Saturday May 16, 2015

It was sad to say goodbye to Leslie and Jerry but we had to be on the road today, as tomorrow there is a Bay to Breakers 10 kms race in San Francisco. Some of the roads we are taking are going to be closed tomorrow. As many as 50,000 people can turn up for this “party run”.

We had a great breakfast and were on the road by 9:00 am.

We meandered through the Golden Gate Bridge State Park and eventually found the access to the bridge for cyclists.

We had asked a few roadies to confirm we were on the right road to the bridge but they didn’t know the names of the streets to give us directions. One guy offered to guide us UP the hill, it was a short cut. We opted to take the route on the ACA map, we still had to climb a hill but I am sure not it would have been as steep as what he would have us go up. Some roadies just do not understand the weight we are carrying. We decided that when we get back to Barrie we will definitely know the names of streets in the City and be able to give good directions for cyclists who need to find their way around.

The area around the bridge was a busy area, with roadies, tourists on bikes and Ralf and I on our big wide touring bikes. The bridge had earthquake isolators installed – these types of isolators were invented in New Zealand in 1970.

We stopped to take a few photos and then we were on the bridge heading towards Sausalito.

The Marin County area was lovely, lots of off-road bike paths and on-road dedicated lanes. We saw hundreds of road bikes today. Some in big pelotons of 20 or more bikes and others in groups of twos and threes. It felt almost like a week-end in Spain.

Surprisingly the car drivers were very patient with all the cyclists.

I think we saw more bike shops today than we have seen in our total time in the States. Every Town we went through had two or three bike shops. We stopped in a couple, but they were all quite expensive.

We were taking a rest at the top of one hill, when two German touring cyclists came up the other side. They stopped to chat.

They had interesting shaped bikes, made in Denmark.

They started in Vancouver and were heading to Chile. It has been rather odd in California, most touring cyclists have not stopped and chatted. I always click out from my pedals and am slowing down ready for the chat, but they don’t stop. Sometimes there is a reason, often it is because of the hills, but more often than not we are surprised that they do not stop, only wave and shout a greeting.

The Towns were very pretty and had some nice restaurants and boutique type shops. I have decided I need some pyjamas (pj\’s) for camping, especially early in the morning or if I need to get up in the night. It can get quite chilly at night, and I am only wearing an oversized T.shirt. As we cycled through one of the Towns I spotted a shop with some pj\’s hanging outside on a nice rack and decided to check them out. I realized as we made the u-turn, that these pj\’s were ones that I could not afford. I did look at one pair that had bikes, the Eiffel tower and poodles on them. The shop assistant came out and informed me that they had lots more inside of smaller sizes. I asked how much for the pj\’s – $118.00. I smiled and said “maybe a little too expensive for camping” I wanted to say “are you crazy, 118 dollars for a pair of cotton pj\’s”. Her response was “you would be very glamorous camping”. I smiled and hopped on my bike and peddled away.

The sun came out in the afternoon and it was quite warm. We had a lovely baguette for lunch – ham and brie – tasty.

After we passed through Fairfax we were away from all the small towns and into the countryside and corridors of redwood trees. The sun glistening through the branches was a perfect end to the day.

We are staying at the Samuel Taylor State Park in another hiker/bike spot – $7.00 per person. Later in the day we were joined by four more cyclists (2 guys and a couple). They are doing a week-end ride from San Francisco and back. What a great idea to get the feel of bicycle touring.