Day 259: Feeling Better Especially on the Coastal View Trail

I woke up this morning feeling like I was on the mend. I was still slightly congested, and my stomach was sore from all of the coughing that I’ve been doing, but other than that I felt pretty good.

I’d made plans with a friend to go for a morning ride, and we were going to meet at his place before heading out. I brought “E.B.” some WTB tires since I’m still trying to get him off of those Bontragers. ;-) I’m sure that they’re good tires, but I’m a loyalist when it comes to WTB.

We pedaled towards Railroad Grade from his house and as we did we began to discuss where we’d go today. I was surprised as the ride began to take shape, and it wasn’t going to be a short one either.

We decided to head directly to the top of Mount Tamalpais where we stopped briefly to talk and to take in the views. The views were hazy today, but it’s nearly impossible to not enjoy whatever view is available from there. I took on some more water, and snapped a few shots.

We rode back down to the West Point Inn where we turned right onto the Old Stage fire road. From there we traversed over to Pantoll Station. I stopped again for water. I refuse to wear a Camelback and my Santa Cruz BLT has no water bottle cages, so I need to be smart about stopping at each and every watering hole along the ride. I know them all now. For the record, leaving water bottle cage bosses off of the design of that frame was a huge mistake. So I’d already stopped three times in order to take on water directly, and Pantoll Station offered the last water for a while and there was a hefty climb ahead of us. So I pretended to be a camel and took on as much water as possible.

“E.B.” hadn’t ridden on the new Coastal View Trail so it was a real treat to show it to him for his first time. It’s always fun when you can show a fellow mountain biker new trails, and today’s trail sports miles of singletrack with some really stunning views of Franks Valley, and the Pacific Ocean and coastline.

As we rode down the singletrack that weaves in and out of Redwood, Oak, and Bay Laurel trees, and then out onto long stretches of open fields, we were both spitting out one word adjectives about how amazingly beautiful the trail is.

We ended up at the bottom of the trail where it intersects with Heather Cut, and just a few hundred yards from Highway One. After a brief break we turned our rigs around and headed back up the same way that we came down.

I have to admit that I’d forgotten that it’s a reasonably long climb back up, and not more than 20 minutes ago I had told my riding companion that it wasn’t a very big deal. Oops! I always like to make the level of effort involved in a climb clear to people in advance on any given ride, but there have been a few occasions when I’ve, a…, miscalculated. ;-)

So we clawed our way back up the trail and all the while I enjoyed the sun on my back. I was hot from climbing, but the warmth of the sun was really intoxicating and it made me give the climb a little extra push. Once at the top I sat on the bench that overlooks the Dipsea Trail and stared back down the trail and watched my buddy spinning his way to up the way I’d just ridden. It’s good to be alive on days like today.

After another climb back up to the inn, we bombed down Railroad Grade. I was playing around on the way down. There are lots of little jumps here and there that can make a fire road more fun. There were very few people out today which was surprising, and that meant that we could have more fun on the way down. That said I’m still working around my braking problem, so I had to be very cautious as I entered into corners and such. The good news is that my Superheavy is back in the lineup as of this afternoon, so I have a bike with brakes again!!

Thanks for the great ride “E.B.”