Coyote Hills

There aren't that many cycling routes left in the Bay Area that I haven't done. Most of them are that way because I find them either too difficult, too far away, and/or just too unappealing. But today I ended up at the Coyote Hills Regional Park, just across the Dumbarton Bridge (see last week's ride) for the first time ever, and I quite literally had no idea that these bike trails even existed. The scene you see here is along the eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay -- yes, really, with lush, green hills at the water's edge, with a multi-use path winding along the side of the hills. And with today's brisk winds, the sky was perfectly clear, meaning that the buildings of downtown San Francisco were clearly visible (but not in this view) all the way down here.

The occasion was an ALC "Cyclist Representatives Ride," when many of the staff from San Francisco came down to ride with us out here in the provinces. Kudos to Russ for scoping out today's 25-mile ride, about half of which was on paved off-road trails.

Apologies to anyone who thought I shunned them by riding ahead of the group, but my timing turned out to be highly fortuitous -- the rain started to fall almost as soon as I got back to Mountain View.