With all the hours dedicated to the front yard project, I’m happy to report that I was still able to log 220 miles in the saddle this month. 941 miles so far this year. Here is today’s pic. Dumbarton Bridge from Coyote Hills shoreline.
Ended up going on a second bike ride yesterday. Late afternoon I was bragging to Downing about my lunch time ride. He said, “thats it, I’m going on a ride”. I offered to join him. he accepted. Off we ride!
Instead of the normal ride to Coyote Hills on the Creek Trail, John suggested going the other way towards Niles Canyon. I told him its your ride, I’ll follow you. Heading down the trail and over the Sequoia bridge to get on the dirt side of the trail and into Qaurry Lakes Park. Rode around quarry lakes checking the (low) water level when John gets a flat tire! I think this is his third flat in 30 days! UGH. We pull over so Johny boy can do a tire change. He is getting pretty good with all that practice! It really was a beautiful day. Now that we are on daylight savings time, we can squeeze in an afterwork ride without the sun going down on us. John picked a great place to get a flat. While he was cursing and fumbling around with the flat, I was able to bask in the beauty that surrounded us.
A few minutes later we were on our way. Out of Quarry Lakes and back on to the Creek Trail. Nice ride down to Niles Park. They had the rubber dams up so there was some water cascading over the top. The end of the trail is where Barb and I usually turn around, but this is John’s ride and I’m following him. We peel off the trail and hit the back roads to Morrison Canyon and start climbing, and climbing, and climbing. I think this was pay back for me suggesting he buy those tubes that keep getting flats. Either way, it was great. Took a short break half way up the hill then coasted and road back to the creek trail. One last picture as the sun was setting over Alameda Creek and then headed home before it got too dark.
Ended up a 13 miler and 25 miles for the day!
One reason I started this blog ten years ago was to chronicle and track my bike rides. Checking out the archives, I rode the bike 331 miles in March 2004!
And I’m still riding. But havent been keeping track like I used to. Toward the end of the year I was trying to estimate how many miles I rode in 2013. the rough estimate was at least 1000 miles. Since we were are the beginning of a new year I decided to keep track for 2014. I had been writing down the miles on my calendar but figured I’d put it out here for all to see…….
12 mile bike ride today
138 miles so far for March
226 miles for February
245 miles for January
I’m going to try to keep better track and post from every ride. Today’s ride was a nice ride out to to the bay. Needless to say, spring has sprung at Coyote Hills. Crystal clear and sunny today. Tailwind on way out was nice!
It looked fake at first. So pink! Sorry for the poor quality. Man I need a better camera!
on a side note, went over 250 miles for the month
Its not all fun and games when the boys and I go on our Saturday bike rides. We get serious sometimes. Part of ride includes climbing up “heart attack hill”. A short but steep climb up to where the old Nike Missile base was back in World War Two. Today its part of Coyote Hills regional park. From atop heart attack you can see the entire bay area. San Francisco and Oakland skylines to the the north, Mt Hamilton to the south and Mt Diablo to the east, and everything in between. Saturday’s ride almost didn’t happen. The rain was heavy on Friday and scattered showers on the hi-def doppler showed rain clouds blowing in from the south. We took a chance and went for it. We got hit with a few raindrops on the way out but as we started our ascent up heart attack hill the sun was starting to shine over the clouds.
Its always a “win” getting to the top of heart attack. Fist bumps all around for the old guys that can still climb the hill. On this day we were rewarded with something special. A full rainbow! One end dipping into the salt ponds of the bay, the other resting on some of the “coyote” hills to the east. BEAUTIFUL!!
We always take a break at the the top to catch our breath and enjoy the view. Today we took pictures of the rainbow. Even got this pic of John catching some rainbow magic.
After a short break its time to get down to the serious business of coasting. Whats the point of climbing the mountain if you cant have some fun going down. And this is no leisurely coast back down. Speeds up to 38 miles per hour have been registered “going over the top” and zooming down into Dairy Glen. Its fun, its exhilirating. It has some level of danger. The competition part is who can coast the farthest. Once you get to the bottom of the hill you coast up (or try to) the path that circles dairy glen. There is a stick in the ground way up the path that has been the goal, the benchmark. Nobody has ever made it to the stick. Even with perfect condition and wind to your back, the best that could be done is about 10 feet from the stick.
But on this day John caught the rainbow and something was different. He zoomed down heart attack like a man possessed. I dont think he was using any brakes as he negotiated the downhill turns and steered clear of a rider that was slowly chuggin up the hill. When John hit the saddle (the bottom where the downhill ends and the uphill begins) I knew that a record would be broken today. He was in perfect tuck position and had a great line. And then history was made. He coasted where no man had gone before. To the stick and beyond!! Incredible!! A new world record. One that may never be broken!
