Wednesday, March 28, 2012

I love biking.

This is a post about a bike trip I took recently. It is also going to be a plug for a little something I'm going to participate in called The AIDS/Lifecycle.

First Story:
Once upon a time, I bought a bike off of a lovely friend that I know through ultimate frisbee. Her name is Anna Nazarov. She sold me Fly--and Fly introduced me to the love of riding distances. Anna had two stipulations for my collection of her old bike: 1) The name Fly was to stick 2) I needed to complete the AIDS ride with Fly. The name Fly has certainly stuck, and now I'm committing to do this AIDS ride thing! It turns out, this is a HUGE commitment. I will be riding from SF to LA. What that means is that I will be BIKING 545 MILES in 7 days. WOOT! I will be completing this journey with two other people: Brianna and Kyle. Bri and I ride together quite a bit, and Kyle is new to us. She is a friend of Anna's who also has been wanting to do the AIDS ride. Together, we are The Cyclopaths. There will be more mentioning of this as well as (hopefully) more amazing bike trips like the one I had over the past couple of days.


Biking Story:

Out of necessity for training, Bri and I recently planned and executed a brief but packed biking trip. Based on a recommendation from a friend in Steamboat Springs, Kelly Johnson, I decided that Bri and I should go to Point Reyes since it wouldn't be too far and yet it would also be an opportunity to check out a cool CA foodie city that I had yet to visit! Thus, planning began. However, Bri and I had a big grad school presentation a few days before leaving, which put a dampener on planning. So, Sunday evening we were discussing things:
Jessica: "Bri, I know we have hammocks from Bryan, but where are we going to set them up? Do we have a campground in mind?"
Bri: "What? We have hammocks!"
Jessica: "Yes, but where are we going to set them up?"
Bri: "Between two trees...?"

That was never fully resolved, which leads me to the true adventure that Bri and I undertook this past Monday.

We left Monday around 1pm from Golden Gate Park. We rode to the bridge in about 15 mins, then it took us another 20 mins to cross the bridge as the weather was gorgeous, so we were dodging distracted onlookers. This was annoying but tolerable.
The ride through Sausalito was uneventful. We were taking the Sir Francis Drake route to Point Reyes. Somewhere when we were navigating through some neighborhoods we encountered a dead end of sorts: we had to walk our bikes through a muddy path. Both of us are stubborn enough to not ever make U-turns, and it was entertaining anyway--did I
mention how difficult it is to steer a bike that is back-weighted over uneven terrain? Bri and I considered videoing it, but then we lost interest because steering a bike while also videoing is even more impossible.

From there we made some more complex turns that finally led us to Sir Francis Drake, which was then more heavily trafficked than we were anticipating. In Fairfax, we had to stop for some food--as you can tell that Bri was starting to lose it from this photo.

Weirdest situation inside this cafe: they
were showing a TV program about very large and disgusting food items (largest hotdog, as big as 11 regular hotdogs together) that could be purchased across the US. Needless to say, it no longer felt like SF...because it wasn't, it was Fairfax.

When we packed up and left the cafe, we finally got into a serious stride where we got into some redwood forests that were completely gorgeous with slow rolling hills including some lengthy downhills that made us very grateful in our choice to take this route TO Point Reyes and to have Hwy 1 as our intended route back. Sigh of relief. It was in the midst of the woods that we also recognized the ability of our bikes--Fly and Balto--to become a Lean-To! How amazing! The weight is good for something. :)



It seems like shortly after that stop we were coming to a turn to choose to go towards a campground that

Bri had found. We followed the directions there and tried to figure out how to pay to stay the night there. No one was around. An older gentlemen in a truck pulled up, and he asked if we were lost. We explained our situation. He explained that all the campsites were 6 miles farther (3 miles of uphill) plus required a 2 mile hike-in. At that point, he dir
ected us to another campground with hot showers. So, we got back in the saddle to check it out. Again, there was no one present at this RV park (ew...no trees!). We scored some hot showers, and then decided food was necessary and sleeping would occur somehow, somewhere.

