This was a new ride for us in Marin County, though included some overlap with previous rides.

I started out pulling Max in the Hase, and Ruth of course with Anne on the tandem. We went straight for a gentle climb, though it spiked up at the end. My front derailleur is acting up and doesn’t reliably shift into the granny gear, so I stopped and put it there manually. Mmm.. chain grease hands.

We then got a lovely descent into the redwoods. It got dark and cool (though descents are always colder than climbs).

As we rode along Nicasio Reservoir, I started hearing more road noise coming from the trailer, though I put it down just to the road surface. Just as we were picking out a place for lunch, Max started telling me something was going on, and a passing cyclist called out that I had something wrapped around a trailer wheel. The trailer had a flat. It had been that way for long enough that the tube worked itself out from under the tire, got twisted up around the axle, and snapped itself in half. Not good.

Fortunately it was just a vanilla flat that got ignored for too long. While I ate, Anne picked out assorted glass bits from the tire, which may or may not have actually been the culprit. We reseated the tire with the spare tube (we carry both patch kits and spare tubes for exactly this reason). Anne ate her lunch while I pumped it up and cleaned the debris. This was the first flat, and the first time we took a tire off the Hase since we got it over five years ago for the West Coast and a couple thousand miles. Schwalbe Marathon Plus for life.

Anne took Max after lunch. With the tandem it’s quite a train. We continued along to Point Reyes. Even though it’s actually not that close to the ocean, the cool air certainly felt close. We started our next climb on Sir Francis Drake just outside of Olema. About halfway up Max swapped back to me and we finished the climb.

Anne has the route and usually leads, but I ended up quite a bit ahead on the descent. Anne told me there was a right 2 miles from the top, but she didn’t say (or I didn’t catch) the details. As Max and I zoomed down, I saw a bike path sign that maybe was our turn. I stopped 50 feet past it and waited. Eventually Anne and Ruth caught up, called out that I had missed the turn, so I circled back.

The path was nice enough, but in close quarters like that we need to mask. It’s important, but gets hot very quickly. This was a section we did back in 2013, and remembered a service road bridge with bollards close enough we had to lift the trailer over (though I guess that didn’t make it into the write up). It seems the bridge has been replaced with a wider one, but now with a gate to block vehicle access from Sir Francis Drake. I was psyching myself up to lift everything, when Ruth pushed it. It gave easily, so we just rolled though. Much easier.

We had another long gentle climb, but I was starting to poop out. We stopped for some food and Anne took the trailer again. As we got to within sight of the summit, my leg started cramping. I tried to keep going, but had to stop and walk the last 50 feet. Fortunately it didn’t give me much trouble for the rest of the ride.

We weaved through Fairfax, San Anselmo, and San Rafael, mostly following Sir Francis Drake, but with constantly changing side streets a block or two away. The last quarter of a ride almost always drags, but the constant stop signs and turns didn’t help.

Finally we made it to a cycleway frontage to 101. Sweet sweet straight lines. Though it was loud and especially pretty — and still the last quarter of the ride which always drags.

We rode past the sad Northgate mall (though one wing looked pretty happening) and to the last climb of the day, with only a short ride back to the car.

A successful ride, and we even made it home before dark.