Mt Tam Ascent
I’m in California this week on a family trip, from which I stole a morning and did the classic ride up and around the Marin County’s Mt. Tamalpais. The climb started in the dark forest, eventually opening into the sun-drenched hills that buffer the Pacific Ocean. The metaphor was clear: I was climbing out of the darkness of my northwest hibernation and into the light of a new cycling season. Sure, I’ve been riding all winter, but the majority of those miles have been pushing the flat pedals of my long-tail as I take my son to school. This was a return to cleats, carbon, and the almighty V-kit. It felt good.
The bike I rented from ACME cycles, a Foundry frame with Shimano 105 components, was an odd fit. An insufficient drop, saddle-to-bars, for starters. That didn’t bother me for long though. I passed a deer early in the climb, who looked up at me with those ever-vacant eyes. He seemed to say, slowly “Wha? It’s a bike, fool”. “Fair enough,” I thought, it was a bike indeed.
I reached a viewpoint and looked down on Stinson Beach, where I had surfed the day before, and I felt the full swing of summer. The sun was in every pore now and the pedals were swinging underneath me.
As I neared to top of Mt. Tam, however, my climber’s high fell away to fatigue. I began to lament my meager fitness, and my California dreaming drifted in a darker direction. What if I worked less and rode more? What if I lived in a place like this, where I could ride big climbs right from my back door? What if I could fully realize the innate combination of endurance and arrogance I was seemingly born with? These are the daydreams of a middle-aged man on an expensive rental bike, to be sure.
I crested the summit and looked out to San Francisco Bay, the bridges, and the city. I finished the last of my water and deployed my vest for the chilly decent. I stowed my daydreams in favor of the present. I had my health, and enough fitness to get up here. I was alive. And I was on bike. This was, and is, enough.
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Nice one!
My brother lives in CA, on the beach. I need to get out there at some point, I just can't stomach the cost of flights these days, especially when I'd like a new wheelset. Or two.
Working less would be nice, I'm less than a year into being back in the 9-5 world and it takes a big bite out of cycling time. Thankfully with more light in the evenings, I've being riding after work some nights. Oh, and I commute daily by bike so I can't really complain.
Welcome back Keeper @jim (even though you never left).
Nice piece! There's nothing like a nice ride on unfamiliar roads to test your mettle and make some reevaluations of life.
Looking at that photo, I so want to ride Mt. Tamalpais.
Yup, it has been a beautiful spring so far. Next time you are here rent a Madone from City Cycle. If you send them your fit numbers and show up with yr helmet, saddle and pedals they will have you out the door in no time. Then drop me a line and you can rip the legs off an old fat guy while you admire the views
I will be there this summer, am starting to calculate taking my bike along (wife unhappiness, cost, internal wife mortgage for time away.....).... this is tougher than Rule Nr. 12 discussions.
My daughter and her husband live in the hills north of Santa Cruz. Took the bike down there (from home on the Olympic Peninsula) on a visit a couple years ago. Blasting down to SC, north along the coast highway, grinding up the steeps back to the high ridgelines...
The place is magic. I'm a Bay Area native, so the region gets to me. All three of my kids were born and raised in Oregon, but two wound up in NorCal. Go figure.
Not too rub it in but that ride is in my backyard and as many times as I do it, it never fails to blow my mind. Part of what I love about it is the micro climates you go thru, the primeval forest you climb thru and then there is quite often rain at the top from the Redwoods catching the mist of the Pacific. As you noted, then you come out into the sun and a view of the ocean that is breathtaking. Oh yeah, and it's a leg breaker of a climb too. Thank you for reminding me how lucky I am to live here in this overpriced County.
A very good day.
@ Jim,
Every ride on a bike is special. However, the solo rides up an unfamiliar climb awaken all the senses. I am sure you wore a wide grin through the suffering. It doesn't get much better than that.