Highly Civilised South Bay to San Francisco

62.2 miles, 3528 ft

What a lovely jubbly ride!  Two team mates and I met up nice and early on the corner of Fremont and Foothill, and set right off for an ambitious day ride to San Francisco.  I had attempted this ride once before, at the beginning of my cycling career, and was such a perspiring, heaving mess even by lunch time that there was a touch of trepidation in my craw this weekend.  But the ride could not have gone more smoothly this time around.

The ride entails a delighful sweep through the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, right along the scenic San Andreas faultline, poised to gobble the Bay Area into its gaping maw at any moment.  Cañada road is closed to traffic on Sundays as an extra special bonus, and even the Sawyer Camp trail was not overly heavy on foot traffic.  Lunch of course at the marvellous Lily's Creperie halfway, wherein I somehow devoured half a savoury crepe, half a sweet crepe, two scoops of gelato, and blue Gatorade, despite not feeling terribly hungry.

The San Andreas trail spits riders mercilessly onto the 35, but having learnt from past experience we removed ourselves prior to it becoming a horrifying expressway (yes, a literal expressway with a sign unambiguously declaring it so), and instead wended our way through the streets of SF and along the coast to the Botanical Gardens.

The Botanical Gardens is a veritable treat of plants, and even permits bikes provided they are not ridden.  We rested our sweaty eyeballs on trumpet flowers, big trumpet flowers, small trumpet flowers, and even micro trumpet flowers, in addition to many other botanical beings.

Even the ride to the Caltrain through busy sections of San Francisco was not half bad, owing to fabulous glittery green bike lanes that drivers cannot pretend not to see.

Sightings: babby deer, vultures, squirrel, squished squirrel

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