August 15: Golden City

I love San Francisco! Today’s ride took me from Santa Maria California up to the Bay Area to visit friends and family as well as to explore the Golden Gate Bridge. The Marin Headlands is one of my favorite places to ride in the country as it has the perfect trifecta for bikers – twists and turns, excellent road conditions, and million-dollar vistas.

Leaving Santa Maria this morning on highway 101, I was able to enjoy scenic views of the Pacific Ocean as I made my way up to San Luis Obispo. From there I headed inland for a peaceful ride where the landscape turned to vineyards, rolling honey-colored hills, and farmlands. I stopped for lunch at In-N-Out Burger in Salinas and debated going to Santa Cruz on my way to San Francisco. I made the tough call to skip that detour so that I would miss rush hour traffic in San Francisco.

I enjoyed my ride through the city on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge as I could see a variety of colorfully painted houses facing the ocean and a cool breeze was blowing in my face. I also had a heady sense of anticipation about the upcoming ride across the magnificent engineering marvel.

The journey across the 1.7-mile-long suspension bridge today was even more adventurous than usual as there was a fierce crosswind blowing from the Pacific Ocean across the bridge and into the Bay and a dense fog blanketing much of the area.

After getting some supplies in Mill Valley, I headed to Conzelman Road, one of my top five favorite riding routes in the country. This route starts off with the one-way Barry-Baker tunnel, proceeds up several tight twists and turns on Mccullough Road, and then forks off to either the Battery Spenser Bunkers or Hawk Hill. Either way you get magnificent views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of San Francisco, the Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. Amazing!

I couldn’t resist doing all variations of the loop twice, bombing down the 18% grade through dense fog towards the Bonita Lighthouse and then also looping back around up the hill again to visit the bunkers. Even though the wind was raging, and large clumps of fog were intermittently blanketing portions of the view, I very much enjoyed drinking in the glorious vistas around me.