Train to San Francisco

July 9, 2009

On the afternoon of July 9 my wife drove me 55 miles north to Eugene, Oregon, dropping me off at the AMTRAK train station. AMTRAK is a great travel value for cyclists. The Eugene-San Francisco ticket cost $75 for me and $5 for the bike. I re-used a bike box that was left on the platform to avoid buying a new $15 box.

This is only my 2nd trip on AMTRAK. My first trip was in 1989, a 36 hour train ride from Denver to San Francisco to start a 6-month bike tour. That was my longest bike tour and this tour turned out to be my second-longest. My two longest tours both started with a train ride to San Francisco.

The train arrives at the Eugene AMTRAK station. I'll spend the night on this train on the way to San Francisco.

The train departed on time at 5PM, headed south to San Francisco. I was on the train for 15 hours, arriving on time in Oakland at 8AM. I'm not good at sleeping in a chair. Fortunately I was able to lay down on the floor for a few hours in a video arcade area on the lower level of my car. I had my inflatable pillow with me, but my mattress pad was in the checked luggage.

At the Oakland train station I boarded an AMTRAK bus to get across the bay to San Francisco. I watched carefully out the window to make sure my bike got loaded on the bus.

View of downtown San Francisco from the AMTRAK bus on the bay bridge.

I live in a town of 940 people and don't visit big cities very often. Arriving in San Francisco was kind of disorienting, especially after a night with not much sleep.

The bus arrived at the San Francisco ferry terminal at 9AM. It took me nearly 2 hours to unpack everything and get on the road.

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