Last weekend, we did a couple of fantastic rides here in the San Francisco
Bay Area. Saturday, we finally pulled off a plan Gary Kanuch has been
working on for months. His idea was to follow the ‘49 Mile Scenic Drive’
which takes in most of the famous tourist spots in San Francisco. He did a
couple of scouting trips by car and bicycle and found that some of the route
was dangerous for riding and that some scenic spots were missed, so he added
and substracted, creating his own route that we followed:
Starting at The Embarcadero just under the Bay Bridge
Up the Embarcadero to Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower
Through Fisherman’s Wharf
Up to Lombard St and down the famous crooked section
Back to the water and along the Marina Green, Crissy Field, to Fort Mason
Across the Golden Gate Bridge and back
Through Lincoln Park and out to the Cliff House
Down Ocean Beach a few miles
Back to Golden Gate Park and winding all though it
Up to Twin Peaks
Down through the Haight to the Panhandle
Alamo Square (postcard row)
Back through downtown including Market Street
Bronson Silva, Bruce Bundy, Scot Cooper, Gary and I started riding at 9:15
on Saturday with my mom riding her bike. We took our time, stopped often and
had a total blast. We finished around 5:15, all feeling great, wanting to do
it again. September seems like the perfect time as the weather is generally
warm and clear. It’s usually much colder earlier in the summer. The
temperature was 88F that day, quite hot for San Francisco, but not so bad
for riding. No hint of the famous fog at all.
The only downside was that none of us remembered to bring digital cameras!
Luckily Gary had a disposable film camera and thanks to him and my mom, we
got some nice shots. He’s scanned the first 11 and they are up at
Then Sunday, Bronson, Bruce, Rob Bowman, Scot and I did “Rob’s Ride” in
Santa Cruz. This is a 21 mile loop through town, up to campus, along
fireroads to Gray Whale Ranch and Wilder Ranch, down to route 1 and back via
Natural Bridges, West Cliff Drive and the Boardwalk. It was a PERFECT day
again, and this ride is incredible. The fireroads and singletrack detours
through Wilder used to be fun terrain for our Muni rides, but now, we are
able to ride them on Coker, for speed. It is incredible blasting along at
full speed, concentrating SO hard to navigate through the rock and bumps and
sand. The best part was having such a compatible group - we never waited for
anyone on the whole ride. Rob does this ride all the time after work and
he’s managed it in 2:07, but we took more like 3 hours with lots of view
stops.
The cycles were all different:
Bronson: KH36 w/125mm
Bruce: Coker Deluxe w/152mm
Nathan: Hunter36 w/125mm
Gary: Coker w/170mm
Rob: Coker Deluxe w/158mm
Scot: Wyganowski w/140mm and bike seat
If you want to really GO somewhere on unicycle, you need a Coker (well, a
36" cycle with a Coker Tire).
—Nathan