I went back the next week and took a picture from where John stopped coasting looking back towards heart attack hill. From this angle you can see how far he coasted UP to where he stopped. Ever impressive! Unless someone comes along with helium in his wheels and strong wind at his back, this spot will forever be known as the “Downing Line”
The saturday 8am bike ride with the boys was in jeopardy. The rains that had not come all winter were finally coming. Early weather forecasts showed that it should start raining in Fremont at 7am and keep raining all day long. Say it ain’t so! If you know weather predicting you know that it is not an exact science, so the night before we agreed to go if it looked like the rain would hold off. Up saturday and check the hi-def doppler. Its already raining hard in the north bay and the storm is slowly heading southeast (our way). Looking outside it was windy as hell and cloudy out, but not the rain cloud type cloud. The ride was on!
As I was walking out the door I told Barb to be prepared to come rescue us if we get caught in a downpour. Hooked up with Downing at the courthouse (Starbucks) and headed out. Vandy was no-show today because he was refereeing Hawaiin League football in the rain at Hayward High. Surprisingly there were a lot of people on the trail. I guess they were all trying to beat the rain. We sure did. We ended up doing our normal 23 miles with hardly a drop hitting us. Out to Coyote Hills. UP heart attack hill. No coasting compitetion because people got in the way on the downhill. Could have been a record coasting day with that wicked tail wind. Oh well. Then it was out to the levy road to the bus stop.
Now we have been taking breaks out at the bend in the levy road for years. I can’t think of a nicer place thats a mere 5 miles from my front door. When we first started riding our here, there was a makeshift bench that someone made out of a plank of wood and a few blocks of wood that had drifted up during a high tide. We sort of claimed squatter’s rights and gave the place a little creek trail riders flare. John started the whole thing by customizing the bench. The rock pile what we were building (at low tide) would someday rise above the water line at high tide. We collected cool pieces of wood and rock and made this little corner of the world our own. And for over a year now, the American flag has flown. We put old glory up over a year ago, and changed it out when the wind and elements tore it to shreds. It flies from a pole that we strapped to an old piece of a scuttled boat engine. It flies above the highest of tides. Its cool!
In the last couple of months we put up some driftwood and when looking at the flag through it, looks pretty cool. Old glory nicely framed in driftwood. I started to call it the “portal to freedom”. Well, some vandals have other Ideas and occasionally tear down our driftwood masterpieces. We just build them back up! Thankfully, no one has messed with the flag, else there would be trouble. BIG trouble. Sometime this week, someone yet again vandalized our artwork, and we built it up again. Only this time better! I really like to look at the flag through the portal. It looks cool and makes me proud to be an American! We have seen people stop and take pictures just like I do. I’ve seen similar pictures when doing a #coyotehills search on instagram.
The portal to freedom had special meaning yesterday. On the way home, we were making our way on the creek trail towards the Alvarado overpass, when we spotted a HUGE group of people running in formation, calling and shouting out cadence and carrying American and Marine Corp flags. All in honor of a young Marine who was killed by a drunk driver last week right up the street from where we live. Rest in Peace Lance Corperal Andrew Silva. I’ll think of you next time we out at the portal to freedom
Everything lined up yesterday to allow me to go out and get another equinox bike ride under my belt. Hit the road around 1pm with the intent of heading out to Coyote Hills for a modified lunch time sprint. Even though it had rained a little the night before, my plan was to head out on the no name trail to the bus stop. I thought I’d give it a try and if it were too muddy, just turn around and head back. As I got to the beginning of ‘no name”, I noticed a runner way down the trail heading out. I figured I was good to go as far as the mud. Things were ok at the start. No problems at all. Then about a half mile in, things started to get muddier. I’ve done more than a couple of muddy rides out there so it wasn’t like I was unprepared. The key is to keep going. Don’t stop. It wasn’t even that bad. Then something happened.
Not sure how or why, but I began to slide, and as I did, something jammed and didn’t allow me to peddle. So much for not stopping. UGH! As soon as I looked I knew I was screwed. The “hanger” on my rear derailleur had twisted somehow and ripped off. It was just hanging there off the chain. The derailleur itself was all bent up too. What the hell?! I thought about taking a picture of the mess but I was too damn pissed off.
No way to fix it or even ride it back so I started the long push back to Coyote Hills. So much for the lunch time sprint! Found the driest part of the trail and tried to stick to it. Its then I notice that my back wheel wasn’t even spinning. I figure its caked up mud so get a stick and poked the mud out and off. No luck! Still stuck. So pushing the bike back was a little harder than usual. It wasnt until I got off the no name trail that I was able to figure out that my wheel was not totally on the fork. Somehow the wheel got loose. What a mess. I called Barb to come rescue me with the truck. THANKS HONEY!! She pulled into Dairy Glen parking lot right when I was walking around the bend.
Once home, I hosed off the beast and got a good look at what may have happened. All I can figure is that my back wheel WAS loose. The combination of mud buildup and then sliding a little made the wheel come off partially and rip the hanger from the derailleur. My best guess. If that is true, I’m just glad it happened out there and not coming down heart attack hill.
