Muddy Ride to the Bus Stop

They say its the little thing in life that makes things interesting.  We have been riding out to Coyote Hills and Alameda Creek for years now. These days and weather permitting , we take an old levee road out to \”no man\’s land\” where the old salt ponds meet the San Francisco Bay. Whenever we get out this far we usually take a break.  Someone else had set up some old pieces of washed up scrap  wood  to create a makeshift bench.  We started to call it the \”bus stop\”.  This is the same spot where we have seen seals bobbing around during high tide. Also saw a couple of sharks trolling in the shallows just a few weeks ago, and tons of birds feeding and flying when the tide is out.   The last few times we\’ve been out there and the tide is out, we set up a little game of  \”hit the ring\”.  There is a stick sticking up out of the mud, we found an old rusty metal ring and balanced the ring on the wood. Then we would stand up on the levee road and throw rocks or sticks and try to knock the ring off the stick. Click here to watch video.  We have come to call this activity the \”Olhone games\”  after the local native American tribe that used to inhabit this land.   There are times when we get out to the bus stop and the tide is in, the wood is underwater and metal ring on the bay floor.   Whenever the tide is out and we set up the ring, we hope that its still \”up\”  next time we ride out there. So we rode out there yesterday.  A muddy ride to say the least.  We get about half way out the levee road and the rain from the recent storms had turned part of the trail into slop. Mud started to cake up on the tires (and everything else! ) and at some point we were only going forward because we were afraid to stop for fear we couldn\’t get going again! It eventually got a little better, and as we rode up on the bus stop we could see the metal ring still hanging, only this time way out in the water!  The  ring was barely hanging on as the waves lapped up against it and the wind blew.  Still pretty cool to realize it had hung there since Saturday with all the wind and tides and rains.   Amazing!