Way to end the year

Last January I didn't start out with any riding goals for the year, but along the way these ideas (and obsessions) just sort of came to me...  and the miles just kind of added up.


After about 28 years of riding my bike in San Francisco, sometime in February I developed the sudden urge to finally ride to the top of Mt. Tam.

And then down the back (northwest) side.  It took weeks to work my way up & over, going a little further every Sunday, getting used to the climbs and figuring out how to pace myself...





Then of course I had to ride to the top of Mt. Diablo (when it wasn't 98 degrees out, which it often is over there on summer afternoons)...

During the spring I got addicted to camping in the hiker-biker site in Samuel P Taylor State Park (only $5/night! And shared with other people on bikes - on July 4th there were 10 of us!).  I went there three or four different times - besides being crazy beautiful, full of redwoods, it's easy to get to and a great base camp for rides to Pt Reyes, and along country roads all around western Marin.

Somewhere in there I realized I actually could ride my bike to Yosemite Valley, a fantasy I'd had for a long time.  I started exploring route ideas (online, and on the actual road) - which took me on a trial run to Tracy and crossing Altamont Pass, on the old road.

I actually got reservations to stay in Yosemite Valley on Labor Day, so a few days before that I headed out.   The first couple of days were great - I took BART to the end of the line in Dublin, got on the Iron Horse Trail - an old railroad right-of-way that links up with other bike paths &
routes from Concord all the way to Livermore - and then headed east, over the Altamont Pass and then through the agricultural belt. The small county roads I followed were often literally in the middle of fields and orchards.

On the third day I hit the stretch of near-desert that's like a trench between the coast and the sierra - it was hot, dry, desolate, and
 naturally that's the day I got three flat tires...  It was so dusty my tire pump got clogged and wouldn't work.  I was REALLY LUCKY that a couple of people came by on their fancy road bikes (seriously, it was the middle of nowhere, Sunday, the day before Labor Day...) and gave me a CO2 cartridge - it's a burst of air that fills your tube to near capacity.  That got me to a campground, where I could focus on fixing the tire and recover from the hassles of the day...

And finally on Labor Day itself I arrived in Yosemite Valley, just as the crowds were mostly heading home.

I spent the rest of that day setting up camp and riding around the Valley - which was really fantastic. Besides a great, free shuttle system, there are miles of off-road, paved bike paths connecting the campgrounds, trailheads, and services (like the grocery store, visitors center - and hot showers!).

The next day I got in a long hike before the heat & crowds took over, and then took a bus ride up to Glacier Point.  From there you can see amazing views of Yosemite Valley and many of the major peaks across the park - it's exciting to locate all the peaks on a map, but it's also one of my favorite places on the planet, in a serious way.  When I'm up there I feel both wildly exhilarated and energized, but also humbled and grateful to be alive.  It was doubly all of that to know I'd gotten there on my own two wheels, to have the time, good health, and ability to do that.

Then I headed back to San Francisco - by public transit!   The Yosemite Area Rapid Transit System (YARTS) takes you to Merced, where you can catch Amtrak's San Joaquin train to Oakland; then I jumped on BART into San Francisco.

I'd been nervous about how all that would work, and whether I'd make all those connections OK.  In fact, it was such a great, fun experience that I decided to go back to Yosemite on the train again as soon as I could.

So in late October, inspired by the thought of autumn in the mountains, and with Camilo at UW in Seattle, the reality that I could do whatever I wanted on the weekend, I headed back.

This time I took my city bike along to carry all my stuff - sort of like a luggage cart - going by train & bus all the way there & back.

It was a blast!  I loved taking my new city bike on its first big adventure (besides taking me to work and bringing home groceries).   I got a great campsite right by a meadow, with views of the fresh dusting of snow on the flanks of Half Dome (and frost on the bike paths in the morning!).

I also loved being in Yosemite in October - that's about to become my new fall tradition.

Somewhere around that time I also realized it just might be possible to turn my odometer over at 10,000 miles!   (That's over the life of the gadget, which is going on three years - not just this year!)   Right around Thanksgiving that became a race against time,  since the battery had already outlived its projected lifespan, and replacing it would zero it out- not to mention the relentlessly rainy weather.
But this morning - the second-to-last day of 2012 - I did it!!

Now I find myself imaging the other places I want to ride my bike - starting the odometer over with the new year.  Like, the third big peak of the SF Bay Area:  Mt Hamilton, near San Jose, which is also has an observatory on it.   And, riding to the northern part of Yosemite, to Tuolumne Meadows (a whole different route).   And, to be really ambitious (maybe 2014...) I really do think it would be fun to ride home after visiting Camilo in Seattle...