Dropped off at the Bicycle Garage for repair. Looks like about an $80 fix but should be back in the saddle by Saturday.
King Tide – an unusually high tide that occurs only once or twice a year. So its the highest tide of the year. A time when the sun, moon and earth are aligned and closest together. When the tidal pull is strong! A normal high tide around these parts is 6.5 ft.- whatever that means. This week’s King tide was supposed to be 10.3 ft! So, since we are always riding out the bay, we have a pretty good idea as to what high and low tides look like. So we made plans to do a little King Tide Bike Ride Thursday to see what is up, literally! Barb, John and myself took a nice easy ride from parking lot of Coyote Hills park over to the creek trail and to the end of the bay. When we made that first turn to where we could see Alameda Creek where it empties into the bay, we knew it was a VERY high tide. The “creek” is really a flood control channel that must me 200 feet across. Water was from side to side (which is NEVER is) and pretty high. Stopped and took a couple of pictures, then headed the short 2 miles to the end of the trail. The water line was about has high as I’ve eve seen it. Still not as high as I thought it would be but still pretty pretty high. Took the loop back via the (somewhat muddy) bus stop. To see water lapping up on the levy road as something that rarely happens.
Here is before and after shots of Alameda Creek – King Tide Style
We always talk about seeing something new or different every time we go on a bike ride. This ride was no different. As we were heading out the levy road to the “bus stop”, we noticed a couple of kite surfers. At first it looked like they were doing their thing in the bay waters, but as we got closer it was apparent that they were actually IN the old salt reclamation pond! This water is only about 18 inches deep, but I guess if you are a good kite surfer it doesn’t matter. These guys were good! Needless to say, it was another windy afternoon on the bay, so these guys had perfect conditions. I took a few videos that you can check out by clicking here.
Over the years and during many of our bike rides out to Coyote Hills, We’d sometimes see scout troops or church groups camped out at Dairy Glen, the lone camping spot in the park. When ever we would ride by (usually early saturday morning), we would see tents dotting the glen and early morning activity in the camp ground. The smell of camp out breakfast filled the air. Dairy Glen is also where “heart attack hill” starts. The short and hard climb up to the highest point in Coyote Hills Regional park. So we’d spend a lot of time climbing up and and zooming down right into Dairy Glen. We talked and talked and talked about reserving this great little spot, nestled into the hills and looking out over the glen and the marshiness of the areas on the eastern side of Coyote Hills. On the western side of Coyote Hills is nothing but San Francisco Bay. The only civilization that you can see from the campground is the small stretch of distant road where cars are just getting onto the Dumbarton Bridge. We’d always say that we had to camp here one of these days. Saturday was the day.
Saturday at 2pm the truck was packed (so much stuff for one night of camping) and I followed Steve over to the park to begin the setup. Three miles and ten minutes later I was unpacking the truck and setting up camp. The great thing about being so close was that Barb could hang back at the house and come later when all the work was done, I mean all the fun was starting. It wasn’t that hard setting up camp. Armando lent me his 4 man tent that was up in about 5 minutes. Blew up the air mattress, unloaded the ice chest and I was all set. Steve on the other hand had to set up his 12oo squre foot 3 bedroom family tent. Maybe it was just a two room but either way it was big. Within no time Downing, Vandenbusch and Flahertys were all set up and settling in for some camping fun. We ordered dinner from nearby Dino’s grill and had a nice dinner by the camp fire.
As night fell we began realize just how cool and different a trip this was. The park closed at 6pm. Gate locked (we had the combo) and the park ranger goes home. We are alone. Very alone! If you look at a map of the park and the camp site, you can see that we were isolated out there yet still smack dab in the middle of the 7 million people that make up the bay area. We had plenty of fire wood and kept a nice warm fire going all night. The boys took a little ride out the levy road to the “bus stop” where we take our breaks on Saturday morning bike rides. Riding out there in the twilight was awesome! The sun had just set and the redness of the western sky and the darkening blue of the evening made for a beautiful reflection on the bay. Fantastic! Later in the evening we all took a short night hike up and around the trail that circles Dairy Glen. Headlamps and flashlights in hand we ventured up and out of the camp ground . It was really REALLY dark when we turned off all our lights and it was REALLY cold when we got away from the warmth of our campfire. What made this interesting for me was that I had been on that trail hundreds of times over the years, but never when it was so dark and cold and quiet. We made the hike a short one and headed back to camp. Smores and small talk filled the rest of the evening.
Up early enough to watch the sun rise over mission peak. Bacon and eggs for breakfast then a five mile bike ride (boys) and hike (girls and Steve) up heart attack hill AND out to the bus stop. Back to camp to tear down and pack up. Said goodbye and made the long 3 mile trip back home. Five minute later we were pulling into the driveway. Unpacked the truck and still had 30 minutes for the 49ers started.
