Who knew?!

Ok, probably a lot of people knew, but I sure didn't: the countryside around Davis is amazingly lovely. Road 95A rocks! (Not to mention it looks a lot like southern France. Which admittedly I am only slightly familiar with, but the parts I saw were while riding a bike.) All these country lanes through groves of trees and following streams... little bridges... Ok, I didn't see this much graffiti in France - but it looked cool in person. Plus, Pleasant Valley and Green Valley roads really were pleasant and green. (And flat-ish.)

I also managed, finally, to take some pics using my tripod & timer - yet another technical challenge met.

Oh: I also rode my personal record distance today! 95 miles, Davis to Orinda. Now I feel like I actually can do this tour thing... (assuming I can climb on the bike again tomorrow).

More bridges between Davis & here...

Railroad Ave. (Winters), the Zampa Bridge (Carquinez Strait) and along Pinole Valley Rd.

One month til launch...!

On June 19th I'm meeting up with the group I'll be riding with from Everett, WA to Jackson, WY. I'm heading up to Seattle on Friday, June 18th - so, there's just less than a month til lift-off. There's a lot of logistical stuff to manage between now & then - but I find myself caring less about Everything being perfect, and just sort of want to be on my bike. Getting ready that way...

I'm already having a blast discovering a bunch of country roads in the East Bay that connect to bike trails I only sort of paid attention to before. It's really beautiful around Mt Diablo these days... and the Iron Horse Trail rocks, especially the way it connects to canal trails around there. Yay for bikes on BART (and former railroad right-of-ways that have been converted to pedestrian & bike trails).

I've been scolded about having pictures of my bike on here, without me in them, so I am trying to be better about that. But, sorry, not quite yet. This picture is from an outhouse-stop at the top of Morgan Territory Road - and my bike's not even in it! (My battery died after three shots of the hills, oh well.)

I never even heard of Morgan Territory Road before I started looking for long, loopy Sunday rides. It's on the eastern slope of Mt Diablo, between Clayton (which has an excellent old-time city park in its historic center) and Livermore. Really... really pretty, one-lane road, and there's hardly any traffic at all. Horses, grass, birds & flowers, mostly... and a few people on bikes.

I guess I'm really doing this

So, I've figured out most of the route, ordered the maps I need from various websites & bookstores, acquired important gear (including new socks!) and got the official training chart from the folks leading the group I'm riding with from Seattle to Jackson, WY. I worried about that chart for a while last night, until I decided that most of the other people in the group probably aren't riding 4-6 hours a day three days a week, either.

But I am doing *some* training, besides my everyday commuting and bigger Sunday rides... Including a three-day excursion out to Pt Reyes National Seashore. Sunday I'm taking the ferry to Larkspur and riding out to base camp in Pt Reyes; Monday riding out to the Lighthouse & Chimney Rock - to see all those wildflowers, besides getting in some miles; and riding back to the ferry on Tuesday. It's 40-50 miles a day, three in a row, which should help.

Not to mention it's the only week I can take off a couple of days of work to do this kind of trip, and amazingly the weather is fantastic! Though it's going to be really chilly at night, I've got the cozy stuff to handle it. Not to mention a great library book to bring along.

Besides getting in a bunch of miles and enjoying the flowers & green hills of spring, this is a big test of some new gear & gadgets and how the bike handles "fully loaded." I'm bringing a bunch more stuff than I really need, mostly to test how it will feels with the amount of stuff I will need to haul around this summer - or else decide to live without. Biggest question for this trip is: bring the pillow...? I think I will.

This will also be a chance to test the nifty "gorilla" tripod for my digital camera, so I can take pictures w/me in them. (This may or may not be a good idea, but it should be fun to play with.)