Day 154 – Headed to the Golden Gate Bridge

Today is the 5-month mark since the start of our trip. We are staying just outside the Golden Gate Bridge tonight, and will be crossing it over tomorrow morning. We are currently just outside Fairfax and have another beautiful sunny day. It is supposed to go up to 75 degrees F ( 24 C!). We will be staying in San Fran for a couple nights then headed to Cupertino to stay with our friend Shannon for the weekend!

Update:

We woke up nice and early so that we could get an early start in order to get to our destination with plenty of time to relax and enjoy the area. We were up at 5:45AM and had our usual quick breakfast of fried oatmeal with tea and coffee. We were on the road around 7:15AM, shortly after sunrise. The first stretch of road on Sir Francis Drake Blvd wasn’t great. It was through a damp and rough patch of pavement that was narrow and winding. Traffic was fairly light which made it tolerable. There was one section that had concrete pavement with asphalt shoulders. After a car passed me slightly closer than I usually like, I decided to get back on the concrete pavement when my wheel caught the groove between the two different pavements. It quickly grabbed my wheel, forcing me to turn into the road and almost promptly wiping me out. Luckily I was able unclip my shoes and grab the bike in time to avert a sliding fall. I was really glad there wasn’t a car passing me at the time, nor was Katherine too close behind me for another infamous rear-ending crash. 🙂 We will have to be even more extra careful on these messed up roads from now on.

After getting out of the damp Redwoods section, the road gained a nice shoulder. We entered a patch of fog but the morning sun quickly dissipated it before too long. We had a gradual climb up a hill then had a descent into the town of Fairfax.

We took residential roads through the town, and were amazed with the number of kids cycling to school on their own or with their parents. It was incredible! Must be nice to be able to head out on your bike even in mid-November. The roads were a little chaotic with people walking, cycling, and driving, but Fairfax seemed like a very nice community to live in. Shortly after we entered the town of San Anselmo. It was a very bustling place in with the morning commute. There were many cyclists buzzing around the roads. We had many cyclists talk to us as we rode through the town. Many wanted to help us with directions but we were well prepared with our guidebook route pre-programed into our GPS (the GPS was extremely useful today, more so than usual).

We got off our route slightly to get to a coffee shop to: get a coffee for Katherine, use the bathroom, recharge some extra batteries for our GPS (we had been running low on our spares), check our e-mail, and to munch on some snacks. We also managed to wait out the morning commute which calmed down the roads tremendously. At the coffee shop several people came and chatted to us about our trip. Generally speaking, from the type of cars and the people at the coffee shop, we felt that it was a very well-to-do neighbourhood.

We got back to our route and continued our exciting route navigation and stopping at the plentiful stop signs throughout the area. We felt very nimble and it was a great way to get through the busy area, especially surrounded by so many other cyclists. Many cyclists that went passed us were very friendly, encouraging, and seemed wanting to help us all the time. Everyone always wanted to know where we started from and where we were going, and whenever we told them we started from the East Coast of Canada they would tell us excitingly ‘way to go!’ or ‘fantastic!’. It was also very nice to be surrounded by cars that were used to cyclists (and many were likely cyclists themselves).

We cycled further South and East until we hit the San Francisco Bay through the town of Sausalit, We had an incredible view of the downtown skyline in the gorgeous sunny day. We stopped to make sandwiches for lunch and enjoy the view and the sunshine. We again had people stop and chat to us. People are amazed we cycled from Canada, but it’s even more fun telling people we came from the East Coast of Canada and seeing how everyone’s reaction tends to be the same.

We picked up groceries in Sausalit and headed further South along the coast. We got on a beautiful quiet road along the water, when suddenly we turned the corner and saw the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a phenomenal view. I had always dreamed of seeing the bridge in person and it was an incredible feeling to be there finally, especially in such gorgeous weather. We got some pictures then headed through a road only open to cyclists and ‘authorized vehicles’ that went under the bridge. The ‘authorized vehicles’ was for the crew working on the maintenance of the bridge above us, inspecting, replacing, and painting sections of the bridge. Apparently they have an extremely efficient crew of iron workers and painters who work all year with the upkeep of the bridge.

We had a steep climb as we headed west of the bridge towards our campground in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. There were stunning (I am running out of adjectives) views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline from almost every section of the road that was edged into the hills. The entire road was newly paved and looked as if it’s been redone from top to bottom. It was a gorgeous ride.

We reached the summit and took the time to look out once again to enjoy the view. From the summit we had an whopping 18% downhill grade on a one-way road going further west. I kept thinking to myself what a section this would be to have your brakes fail!

We arrived at the visitor centre and received our camping permit (which was free but you had to have a reservation in advance – all three sites were booked today!). We loaded up on water as there were only pit toilets and picnic tables available at our campground which was a mile up the hill. We arrived at our primitive campground after going down a dirt road about a 100 yards. There was a view of the bridge and the skyline about 10 yards down from our picnic table past a handful of trees. We could see a little bit of the view from our tent window through the trees. A very nice spot!

After setting up camp we made dinner in the sunlight. Just as we were finishing up another cyclist arrived who had been here since the night before. It turns out he was from Nova Scotia, and had intended to cycle from Vancouver to San Diego but decided to take the train from Portland, Oregon, to California because of the weather (he left Vancouver two weeks after us on Nov 1^st).

After dinner we went for a walk up the hill to catch the sunset. It was one of the most scenic locations I have ever been to. We had the sunset over the ocean on one side, and the Golden Gate Bridge with the San Francisco skyline on the other. There was a lighthouse down in front of us, and a view of a beach behind us. It was really quiet and it was just Katherine and I as we watched the sunset and the boats enter and exit the bay. It was an amazing spot.

In the summer this area is usually very windy and shrouded in fog, but we were blessed with a beautiful day. All things combined it’s made it my favourite day on the entire trip so far. As I write this we can hear the waves hitting the cliffs in the cove, and an owl and a strange sounding bird. We can also hear the boats going through the bay. Unfortunately there is also again the weird periodic fog horn like melody coming from the shore (sounds like it’s coming from the lighthouse?). I guess you can’t have everything. :p

Click here for today’s photos

GPX