A wonderful meal occurred at Point Reyes Station Cafe: clam chowder, cauliflower chowder, salad, mac n cheese and homemade linguine all with local SF wit beer from Almanac!
We had to finish off the meal with a cappuccino in order to stay awake enough to find a sleeping location. In the end we were some of the last people there and we were sent away with a bag of pop-overs. Bri had a potential sleeping spot in mind: a nearby playground. We checked that out first. It was a VERY public space that raised every flag for me. I vetoed it. This is where the adventure truly started. Luckily, it was a gorgeous night: perfect temperature, no precipitation--yet. I strapped my headlamp on and we rode off into the night. We checked out different spots in the residential area where we were met with beady eyes and a dirt road. Bri then suggested checking out the church in town. We ventured there and found, much to our surprise and happiness, the perfect location. The church provided some coverage from the road and the street lights as well as a tree for me to string up my hammock and a soft bed of needles for Bri to make her bed on the ground under our tarp. Here is a hard to see photo of our situation. At the end of the day: we traveled roughly 41 miles in 3 hours and 28 mins averaging 12 mph with a max speed of 34 mph.

We set up camp at 10pm and got up and broke camp at 6am so as to not be seen in the light. It was very sneaky and highly adventuresome and we loved Every Minute. Though, in the night around 1am we both awoke to a drastic change in weather: the wind was so strong I was being swung in my hammock! By 4:30am it had begun to rain. At 6am when we got up, my sleeping bag had become decently wet. Our decision to rise at 6am had everything to do with the light AND the fact that a local bakery opened at 6:30am. Right around 6:30am we were packed and back on our bikes in full rain regalia.


Bovine Bakery was spectacular and offered warm coffee and warm, fresh croissants. AMAZING. This was a great start to our day especially since the first few pedals strokes were uphill, against a strong headwind and rain where both of us were off our saddles and pedaling hard and yet hardly moving. It was degrading. After 40 mins of hard work we had traveled 7 miles. Finally, the rain ceased to some degree. We finally had reached the more normal rolling hills of Hwy 1 and I hit my stride. I felt great, if wet and with frozen toes. We sailed along with Stinson Beach as a stopping point (in my mind, at least). However, before we made it there, I suddenly heard a yell behind me and turned to find Bri had clipped the edge of the pavement and wiped out. Though her Easter egg outfit was festive, the yellow pants offered no protection against the pavement--in fact, bits of yellow were spread across the pavement where she had made contact. She rolled on the ground for a few minutes before pulling it together. I knew we both needed food.

Within the next mile, we came upon Stinson Beach. We located a coffee shop and pulled in. We ended up staying for a while next to the fire--until our feet stopped aching from cold and returned to their usual pink color. I also changed into dry socks. Back on the road, it was an uphill start. For most of the rest of the trip we battled some pretty serious hills but also enjoyed some spectacular downhills (though these must be taken more cautiously when the roads are wet). There is a photo of one of our last stops overlooking the ocean. We were also stoked because we had just seen a view of SF.

From here we lost a little steam. Somewhere in the last big hill we also realized, to our dismay, that we were going to have to climb out of Sausalito. This fact hit Bri particularly hard, and the hill climb out of Sausalito up to the Golden Gate Bridge was not a shining moment. I mustered up the courage for that climb, but then I did not anticipate the awful trek across the bridge. It was raining again and the headwind was intense. Once across the bridge, I think we both felt that we should be home, but we weren't. We had 40 mins to make it to a destination in under 4 hours. I totally thought we could make it, but the city won the time war. Our final stats: 44 miles home in 4 hours and 19 mins averaging 10.2 mph this time with a max speed of 31 mph.

All in all: 85 miles, 7 hours and 47 mins of biking in 24 hours. Since we pushed off at 7:30am on Tuesday, we arrived back in the city around 12:30 making it to my house around 1:30 or so, which was when we met up on Monday. CRAZY. Bri was bonking (needing food) when we got to my house. I put her in the shower and went to get a huge burger. I came home and we split it. Then I showered. I took Bri and Balto home in a car. I came home and managed to read a few pages of my book before I passed out around 6:30pm. My roommate accidentally woke me up around 8pm, and I got up and got ready for bed. The next thing I knew, it was 8:45am. WHAT!? I have got to continue training.


It was such a fun trip, and I am stoked to do more training! But now, this is the part where I have to point out that in order to participate in the AIDS ride, I have to raise $3000. Please consider any amount to help fund my efforts to do extreme sporting events whilst raising money for a good cause! Here is my AIDS/Lifecycle page where you can donate! Just click on the box that says "Donate to support Jessica." Thank you!


1 comment:

Jimbo said...

I know it was an adventure and I know there were fun moments. But riding into strong head winds, up hill, in the rain?! Maybe it's because I'm over 50 now but that sounds really dreadful! Best of luck to you in surviving your TRAINING (!) and the event ride. Jimbo