Day 1 Whupped by the Wind

June 7, 2009

Mountain View to San Leandro

Whooof. I'm beat. I'll put our bay breezes up against a Kansas headwind any day.

The day started off beautifully. MBW rode the ceremonial first 100 feet to the end of the cul de sac with me, then I was off under a nice overcast and cool temps - perfect riding weather.

Action shot of me starting off. Photo by MBW.

The route was a mix of bike lane and bike path for the first 12 miles. Hit my first hill - a 25 foot overpass - at mile 2, but I powered up and over it.

Anyone remember Netscape? They opened this beautiful corporate campus just as Microsoft's Internet Explorer was taking hold. Then it was an AOL campus. Now it's just another half a million square feet for lease. These types of parking lots make convenient shortcuts.

The worst part of the day, traffic-wise, was the very beginning, the first couple of miles from home. Cars can park in the bike lane on weekends, so I have to go in and out of the traffic lane. I take the whole lane, which forces people into the other travel lane, no? Otherwise they try to squeeze by in the same lane, which makes me nervous.

If anyone wants to know what it looks like at the bottom of San Francisco Bay, here it is. Used to be mostly marshland. Been diked and drained within an inch of its life. But a 50-year restoration effort is under way.

Multi-tasking: taking a photo of bike path that parallels Hwy 237 and talking to MBW on cell while poking myself in the eye.

My first good interaction with a fellow human was with Jerry the Geocacher. I was tootling along the Milpitas section of the Coyote Creek Trail where I stopped to take a photo of what's left of McCarthy Ranch (it's mostly grazed by shoppers now). He went off into the creek bed. I heard some banging around, then asked if he found the cache. He yelled back, "Yup." When he came back up to the bike path he was covered in fluff. The cottonwoods had been working overtime. I offered to brush him off, and he gave me his cap to beat him with. We then had a good conversation which of course ended up talking about the economy and the hard times, especially as it's getting worse in California. Then I asked if I could take his picture and explained what I was doing. He got very excited about the trip, and very willingly posed. That was gratifying. Other bike tourists always say to make an effort to talk to people, and they were right.

This is Jerry the Geocacher. He proudly posed with his GPS and cue sheets. This was after brushing off all the cotton from the cottonwoods in the creek he was thrashing through. He was successful in finding the cache.

Our first cupcake stop was at Prolific Oven in Fremont. This is a local chain that started with a still-funky shop in Palo Alto but have branched out to some suburban shopping centers. Somehow MBW and I arrived within a few minutes of each other. They didn't have any cupcakes! We consoled ourselves with a great second breakfast of french toast.

Intermodal transportation. Sure was glad I was on this side of the train and could continue on. It was looooong.

That white stuff is salt harvested from the salt ponds. If you fly into SFO and see red stuff from the air, that's the algae as the water evaporates in the ponds. Once it's all salt on top, they scrape it off and load it into tiny freight trains on tracks they can move along as they harvest. The piles are visible from the other side of the bay.

Next rendezvous was to be at Coyote Hills Regional Park. Thought it would take me an hour with stops. Took me more like 2 hours. As soon as we left the restaurant I turned northwest right into the prevailing winds. And we were close to the bay so it's a bit worse.

There's a ped/bike bridge between Don Edwards NWR and Coyote Hills. Goes across the top of the toll booths for the Dumbarton Bridge. Never had gone over that way before. Pretty nice, except that the path turned to rocky dirt on the Coyote Hills side, and there were some hills! I was in my granniest gear! Alors!

View from Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge back towards home. Can also see some of the old salt ponds in the distance, and an old hunting shack from when duck hunting was allowed (hunting is allowed in other parts of Don Edwards). Newark Slough is in the middle distance heading out to open water of the bay. Just south of Dumbarton Bridge.

At Coyote Hills MBW and I finally got to really ride together. We fought the wind for a little while, then turned up Alameda Creek Trail and could stop pedaling because of the tailwind. Recumbent seats act as good sails.

Running the gantlet of fennel and mustard at Coyote Hills Regional Park. Salad, anyone?

Proof that we actually rode together. Me and MBW in Coyote Hills.

MBW turned back after a bit and did some further exploring of the park by herself as I continued on. Soon Arjoon came up on his upright bike and started asking me a lot of questions about my bike and recumbents. Turns out he wants to ride cross-country next year - across India. He was very intrigued by the bent and thought it was the way to go. Nice guy. Good luck, Arjoon.

Too soon I had to turn off the creek trail and back into the wind. I changed my route from the bayside to further inland so the wind wouldn't be so bad. I stopped to call MBW to tell her the new route. This took some time. While I was on the phone a guy from the house I was in front of was in an out of his garage. He looked pretty gangsta. But before he drove off he asked me if everything was okay and if I needed any help. Cheered me right up and helped me get the rest of the way to San Leandro.

Finally got to my brother's mother-in-law's house, where my brother's sister-in-law from LA was also visiting. To make up for not getting any cupcakes today, LeeAnn gave me my own plateful of her special chocolate chip cherry oatmeal cookies. Hah! Take that, Prolific Oven! It was nice to see them, and we'll see them again in the morning. They let us store our bikes in their garage so we don't have to deal with them in the hotel.

When we checked in, the desk clerk was rattling off all the amenities, including bikes for the guests' use. We laughed. No more bikes today please. I said we'd ridden to San Leandro. From where? Mountain View. She looked stunned. "Is that really possible?"

MBW and I were determined to travel light, meaning only one laptop. But we decided at the last minute to bring both. Which has turned out to be a good thing. Here we sit in the hotel, each blogging away, and no whining.

Read MBW's blog for her take on today.

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 51 miles (82 km)

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