This ride was the first with my new front rack, and the first with the 6 liter water bladder we plan on bringing. Balancing the bladder along with the rest of our gear (approximated) meant 30 pounds up front and 20 in the back. It handled pretty well, although it did make steering a little sluggish.

We’d done this ride before, but Anne extended it to start in Lafayette to add a few miles. It ended up being more climbing than we had expected, including a surprise 10℅+ grade climb at the end (we walked a bit).

Anne took the trailer for most of it. I took it for the two big descents which was kind of terrifying with the full set of panniers. Then there was some more climbing.. I wasn’t quite up to it so Anne took the trailer back.

Then on the drive home there was a weird sounds we kind of ignored. Then we hit a bump and Anne told me to stop the car. The roof rack for the bikes was falling off! It seems the front crossbar slid back somehow, maybe from catching wind on the front fenders, our maybe just loosening over time. We decided to just put the thing back on, tighten it good, and drive home. The roof rack is now off the car until we can figure out how to keep it happy.

Animal sightings: a bunch of horses, a deer drinking from a water fountain, a snake hanging out in the bike lane

Most disappointing moment for Ruth: when a stream engine train went past us a few feet away, but there was a bush in the way

Happiest moment for Ruth: when we let her hold onto the bag of freeze dried mango while we biked. “Mango! Mango! Mango!”

This is the third time we’ve done (at least part of) this ride. The first time was before we had the kid, early in our bike experiences. We started in Sunol, going up Foothill. After a while, before what we would not consider any real climbs, we decided it was too much and turned back. The second time was more recent, when Anne’s parents were in town to do some babysitting. That day we had six flats (including one on the descent) and one bloody nose.

This time we started from home. We also approximated our full touring load — two big panniers on the back of my bike packed with food, a few bike tools, cold/rain gear, street clothes and shoes, etc. The big missing piece was extra water, since we don’t have the gear for that yet.

Anne took the first turn with the trailer, and pulled Ruth all the way up the big hill. It was a pretty hot day, but there was a far amount of shade. Anne managed to sustain a faster pace than normal — maybe these training rides are starting to pay off. There was less bike traffic than I would have expected, although there was one woman on an electric-assist bike screaming up the hill. We were not impressed.

At the summit, we stopped, caught out breath, and moved the trailer to my bike for the descent. It was fairly straight without many blind turns, so lots of fun. By the bottom, all my sweat had dried off.

I was just about ready for lunch at this point, but there really aren’t parks or good places to pull off on these kinds of roads. We made it up to the 580 frontage road without finding a spot, which was very sunny. Finally we found a big of shade and pulled off the road on a narrow strip of concrete between the road and some barbed wire fence. Ruth was very good and stayed away from the ouchy fence.

More sunny climbing, until we passed some ranch that was hosting some kind of rodeo, with lots of horses milling about. Then finally we made the turn back onto Foothill, with some shade. My legs and lungs were doing okay, but the heat made me feel a little lightheaded.

The rolling hills on Foothill were starting to take their toll, so at the Pleasanton Ridge park we switched trailers again (and refilled my nearly empty water). Ruth was napping, so she didn’t get to run around.

Niles Canyon is fun, and mostly downhill westbound. There was a pretty strong headwind, though, which slowed us down. It stayed as a headwind when we made the turn onto Mission, which was pretty disappointing.

The big panniers on my rear rack messed with my balance pretty bad, and made steering kind of twitchy. The descents were pretty straight, but I think it would make fishtailing with the trailer more likely. This will probably get worse once we add ~15 pounds of water for our days without any services. I think I need to figure out a front rack to get some more of the weight up there.

Animal sightings: Horses, squirrels, a goat trying to climb a fence, some dogs, and one deer jumping through a field.

Most interesting sports drink flavor: Tie between cucumber gatorade and some weird sports-beverage-in-a-tablet thing that Anne had from somewhere, that kind of tasted like watered down alka seltzer.