Late, and I mean LATE Thursday night I arrived in San Francisco. It was 01:30 local time, and it seemed to take forever for the luggage to come off the plane. Maybe the delay was due to security opening both my checked luggage, and the bike case. My luggage had been riffled through, but no harm done. The bike was also intact, and I was able to secure a taxi with a boot big enough to take the bike. At every stop I’ve found people are very willing to help when you have an odd piece of luggage…
I woke early on Friday and took a ride from the hotel to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. The ride took me along the Embarcadero, and right through the famous Fisherman’s Wharf. There is a terrific bike path almost all the way from the city to the bridge. I made it to Fort Point which is at the base of the bridge, but I had to get back to the hotel to get ready for the day, so was unable to ride across the bridge. (plus there is a huge hill from the fort up to the bridge itself, and I was still tired from arriving so late the night before.)
Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Point
Since my flight to Tokyo was on Saturday morning, I decided to give the bridge crossing another go in the evening after the work day. Riding in the dark can be unnerving, especially when you are in a new city. I planned a route using Brouter, and then put the gpx file on my Garmin device so that I could follow the course. The bike also has a Son hub dynamo, and front and rear lighting, so at least I could see where I was going. The ride went well, and the hill up to the bridge was not as bad as I had feared. When I got to the park buildings at the top of the hill I could not figure out where the bike path was that led to the bridge. I very nice California Patrol Officer was able to direct me and gave some nice encouragement. It was terrific to ride across the bridge which had to be entered through a security gate. It was amazing to be on it after seeing it in pictures for so long.
On the bridge
The ride back to the hotel was mostly uneventful, other than my getting lost a bit. Next stop, Tokyo. Below is a gps trace of the ride.