Day 250: A Beautiful Day to Ride with Friends

Today was a great example of a “perfect” ride in terms of how things played out. Rides like todays have been few and far between for me during this winter. It’s like the planets had aligned perfectly today in order to give me exactly what I needed, a gorgeous day of riding with friends.

Here’s how things played out today. I worked during the wee hours of the morning with my group in India, and then took a brief nap in order to make up for some lost sleep. By the time that I returned to the computer my buddy “B” had already emailed me about doing a ride at lunch. I replied with a huge “YES!”

The day was really spectacular. The air was warm as it almost reached sixty degrees. The skies were filled with huge clouds that looked threatening, but instead they were simply decorative. The cumulous clouds soared into the sky and yet they looked so, so close to us. These were perfect conditions for riding bikes!

We weren’t even out of town before we ran into a guy that I’ve ridden with a couple of times now. He’s another “B,” and we ran into him as he turned onto West Blithedale. We blended into riding formation as if it were planned. We began talking in an almost seamless fashion as we rode towards the mountain. I remain amazed at how well riders can integrate, and communicate, while riding at speed and with their hearts racing. How is that possible?

We rode up Railroad Grade, and today I was feeling really, really frisky, so I pulled away from “B&B” and headed up the hill in my middle chainring and my fifth gear. I was going 9-10 mph up the hill. ;-) I was feeling really good today and I know that the weather and company had a lot to do with it.

We stopped at Double Bow Knot in order to make some trail choices. All of us had timing constraints so we needed to check in with each other, since we were now basically a pack. After checking cell phones, email, and all of the other business crap that we carry on rides these days, we made the executive decision to continue on up to the West Point Inn. It’s another 15-20 minutes to the inn from the junction.

We pressed onward towards the inn. I once again had a wild hair that made me jump onto my pedals with vigor. I basically rode really hard from the junction to the inn. I’ll probably pay for that move tomorrow, but who cares since it was fun to ride hard on such a wonderful day.

As I waited for my friends at the inn, I took in the day’s dramatic views and soaked up some sun. I panned left just as a cyclist rode up the trail. I thought that it was my friends arriving, but it wasn’t. It was “F,” another guy that I’ve met through R2R. Man, what a magical day. He rolled up to me and gave me a fist hit, and then said that he was thinking about running into me on the mountain today. I now firmly believe that things happen for a reason. He parted just as my “pack” arrived. He was on a training mission today so he had a schedule to keep.

We had another pack meeting about how to return home, and we were all in agreement on the route to take home. We rode back down to Gravity Car, and then over to Pipeline, and from there we rode down Edgewood for the long descent back to Mill Valley. We parted with one of the “B’s” while descending, and then we all parted ways at Miller Ave. What a great ride. Thanks guys!

I met a friend in SF this afternoon. While there I took a snapshot of the graffiti that's above. It's amazing to see the raw talent that graffiti artists possess. This is only one small section of a wall that maybe 100 ft long.