Day 1

July 24, 2011

San Rafael to Point Reyes Station via San Anselmo/Fairfax/Woodacre/San Geronimo/Lagunitas/Olema

It was a glorious sunny Sunday, the marine layer was burning off, and temperatures were just right. Nice and early we were knocking on my aunt's door to say hello before we trundled off. For some reason my aunt found it highly amusing that I put on an orange shirt, a safety vest, a Headsweats do-rag and my helmet. Honestly, that woman just doesn't know fashion.

Our two main characters about to hit the road. Pia on the left, me on the right.

Once my aunt was able to stop laughing we were off down the road. For about 15 seconds. First stop. Seat adjustment for Pia. Turn on GPS for me. Now we were off.

We easily followed the county bike route signs through San Rafael to San Anselmo. Then time for a second stop after 3.17 miles in a San Anselmo parking lot. I'd forgotten to do a map meeting with Pia so she had an idea of where we were going.

As we wound through San Anselmo and Fairfax, the stream of cyclists going both directions was pretty thick. Granted, it was a lovely day, and it was prime time, but if ever I needed confirmation that cycling's popularity has soared, this was it. Riding along narrow little Lansdale Avenue was an adventure, there were so many bikes. I pitied the poor truck driver who was trying to navigate down the road.

We opted to follow the bike route through Fairfax residential streets in order to put off for a bit getting onto Sir Francis Drake Blvd, the main thoroughfare heading out to Point Reyes. Once we got on to SFD our first major hill started. This is White's Hill. 6-8% grades, rising 400 feet in just about a mile. Steeper than what I'd been doing lately, so I was going to take my time. Pia took off at her own pace.

As I was heading up in my pokey way, a cyclist fixing a flat on the side of the road said to me, "Man, you are doing it the hard way!" I just smiled, as one must do when dealing with the less fortunate. He dressed like a weight weenie who lives for speed, poor soul. And who's the one with the flat on his 1/4-inch tire?

Pia told me later that lots of people were cheering her on as she went up the hill. Lots of "Go! Go!" I thought that was great, yet I wondered why no one said anything to me as I struggled. Being on a recumbent, and a trike, I often get a lot of comments (see: paragraph above). Maybe these Marin folks all thought I was doing it the hard way too. Pia thinks it was because she has grey hair.

One advantage the trike has going up hills, though, is that one can stop and take a break any time just by stopping. No getting off the seat, or putting feet down to balance. Just pull over and stop. Get the heart rate down. Or, as we used to say, catch one's breath. I did that a lot. But I wasn't in a hurry. We had all day to go 25 miles.

The first of many stops on the way up White's Hill outside Fairfax. I took full advantage of the one advantage a trike has on hills: you can just stop to rest.

Looking back down White's Hill from almost at the crest. In the distance you can see the typical summer marine layer (a/k/a fog) on the left and Mt. Tamalpais peeking out on the right.

The bike traffic, especially going the other way, was as constant as the car traffic. Even saw some through-riders with their large panniers and camping gear. I looked enviously at them.

Bless Pia, she knew that once I made it to the top I'd want to run out the downhill as long as possible. I found her under a shady tree a mile or so down the road just before I had to start pedaling again. We then turned off SFD and backtracked just a bit to go to the Woodacre Store for our lunch stop. You can turn off onto San Geronimo Road sooner, but I had to run out that downhill, you know.

The Woodacre Store is worth a stop. Decent food, picnic tables outside, bike parking.

Backtracked just a bit to go to the Woodacre Store, and it was worth it. Good choices for food in their deli, and picnic tables outside.

This was my first time ever riding or driving on San Geronimo. Now that I've been on it, I think it's better to get off SFD Blvd and ride this road instead. SFD is flat and straight and has nice wide shoulders, which is great if you want to make time. But the speed limit is 55 mph. And you know what that means: 65mph. Meanwhile, San Geronimo is quiet, shady, peaceful. It leads you back out on SFD when it starts to narrow and traffic slows a bit.

If you stayed on Sir Francis Drake Blvd instead of turning on to San Geronimo Road, you wouldn't get to see the Yellow Submarine.

