Actual Miles: 57.6
Cumulative Miles: 1,163.0
Elevation Gain: 2,221'
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 47,623'
% Distance to Mexico: 61.8%
I'm posting this a little late because I got put to work first thing when I got home and now I'm really tired! So, I did safely cross the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco on Day 18 of my 29-day ride from Canada to Mexico, and when I arrived, I was surprised by about 20 of my friends and family. They all braved a morning downpour to come and see me roll into Crissy Field under the afternoon sun. It was a wonderful treat I can't thank all of you enough! Now I get a few days to rest up for the final 700 miles, from San Francisco to the border. I was hoping I might escape the rain in spite of a gloomy forecast. When I woke up, it wasn't raining, but by the time I came out of the bathroom it was pouring in Tomales. The forecast showed rain off-and-on in both Tomales and San Francisco until about noon. I seriously thought about just waiting it out and starting my ride later in the morning, and I probably would have done that if the rain didn't stop as suddenly as it started. I made my way outside the Continental Inn and dropped my key in the keybox. About that time, the skies opened up again. I stood there under an awning next to a hotel guest who had come out for a smoke, and I said, "well, that doesn't look good". After less than a minute, the rained slowed to a sprinkle and I told the Marlboro Man, "I'm going for it". He just took a long, slow drag on his smoke. For awhile I thought I had Neptune himself on my side. It sprinkled a bit, but more often than not I seemed to be staying relatively dry while cycling over pavement that had obviously been drenched a matter of minutes before. I even started getting cocky and instead of just making a beeline for the finish line, I started taking pictures and blogging. The ride around Tomales Bay was nice and even though I was stopping to take pictures, I was making good time. At mile 22, started a 3-mile ride on the Cross Marin Bike Path. Bright yellow autumn leaves were falling on the wet black asphalt of the bike path and the colors were extremely vibrant against the overcast sky. At that point, I thought it was a perfect day to be cycling the Cross Marin trail. The colors would not have been the same under sunny skies. I stopped several times to take photos on the path. Finally I set up my video camera to capture me riding over a bridge. I realized after shooting one video that I had my windbreaker on, so I took it off so that I could take the video in my BikeTheCoast13 jersey. As I made my way back to start my second approach to the bridge, Neptune ran out of patience and he pointed his trident skyward and made it pour. Now I'm suddenly in a downpour and I don't even have my windbreaker on to give me a little bit of protection. I could spin a good tale about floating down the road but I was actually pretty lucky. It poured on me for about two miles, and two miles out of 54 was pretty damn lucky given how much rain others experienced. But two miles is plenty to soak you, your clothes, and your bags when you have no cover. With water weighing down my clothes and bags, it felt like I was cycling through molasses those two miles. I stopped a couple of times under trees but I don't think it was doing much good. I finally made it Lagunitas and pulled under a covered deck. Water was pooling inside my handlebar bag so I put my GoPro, PDA, and other electronics in plastic bags and put them in my panniers. After 10-15 more minutes of downpour, the rain stopped and I could even see a couple of patches of blue sky. That was my signal to hit the road again. With patches of blue overhead and a decent afternoon forecast, I slowed down a bit to enjoy the day. The first city of any size I had seen in two weeks was Fairfax, so I stopped at the Fat Angel Bakery to dry off and have a cup of coffee. There were a couple of other traveling cyclists there. One was from another country and I did not get a chance to talk to him. But I did talk briefly to another guy who had cycled down to the Bay Area from Seattle. This particular day had a lot of turns and my route guide had gotten soaked. I finally put it in a Ziploc bag, but after that I had to pull over and fish it out of my jersey pocket every time I needed to check directions. Of course, I didn't realize at the time that if I was late for my planned 2:00 arrival in San Francisco, that I'd be keeping 20 people waiting. To the contrary, I was in no rush and perfectly content to enjoy my ride through Fairfax, San Anselmo, Larkspur and Corte Madera. I enjoyed my ride through Sausalito, but then there is a pretty good climb back up to the Golden Gate Bridge. With folks thinking I was minutes away, I spent at least a half hour on the bridge. I was enjoying the scene up there, taking photos and blogging, reflecting on how fortunate I was to get back on schedule, and just enjoying the view. Once I got to the Presidio, I first had to figure out how to get to where the California Coast Classic starts next Saturday, since that needed to be my official finish point today. Once I got that out of the way, it still took me another ten minutes to find Kelley, the girls, and my fan club. I did feel bad that I kept them waiting but at least most of them arrived after the rain stopped, so they had a nice time together against a picturesque backdrop. Day 18 Recap: Tomales, CA to San Francisco, CA
Actual Miles: 57.6 Cumulative Miles: 1,163.0 Elevation Gain: 2,221' Cumulative Elevation Gain: 47,623' % Distance to Mexico: 61.8%
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Jeff FredericksOn August 14, 2013, I'm flying to Vancouver, British Columbia and beginning a 29-day, 1,880-mile bike ride from Canada to Mexico. Archives |