Day 2. Mt. Tamalpais; very little climbing.

San Francisco, climbing out of the Morning Fog.


So, my tour guide from Day 1 recommended riding Mt. Tamalpais quite highly. Even though it didn't have much climbing, he told me the overall ride would be worth it.

He was absolutely correct.

But let's go back in time a bit, first. My host for the weekend, Gary, had been rattling off a bunch of touristy things to do - tour Alcatraz, see the Golden Gate bridge, yadda, yadda - when I interrupted him and told him I was in California for the cycling. Nothing more. Seeing the room where Al Capone whittled his shiv really had no appeal to me.

So, I mapped out the directions to the start of my ride. Normal looking google directions, nothing special. And then, all of the sudden, I was on the Golden Gate bridge.

Well, check that off the list of ultra-touristy things to do.

On the north side of the Golden Gate, I parked at the side of the road and started what was to be a 4.5 hour journey through some beautiful parks.


Prepping to hang-glide over the Pacific.


Now, granted, there was almost no sustained climbing on Day 2 - the highest elevation I reached was only ~2500 feet; I had to make up for it by climbing it twice. Fortunately I started at sea level.

You call *this* a hill?

At the top was the ubiquitous lookout station... although, quite unexpectedly, it wasn't open to the public! The signs indicated that this was a station to watch for wildfires. Ah, California... I'm not in Michigan any more.

Pacific Coast Highway - a view from above.

Once again, I was treated to some beautiful, beautiful vistas. I climbed the mountain from the south, went down the North side ridge onto the Pacific Coast Highway. Although the wind was terrible, the winding roads made up for the effort; they led me to a quaint, hidden little town, where I stopped at the General Store (really!) and bought some food for lunch.

I went back up the North side of the Mountain, stopped for some pictures, and headed out to Livermore to prepare for my presentation on Monday.

Another day, another dollar.