There's another decent store in Lagunitas, but we passed it by, looking for the turnoff soon after for the Cross Marin Trail. It's a rail trail that goes through Samuel P. Taylor State Park and it gets you off the worst part of SFD Blvd, which at that point is narrow, winding, shoulderless and has a cracked concrete surface -- a cyclist's dream. I'd never ridden the unpaved part of this trail before, hadn't even noticed the turnoff. But we found the bridge that gets us over Lagunitas Creek and onto the trail. I asked some locals at the trailhead about conditions, if there were any steep parts; my trike doesn't have the tires to do serious off-road stuff. One of them said, "It's an old railroad bed. It has no grade." Music to our ears.

Pia heads off down the Cross Marin Trail. Even though it's unpaved, it's a rail trail, so very little grade. Good for any cyclists. And hikers.

The Cross Marin Trail turned out to be the highlight of the day for both of us. We especially loved the unpaved part. There were lots of redwoods and Douglas fir trees, and it smelled wonderful. And most of all I love it when there's a layer of duff on the road, dampening the sound, softening the ride. You can make believe it's before cars happened. Yeah, yeah, that's it, I'm a pre-contact native American princess on a trike.

Riding through the redwoods and Douglas firs on the Cross Marin Trail in Samuel P. Taylor State Park.

Once you get into the main part of the park, the trail is paved to its western end, where it rejoins Sir Francis Drake. It takes you through sun-dappled redwood forest most of the rest of the way. It was a busy summer weekend in the park, but the tall trees muted any noise of happy campers and picnickers as we passed through.

On the paved part of the Cross Marin Trail, it's all sun-dappled....

... until it's not. The Cross Marin Trail opens up near the end.

The park installed some interpretive panels along the trail, explaining the cultural and natural history of the area. Samuel P. opened the first paper mill on the west coast in 1856. The creek at this point is called, oddly enough, Papermill Creek. Nowadays Papermill Creek is a success story for restoring salmon and steelhead runs.

The trail led us back on to SFD, and it was immediately up up up. Plus, there was a stop sign in the middle of the hill. Some road work was being done, so traffic in both directions had to alternate going around the hole in the road. I crawled up to the stop sign with the traffic, then had to sprint (for me) up the hill to get out of everyone's way. No shoulder, of course, and lots of Sunday traffic both ways. I pulled over whenever I could, which wasn't often, to let traffic by. I was really happy when I got to the top.

Again, Pia waited at a good spot for me to run out the downhill. SFD takes a dogleg right at Olema and then it was just a couple of miles until we bid adieu to SFD and continued on Highway 1 into Point Reyes Station.

Puff puff puff. After the Cross Marin Trail there's a short but steep hill on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. But it's a lovely downhill into Olema, then 2 miles to Point Reyes Station. And there's the fog waiting to come in and cover the countryside.

The REAL destination for all this riding: the Bovine Bakery. You make your choices ...

... and then you sit yourself down on a redwood stump to enjoy your treats.

I made straight for the Bovine Bakery, which is just a bit of heaven on earth. Right next door is an open area -- not sure if it's officially a park -- where there's lots of redwood rounds and planks and some shade. And lots of cyclists eating and resting. I got a pumpkin cheesecake bar and my water bottle and enjoyed my reward.

Of course the worst hill of the day was the half mile from downtown Point Reyes Station to our B&B. It wasn't really bad, but my knees were a little cranky after pedaling so hard up Olema Hill and then getting that nice rest in town. So we decided to walk back into town for dinner at the Station House Cafe, one of my favorite places to eat. Fish and chips, a pint of local beer, and their trademark popovers and I was good. Pia ate every bit of her rib-eye steak and salad and had no regrets.

Both Pia and I had had long weeks. I'd been back and forth to the East Coast, she was finishing a house remodel and had said good-bye to some rambunctious family guests the night before. So after all that, plus regular life, plus today's ride, a good dinner, it felt wonderful to be in bed at 8:19. We conked out right away.

Black Mountain. A favorite view. Dominates the town from afar. Tomorrow we'll be riding around it.

Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 25 miles (40 km)

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