Sunday, April 1st, 2012

MTBR Golden Gate to Marin Brewing Ride

Riding on this gorgeous day, even with the occasional encounters with some standing waters on the trails, I had a hard time believing how hard it rained yesterday and in the morning. People say Marin drains well, and I now see what they mean. Last night, I spent quite some time trying to make my newly purchased mud fender look less dorky. This morning, just before rolling, I took another look at it and decided to take it off. It looked too dorky even for my taste.

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This is the bike after the ride. There was some mud, but not hard to clean off. Not seen here is the abrasive sandy clay that Skeggs normally spits at bikes when it’s wet. It only took me 10 minutes to clean my bike before putting it away.

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It started out as a fairly big group. I was happy to see some MTBR folks I’d met before, such as tburger, theseawind, Plim, Lambert, MarkMass, etc., and was also glad to meet a few new (to me) ones such as Zen_Turtle and EBRider as well as some MTBR lukers (shame on you!). On a whole, this is a strong bunch, boys and girls. Some are skillful and some are very fit riders (with overlap). I was especially impressed with Ryan G., not one to be confused with the thread initiator (where was he anyway?). He bombed down the technical narrow single track and the rocky fire road on his SS rigid 29er as if he was being chased by a pack of mountain lions.

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I started off near the front stopping to take photos from time to time. The group I was with decided to “roll slowly while waiting for others to catch up” after having waited at the Tennessee Valley Parking Area for a while. Well, we all know how that would normally turn out, and it was no exception this time — The group split. We later heard that there were numerous mechanicals in the group behind. Anyway, we waited here and there, esp. with a long wait at West Point. adventuregirl and SO decided to stay to wait for the group behind, so the rest of us moved on to MB. In the end, it was us group of seven under Zen_Turtle’s leadership. The rocky, super fun, descent was already behind us (sadly), and we took a right turn where we should have gone straight. I think that dropped us into Mill Valley. But as they say, all the roads lead to the pub. Sure enough, we made it there (may even have taken a short cut compared to the original route, so I suspect Zen_Turtle had planned on getting lost).

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This is Zen_Turtle’s look when he was told that it was a $2/pint day — anniversary — at MB. That is a great deal… if you drink! If you MTBR sis and bros are entertained, thank him for bringing the look back per my request after I reached for my camera. Next year, check with MB on the date of their anniversary first while planning the ride.

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I didn’t plan on being the only one riding back to GG after the lunch/dinner at MB. Lambert kindly offered to shuttle me back, but I was not ready to call it a day. After I rode back, I could appreciate the concern he and Paige had for me. There would have been no way I could have found my way back if I had not put a previous GG2MB track on my GPS as a course last night before going to bed! I was thankful I did; otherwise, I’m sure I would have wound up back to the pub after circling around for a couple of hours after all that’s where all the roads lead to. Riding across GG Bridge both ways was not bad at all — actually very nice — even on this Sunday. Nice for the tourists to be able to get out there to appreciate San Francisco on such a fine day!

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Since I didn’t have the good fortune to actually enjoy Alpineberry’s delicious pastry, I got myself a piece of Mud Pie to go from Alice’s and finished it before Mr. Mud got home. Mmm… Happy!

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A few more WIWLOT:

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Some of us took this fun singletrack down. This is just the upper portion and the lower portion is even more exciting.

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I’m looking forward to theseawind’s photos (and anyone else’s). That’s a big camera to lug around with, girl!

The track is also available from Garmin Connect and MTBGuru.