Montara Lighthouse youth hostel, then rode back. I’ll post a full map and photos later (edit: Ok, the SF->Montara ride has been posted) – to start, I’m just posting photos of Old San Pedro Mountain Road, our detour inland from Highway 1. From Short Bike Rides San Francisco (where I read about this route) “San Pedro Mountain Road is the old alignment of Highway 1 before Devil’s Slide was built.” It’s now closed to cars and overgrown, a mix of pavement, broken pavement, dirt, and light mud (still doable without a mountain bike, though). Some people in the biking community call it “Planet of the Apes Road”– not that it’s *that* decrepit, but once you know it used to be a road for cars, you can imagine you’ve come across a collapsed civilization. ...