Yesterday, Saturday, we rode from Bodega Bay to San Francisco - a total of 75.79 miles and 4796 climbing feet. We left early in the morning, fearing headwinds and late afternoon fog in San Francisco. All of our legs were feeling the effects from the past 12 days of riding, and our last days journey was going to provide us with no rest. We pedaled along the miles of rugged coastline along Pt. Reyes National Seashore and into the town of Pt. Reyes station where we enjoyed our first break of the day. After resting, we resumed through Fairfax, San Anselmo, Kentfield, Larkspur and into Mill Valley, where we stopped for lunch. Jerry had not yet begun to sweat, when we began to encounter several hill climbs through the last of the redwoods coming into Marin. Daniel, Gary and I swear that we all saw beads of perspiration dripping down Jerry's forehead. At this point, Daniel was finished, but we still had more miles to go. We stopped for lunch in Marin and mushed on into Sausalito, where we began our last hill climb to the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Golden Gate bridge crossing is something you all have to experience. If you take 5,000 non-riding bicycle riders, put the them on a 6 foot wide trail with cyclists coming both directions and then add a 30 mph crosswind and suspend this all 400 feet above the bay, this gives you an idea of how it was to cross the bridge. Add to this maybe 100 of these cyclists who think this is the finish of the Tour de France and 200 more who think this is a mountain bike race - add 1000 absolutely petrified 5 year olds whose parents forced them on to a bike fore the first time on the bridge - you get the idea. After crossing safely, we wound our way down the Embarcadero, which was an experience in itself, to our final destination, the W hotel. We said our goodbye's to Dave and we headed to the bar for a celebratory drink (Gary had a passion fruit martini), which was a perfect drink for a finish in San Francisco.
The ride is done and the details of the ride will follow (as soon as I take a shower).
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