Bay Ridge Trail riding

I ran across an article a while back written by Yuri Hauswald in Bike Monkey magazine about the Bay Ridge Trail and it sat in the back of my mind for many months. Since moving to NorCal I've ridden several Parks and trails from the Bay are North and around Santa Cruz as well. This year with my new long distance goals, I figured every chance I get I should hit some sections of the Bay Ridge Trail system a networks of parks and trails and some connector roads that loop the entire Bay Area primarily off road.

So today I started at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and rode up to the top of the Marin Headlands to start this series of mini-adventures. Doing this alone has its caveats like you can't go one way and get picked up, you have to go out and back or in a loop. I may do all the Bay Ridge Trails clockwise and counter clockwise by the time I'm done.

So I was able to ride the sections that lead up to Mt Tamalpais, with a few wrong turns especially on the Miwok trail and then some extra legs like out to see Tennessee Beach and the Marin Headlands visitor center as well as locating the Marin Hostel which could come in handy one long riding day.

The day was stunning until the winds picked up then it got a bit cooler but still bright, crisp and clear and nothing a good climb couldn't warm up. Most of the trails are wide open fire road, portions are of the Coastal Trail to Portland, there's a lot of climbing but nothing unbearable and so far no hike-a-bikes although a section of Miwok almost exploded my quads. The one thing that is not lacking here are views, nature and wildlife this is such a gift to live so close to a big city and have this so close by. I even got a good look at raptors floating in the winds above my head while a bobcat stalked a field mouse in a pasture.

Oddly enough one of the funnest parts of the day was riding next to the road on a small trail with the Golden Gate at my right and nothing but a plummet between us. No difficulty just a huge precipice and a great end to a 5 hr ride.

Today I was fueled by my usual Infinit Endurance Formula but I had a flask of the test product yet to be named but essentially a gels replacement. I absolutely love this stuff, talk about a swift kick in the ass without any negative after effect and killer flavor, so much easier to swallow then a thick glob of gel.

More to come on this exploration, I call it "training".

http://www.ridgetrail.org/
http://norcalhostels.org/marin/

Peace