CALVIN NIEH
Calvin Nieh // Mini Epic
Jan, Roland and I found parking along Woodside Rd in front of The Firehouse Bistro, one block away from Roberts Market. We rolled out at 8:11 am. It was foggy and cool. Should we have brought more layers? Jan decided to leave his vest in his car.
The ride along Canada, the bike trails at Sawyer Camp and Skyline was a nice warm up for the climbs and more technical terrain to come.
In Hillsborough, looking across hwy 280 overhead and seeing the famous Flintstone house beyond that was neat. You always see this Bay Area landmark from the freeway, but seeing how high up the 280 overpass is was surprising.
While the fog cleared up along the trails leaving Millbrae, we could see there would be a LOT more fog further down our journey.
From Skyline, we climbed steadily up Sneath to Sweeney Ridge.
At the Sweeney Ridge park entrance there was much appreciated bright sun.
The rugged paved trails through Sweeney Ridge and Planet of the Apes were very cool to ride through.
The views of the ocean and some other body of water (maybe still the ocean?) were beautiful, until about a mile after the "Fog Line" on the pavement, where the views disappeared in the fog.
Things got really interesting on Baquiano Trail. The path got technical, rutty, and steep.This was fun (although I had Roland go first on a couple of steep rutty pitches)!
Some fast paths felt sketchy with loose over hard packed dirt. I rolled on 42mm Specialized Pathfinder Pros in the front and GK 38mm knobbies in the back. Jan and I both let out some tire pressure for this part of the ride and that helped a lot. On the very technical stuff, I missed my 2.35" XC tires (different bike), but they would not have been great for most of this ride.
After getting into Half Moon Bay, all three of us looked forward to lunch at Pillar Point. Barbara's Fishtrap hit the spot. This is where the couple we met earlier passed us for good. I guessed they had more than just drinks and bars in their hydration pack. Our lunch was worth the stop.
Heading down the coast, along bike paths, the views of the cliffs, the Pacific, and orange California Poppies were beautiful.
Here's a Garmin pic of the zig zag path ahead
Forest view after the zig zags
Who needs a super bloom, when super-sized manicured blooms are on a paved route?
Once we got past the Ritz and Hwy 1, the Bike Hut was our last landmark before the climb up Tunitas Creek. A quick re-inflation of tires, refilling of water bottles, and a snack.. and we were on our way.
Tunitus was long and tough (as usual). Going down Kings Mtn was fast and fun (as usual). No pictures on either of these parts. 100% focus was required.
We arrived at Roberts Market mostly unscathed (I had a small slip in HMB, losing traction on a rutted 2' step-up), proud of what we accomplished, and filled with joy from our ride.
