Tag: Rough Stuff

I had to travel to Munich for a few days for work, right before the summer solstice, a weekend when Swift Industries cheers people on to go bike camping anywhere (#swiftcampout). So why not? I packed a single small pannier with only essential camping gear and stuffed it and a bivy sack in my suitcase with my work clothes and laptop. When the work week wrapped up, I asked the hotel to hold my suitcase for a day, rented a basic city bike with a rack, and set out into the woods… ...

The biking along Skyline and Shepherd Canyon were more challenging than usual after the storms: This was a smooth bike trail the last time I was here: Still great views:

Striking out solo on a Sunday to explore trails in the East Bay hills, from Nimitz Way -> Fire Trail #3 -> San Pablo Ridge Trail -> Belgum Trail -> Wildcat Creek Trail: ...

Roadblock (riding in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park). Reminds me of 5 years ago.

An all-afternoon ride from Fremont BART to the shoreline, under the Dumbarton bridge, then up along the water all the way to San Leandro– riding on levees stretching out into the Bay, past green-tinted salt evaporation ponds, pelicans, egrets, herons, vultures, and a red fox, through landscapes moon-subdued in palette but with occasional brilliant splashes of color, on paved paths and dirt… a great day. Riding into the fierce, relentless headwind slowed us down, and the occasional sections of bone-rattling gravel numbed the hands, but we all made it around the levees, on trails where we saw few other humans. ...

Biking it near, along, and in the shallow edge of Laguna Garzon.

Taking a “shortcut” back down on an unlabeled rutted path (4x speed). A bit gnarly, especially on our smooth-tired touring bikes… but no one wiped out.

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A gorgeous day. Taking a spin on the fat-tired Pugsley along dirt roads and trails in the Marin Headlands (my first time off-road there, remarkably). Amazing views, trails mostly in good condition, a few uphill grinds, and one slightly gnarly downhill on Old Springs (at least, for a beginner like me): ruts, loose gravel, a long set of shallow stairs to ride down, and a few narrow sections of trail lined on both sides with glistening poison oak (“please don’t fall now…”) ...

Five of us set off to ride dirt roads up to the top of Mt Tam, along the former route of the ‘Crookest Railroad in the World’. Starting with a little dirt warm-up on paths through the Presidio: New off-road dirt shortcut to the bridge, past old concrete batteries (involved some flights of stairs): Stop at the new Sol Food in Mill Valley (quite possibly my favorite place to eat on a ride) for a plantain-and-hot-sauce-heavy lunch: ...