It's been too long since I last road... well only a month, but still too long. Today I joined a ride out of Sausalito/Marin City. I actual did the route end of November, which made it nice because I already knew where I was going. There were quite a few interesting things that occurred today, and I'll get into them in more detail in a little.
So, lets start at the beginning. I got my gear together and headed over to where the group was gathering. Despite the fact that I didn't know anyone there, I quickly joined the conversation. I love how friendly the ALC community is. I think that no matter what the situation is, when you walk into a group of ALC'ers you will always be welcomed like an old friend. So after a little chatting, we got things moving along. Our stretching was lead by a guy named Reilly (thats his first name). We did more yoga-esq stretching, which just reminded me of how much i miss doing yoga. Next we went over the route for the day and then on to the safety speech. I got the honor of reading the safety speech today. I did miss the usual comment after the "Alert others to potential hazards". Someone in the SBB always yells "SQUIRREL!" As dumb as that may be, I love it. Oh, well.
On to the ride. Here is the screenshot from Strava. As you can see, it was a 28.3 mile ride with only 1,799 ft of climbing (according to Garmin, it was only 1,329 ft of elevation gain, but whatever). I averaged 12 mph with a max speed of 36 mph. Oh and thats right, 38 trophies! Woot woot! (Good old digital trophies, that don't mean poop)
We headed out on the bike path like usual and then started our climb up Camino Alto. Having done Camino Alto twice before, i knew what to expect. I was slowly chugging along up the hill and almost at the crest, when I heard a car behind me start honking their horn angrily. I didn't understand what was going on because I wasn't doing anything wrong and I was riding as far to the right as I could. I quickly realized what was happening when another cyclist came into my peripheral view. The car had gotten angry at the cyclist because they must have started to pass me and didn't look behind them to see the car coming. As they were both beside me I could her the driver yelling at the other cyclist. Thankfully I didn't get startled by the situation and kept my line straight. I was just glad that no one got hurt because of this.
The downhill on Corte Madera is always fun. The road is nice and paved and makes for a smooth descent. This is where I hit my max speed for the day.
When I was on the path heading toward Larkspur Landing i stopped to take a couple photos. It was gorgeous out. I wish it was like this last Saturday when my mom was out here on a visit.
I also got a couple of shots of some ferries at the Larkspur Landing Ferry Terminal. One of these days my husband and I want to take a ferry over to SF.
Next I cut through some parking lots to get over to the Cal Park tunnel to head into downtown San Rafael. I like this little tunnel, its so nice inside. My garmin lost signal in there, but it really didn't matter too much.
I noticed on the tunnel that they added the new date (2010) under the old tunnel date (1924). The picture is a bit blurry, but you can kind of see what I am talking about.
We made our way over to the Northgate Mall, just north of downtown San Rafael. I got some lunch at Panera and talked with another rider. Its always nice to meet new people and get an understanding of why they are doing ALC.
The route pretty much was an out and back, so the rest of the ride was the same as the first half, just in reverse.
*UPDATE* (I dont know how I forgot about this...) when I got to the end of the bike path in San Rafael I had to make a right turn onto Mission. I got my bike down off the sidewalk and waited till the road was clear before taking off into the road. Since I was sitting near an intersection, I patiently waited for any cars that were at the light behind me turning onto Mission. This guy turns the corner and decides to flip me the bird. I dont know why hewas angry at me. Oh well, I just laughed it off.
The last interesting thing that happened was in the last five miles. We (another ALC rider and myself) had just finished the descent down Camino Alto and had turned onto Blithedale Avenue. Not long after the turn, we get onto the sidewalk to get back to the bike path. There was another cyclist in front of us who wiped out when he pulled up onto the sidewalk. I think that he didn't approach the little ramp up at the right angle. He became wobbly and ended up perpendicular to the sidewalk, hit a curb and went down. We stopped to make sure that he was ok. He was fine, other than he had hit his shin. I gave him some ibuprofen and we were on our way. He was thankful that we stopped to make sure he was ok and said that he hoped he would be able to return the favor to another cyclist in the future. Pay it forward! I always make sure that others are ok when something happens or they look lost. I know too well that its nice to know that someone cares enough to help you when you have an issue, even if its something you can handle like changing a flat. So, Pay it Forward people! Help a cyclist out! You may just need help some day and having good karma is never a bad thing.
Once I got back to the car and got my bike put away, I showed off my bike chain ornaments. I managed to sell two more. Appreciated the additional donations! Now I need to actually donate the money to ALC. There is actually an incentive going right now. I'll probably write about it later if I can get the item.
