Ruth classroom meeting was canceled, so Anne reshuffled our other obligations, I took a vacation day, and we went for an essential outdoor exercise ride.

We’ve been doing morning walks, and once in a while switch it up with a 15ish mile loop around town. We haven’t done any regular full rides recently. We’re still holding out hope for the bike trip we planned for June, so we definitely need to train. Today was the day.

In recognition of the shelter in place orders we wanted to roll out from home, rather than driving somewhere. Since many public restrooms are closed, we needed to be sure to get away from civilization in case we needed to water any bushes, ruling out most of the cross bay loops. The natural solution was to head east into the closer hills. We selected Calaveras clockwise.

Max has been asking for Mommy to pull him in his trailer. Since Anne is on a tandem with Ruth, that makes for a very long and heavy bike. Anne agreed for the first part, knowing I would need to take the trailer once we got to the hills.

We biked across town to get to Niles Canyon. Niles Canyon is a lovely road, but it has an intermittent shoulder and sometimes heavy traffic. Fortunately, with most workplaces closed traffic was very light today.

Once in Sunol we paused to adjust jackets and move the trailer to my bike. Then it was time for the big climb of the day, up Calaveras. Coming out of Sunol there were a bunch of big trucks carrying loads of gravel, but that stopped as soon as we got past the aggregate plant just out of town. From then on there was almost no vehicle traffic and just a light scattering of other cyclists.

The climb up Calaveras is not too steep, and broken up with flatter bits and even some short downhill. Most of it is shady forest, with some meadows for variety. The view to the north shows a wide mostly undeveloped valley. The weather was 60s to maybe 70 and cloudy, with some sun. We stopped for lunch most of the way up in a turnout.

Then it was down The Wall, the much steeper approach from the other side. I went ahead, and paused at the bottom, where it turns and gets more local traffic. Anne and Ruth barreled past me, with Ruth laughing uncontrollably. Max and I opened up and followed, with a pickup between us.

Then it was the long flat ride through town back home. Next time, Anne suggested that we turn back at the wall and turn it into an out-and-back. It would be a bit longer, but more interesting as most of the return miles are the interesting Calaveras and Niles Canyon, rather than straight and flat residential and warehouse districts.

For today’s ride we repeated one we did a few years ago. Head across the bay, loop around the back of the hills in Redwood City, and go visit the giant cross on the top.

We started with a nasty headwind going across Dumbarton Bridge. The hope was that it would make a nice tailwind for the return.

I brought about a half-sized touring load. I’m still not in top form, but we all managed the climbs without significant stops.

The descent back down the hill in Redwood City was hard to enjoy. The road was winding and narrow enough two cars would have a hard time passing each other. There wasn’t much traffic, but it was a residential area, so there could be one around any corner. The wind blew us around.

The return wasn’t too much of a slog. Just as it threatened to become one we got the tailwind we had been looking forward to all day. We got back just as it started to get dark — later than we would have hoped, but pretty standard for us. Anne hasn’t figured out the headlight situation for the tandem yet, but we got back before it was dark enough to really be a problem.

Last night we did a test pack for our summer tour. We use our pack list from the West Coast, updated for the older kids, especially with Ruth on the tandem. As we won’t have the Chariot and its extra space (typically used for food, shoes, blankets, and more), we needed to figure out how to carry it all between us. It looks like the bags we bought for the tandem will do just fine.

So for today’s ride we carried a partial touring load. I don’t have my front rack installed again yet, so I just took bags on the back. Anne carried her new panniers on her rack with most of the stuff that was previously in the trailer.

The ride itself was a bit more than we’ve done this year, but still on the mild side. The first hook north was pretty nice, going between hills north of Dublin. Many a cow, horse, and rusting heaving machinery was spotted. There was a nice climb followed by a fun descent, all with limited traffic. Max was excited to pedal on the downhills — “super race car speed!”

At an early turn at a red light, Anne stopped just as it turned green. I went on ahead, starting a light climb, with Anne promising to be right behind me. When I looked back, she had disappeared. Max suggested she found a shortcut, which seemed unlikely. Eventually they reappeared. Anne said the bags on the back were messing her up, thinking something was wrong.

The hook south was fine, but not as nice. We entered more built up areas, with more or less shoulder and bike lane. The weather was lovely, but the views of housing developments weren’t particularly inspiring. Along Bernal there was a series of short climbs of increasing slope. We gave up on one and walked.

Still, it was nice to be out, the weather was just about perfect, and I’m excited to be building towards the tour loads and duration.