I had a few days down here so I hopped on my trusty California Steed (made in Taiwan) and went for an overnight at Pan Toll Ranger Station on Mount Tam,
But not before taking the BART out to Walnut Creek to visit the bike nerds at HQ and BBH. BART's been fixing up track on the weekends so I was faced with a long wait at Lafayette; I took the opportunity to do some suburban riding (and a neat little rough stuff detour) for the 4 miles between Lafayette & Walnut Creek. My "excuse" was to test ride something with Albastaches: for whatever reason, while the Albas on my Homer aren't "bad", there is an element missing, and I'm not sure I want ol' AHH to be so sedate. Joe put me on a Hillborne with Albastaches and I took it for the fastest test ride ever (two laps around Rivendell Muffler and Body HQ). I purchased two water bottles for $6/piece which I intend to sell on Ebay so I can retire to my private island. I actually swung past BBH before going to HQ. Will poured me a cup of fresh coffee (DELICIOUS), and I had too much fun with the meshwork of bells suspended from the ceiling with monkey's fist pull cords. And my Cousin dropped by HQ for the fastest hello ever. I was all about speed at that moment. Verdict from the fastest test ride ever: I think I'll give 'em a shot: I found the position at the fore (or in the crotch) of the bars to be really secure, reminding me of what I'd been missing from the ramp/hoods on Noodles. The swept back portion REALLY comes back and that's what was missing (or at least thought I was missing) when I was on tour last year. Okay enough bike store fun; I got out of Contra Costa County as fast as I could and met up with my friend David at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. It turns out there's a St. Patrick's Day Parade happening and the city was filled with drunk party people. THIS MADE FOR INTERESTING RIDING. We rode very gingerly through very packed streets and parks. The ride across the bridge, through Sausalito and Mill Valley was pretty uneventful if not REALLY REALLY CROWDED. I mean come on it's a tourist attraction. Climbing out of Mill Valley to Panoramic Highway was pretty fantastic. Getting up that ridge up past the Alpine Hut and into the State Park was pretty good too. There's definitely a lot of spandex traffic along that stretch. I loved how development was nearly impossible to spot once entering the park. We made it to Pan Toll ranger station and campground where the only site open was the Hiker Biker site (YES) so for $5 we had ourselves an excellent encampment. It's definitely high season for bike camping down here, with sunset happening late enough to get a good meal in before the darkness settled in. I made a gamble and said "f--- it, I'm in California" as I put away the rain fly and flipped the bird to the fog drip gods. After 2 or 3am the wind died down to nothing and it was so quiet and lovely. I got up before 7am and hopped on my steed for the 4 mi climb up to East Peak and the observatory. So breathtaking! Picture Prove that Something Something http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumachrome/sets/72157642460659944/ -- "I want the kind of six pack you can't drink." -- Micah -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
