July 7th
Samuel Taylor State Park to 1600 Larkin St, San Francisco
34 miles
Up around 7AM. Planning on breakfast in or around Fairfax. Broke camp, said goodbyes and congratulations to the others.
Hit the road around 9AM. Weather perfect again today, sun shining. Made it to Fairfax, passed through to San Anselmo, then to Ross. Cool little towns with lots going on. Tons of bikers, runners, people walking dogs. Everyone looks happy.
Stopped at bagel shop and had coffee, charged phones. Had 'light' breakfast since we planned on hitting up inNout for lunch.
Rode through more fun towns, Larkspur, Mill Valley. Took 3 or 4 mile round trip detour to inNout in Mill Valley. Same one Carlon and I had stopped at a few years ago. SUPER busy! Got double-double animal style. Mark's first time at an inNout - he loved it.
Hit the road again and took a bike path through Marin City. I really love this whole county. Rode waterfront through Sausalito. Freaking nice! Houseboats, sailboats, lots of sun... incredible. Feeling the excitement as we get closer to seeing the Golden Gate Bridge.
Then we saw it. Amazing feeling came across me. Trip really sinking in for the first time - I rode my bike the the Golden Gate Bridge. We were all really excited. Climbed a long, steep hill to get up to the bridge. Had to carry bike up then down a flight of stairs to get to the other side because of construction. Took pics from the visitor center. Foggy but you can just make out the top of the bridge. Very crowded. Rode across the bridge, hard with so many people - most seemingly oblivious to their surroundings.
Got across the bridge around 2:00PM and made out way into the city. Chip luckily had his I-phone, and kindly looked up directions for me as well. We stayed together up Filmore, then we went our separate ways. Kind of sad to be parting ways after riding for a week together, but I'm sure I'll see them down the road, although they are taking a rest day tomorrow. I was going left on Green, and I watched them start to go up the rest of Filmore - the steepest hill I've ever seen. They walked/pushed their bikes up it, feeling thankful the way I was going bypassed it!
Headed towards Lisa's house and called her. She directed me towards a coffee shop with wifi where I waited for her to get off work. Had a coffee, another bagel, updated some of blog and caught up on emails. Met up with Lisa and we walked to her apartment. Bike
barely fit in elevator.
Unpacked, showered, and researched parks all night. I've been warned multiple times about transients in the hiker/biker areas of the state parks south of San Francisco. Planning to make it to Santa Cruz tomorrow, either to the hostel there or New Brighton State Park. Around 80 miles but not many options.
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| first sign like this I've seen |
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| Fairfax |
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| view from the hills outside Ross |
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| our well deserved stop at in n out, so damn good |
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| bike trail through Marin City |
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| waterfront in Sausalito |
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| looking towards San Francisco, crazy looking fog/clouds. Alcatraz on the right |
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| first view of Golden Gate! |
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| passing underneath, lots of construction |
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| coming up and around towards the entrance |
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| from the visitor center |
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| looking north east |
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| across the bridge, from the southern parking lot |
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| intimidating, I have to ride somewhere in there |
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| from the waterfront path |
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| first marina |
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| after I parted ways with Mark and Chip, them climbing the hill on Filmore |
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