PC_Day23

Day 23

Monday, 21 June 2004
Napa, CA to Daly City, CA
39.1 miles, 3h51m, 10.1 mph
Elapsed Time: 8h05m, Max speed: 35.0mph
Total Climbing: 1587ft, Max elevation: 396ft
Total mileage: 1310.4

We hit the road at 8:30am after a hearty breakfast at Denny's. We stayed on the main highway from Napa to Vallejo, which was busy but had a good-sized shoulder. For part of the way it was smooth with lots of broken glass and debris--it made us nostalgic for home. For another part it was too rough for a road bike and almost too rough for touring bikes. I have to say that I'm not very impressed with the quality of California roads. I'm going to write to Governor T3 and complain.

We reached the Vallejo waterfront in plenty of time for the 10:30 boat to San Francisco. I drank a Cafe Mocha and ate a muffin while we waited. The ferry was a passenger-only high-speed catamaran with bike racks in the stern. We were annoyed that the bikes got a little wet during the crossing. It's bad enough that we're riding in salty air all the time without having our bikes actually bathed in the stuff. Anyway, the boat went really fast and we were in San Francisco at 11:30.

A very fast boat.

Postcard-quality snapshot of San Fran.

I took about 27 photos of Alcatraz.

JT and I rode from Pier 1 to Pier 45 (which is about a mile) and stopped for lunch at Fishermen's Wharf. Eventually Linda joined us and took our picture. (While we rode the ferry, Linda had been amongst the big trees in Muir Woods.)

We had Fish and Chips.

Quiz #2: What is the difference between shrimp and prawns?

After lunch we rode along the waterfront to the Golden Gate Bridge. We climbed to the bike/pedestrian crossing and rode all the way across, just so we could say we did. The crossing was actually quite hazardous, with meandering pedestrian tourists and loud traffic noise. The local cyclists showed little patience with the tourists and weaved through them at high speed yelling rudely all the while. The peds are problems because they act like they own the path. The cyclists are problems because they act like the peds know what they're doing. We just went slow. Give me car traffic over pedestrians any day.

Near postcard-quality Golden Gate.

Proof that we went to the other side.

When we reached the other side we could see a small puff of smoke coming from some trees. A few minutes later we could see flames and there were fire engines coming. By the time we returned to the south side there was a massive cloud of smoke over Sausalito. Very exciting.

From there we rode through some very ritzy neighborhoods and back to the oceanfront.

One last look at the Gate.

There was a strong breeze blowing in off the ocean and plenty of sand blowing in too. So now we have salt water and sand on the bikes. Oy!

It wasn't far to the Hampton Inn in Daly City. We didn't put in a lot of miles, but it was a long day.

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