A Week Cycling in the Bay Area with Friends

My 2 night stay sleeping in my trailer parked in front of Zach and Michi's house came to an end after a couple of days of fabulous cycling. The weather in San Francisco had been outstanding especially considering we were riding the end of November. The bay area has terrific cycling and if you can get good weather the riding becomes glorious. I felt very lucky to know so many people in the area that wanted to ride and show me around. I had a blast. Most of the rides were with BARC (Bay Area Recumbent Cyclists) and we did regular club routes. Some of the rides had 12 people and some had as many as 19. It was really fun to meet so many people I've known only online and to also see so many old friends I've known for many, many years.

With Paula and Zach

Unpaved path on the bay with Zach and Paula

Drone shot on campground paths

Even though I was moving locations, the cycling wasn't ending. I went back to Dumbarton Quarry By the Sea campground in Fremont where I would be meeting more cycling friends. Leslie and Paula are also trikers who love to ride and ride fast, fast, fast. We all have the same trike with the same e-assist; HP Scorpion fs20 each equipped with the Shimano Steps E8000 e-assist retro-fit boom system and 2 batteries.  Leslie and Paula had lived in this area most of their adult lives where they had long careers.  Since they know the area well, there were lots of rides on the agenda. I checked into the campground for a week to take advantage of all the riding and being able to hang out with good friends. 

Dumbarton Quarry campsites

We got parked in sites at Dumbarton Quarry campground next to each other early in the afternoon on Sunday. And, not surprisingly, we also got our trikes out to go on a ride right away. The next day we would be meeting Russell and Zach at the Dumbarton Bridge and Paula wanted to make sure she knew how to bike there using the campground paths. This campground has a big network of paths where some are paved and some are unpaved. The scenery on the bay was fantastic. The unpaved paths were bumpy but our trikes didn't seem to mind.  

Sunset drone shot from the campground

We met up with Zach and Russell at a reasonable hour in a parking lot close to the Dumbarton Bridge. Russell drove and Zach rode from Alameda. Zach always rides. Not only does he always ride, he is always on time. He has an HP Scorpion fs 26 S-Pedelec with extra big batteries (651 wh!). I think he said it was 25 miles from his house to where we met.  Russell was on a Lightning P-38 without assist. 

Thumbs down at Facebook (Meta)

Heron in the wildlife area next to the Facebook campus

Russell, Leslie, Paula and Zach

In the Stanford plaza with the Catholic Church

We all had a delightful ride crossing the bay into Palo Alto to explore the Stanford University campus. The Dumbarton bridge has a separated bike path and the bridge doesn't go up or down steeply. Like most bridge rides, it is very loud with the car traffic. We made our way off the bridge to the Facebook campus which is enormous and sits next to a large wildlife refuge. We stopped to get photos next to the famous thumb up sign.

Trikes in front of the ‘Gates of Hell’

Zach and Rodin sculpture

Rodin replica of the top of the ‘Gates of Hell’

Leslie and Paula found a very interesting route to get us to Stanford University on lightly trafficked roads. The campus itself is huge and gorgeous. We stopped at the large Catholic church in an expansive Spanish inspired plaza. There is a big sculpture garden with lots of Rodin replicas. We spent quite a bit of time enjoying the art. The campus was very quiet even though classes are in session. Cycling was easy and smooth. There are lots of large green spaces. One green space was so large I thought it was a golf course in the middle of campus. We visited the Stanford family mausoleum where I learned the University is named for the son, Leland Jr. There is also a large cactus garden where we were especially careful not to ride the trikes too close to plants that may have dropped thorns. From there we made our way back to where we started across the Dumbarton Bridge. Afterward, we invited Zach and Russell to the campground for dinner. 

Furry cactus

Flowering cactus

‘Oy Yo’ outside the Stanford art museum

Pelicans in the water from the Dumbarton bridge

Paula and Leslie took me on rides all over the area. Some days we put in close to 50 miles. The weather was fantastic and it was fun riding in an area I am not familiar with. We rode out the Alameda Creek trail to Niles where Charlie Chaplin had a film studio. We had lunch at sweet Mission Coffee and enjoyed riding in the sunshine. There was lots of wildlife in the water of the creek.

Campground path drone shot

Wildlife refuge sunset

Trikes in the sunset

We did 2 more club rides with BARC. The 1st one was at the Sacramento Delta. For this, we drove our trucks to meet with just a few recumbents in Rio Vista on the Sacramento River. Many riders had canceled coming because the weather had turned foggy, misty and cold. The forecast flirted with sunshine after 10 am. The sun didn't come out until the ride was almost over at 3 pm. Even wearing gloves and ear covering, I was cold but, still, really loved riding in the Delta. There aren't any bike paths or even bike lanes but there was also almost no traffic. We took a free ferry not too far from the start. There is lots of agriculture and the riding was mostly on elevated levee roads that separate the river from farm land. Brayden, Timothy and Russell joined Leslie, Paula and me for the 38 miles. I was able to fly the drone towards the end of the ride just when the sun was breaking through. I got some amazing shots of huge flocks of birds taking off from marshland. Really a great day and I want to return and do more riding out in the Delta.

Birds in the marshland at the Sacramento Delta

Friendly owl

Campground trail ride

The next BARC club ride was in Los Gatos. We started with 14 riders and ended with 12 as a couple of riders had mechanicals severe enough they couldn't continue. This ride went along the Los Gatos Creek trail. There was a fair bit of road riding too. Luckily, Los Gatos has separated bike lanes and the riding feels very safe. On this ride, there were people who were new to recumbents and group riding. We took special care to make sure they felt comfortable and would want to come back for more rides. Even though it wasn't as cold as the Delta ride the cloudy skies and colder temps reminded us we were riding in December. 

Los Gatos club ride

Regroup

Los Gatos Creek trail

This entire week I spent camped in Fremont was action packed. It felt great to put in so many miles and ride with good friends. But now it was time to put away the trike, get hitched up and head south where I'm hoping the weather will be warmer. I was missing the sunny skies we had just a few days earlier. I've got a tentative plan to slowly make my way down to Southern California where I have family and more recumbent friends. It seems the riding never stops.

Delta ride waiting for the ferry

Heron on a channel marker

Memorial to Humphrey the Humpback whale visit