Bicentennial Campground Bikepacking Trip

 I've had my eye on the Bicentennial Campground for the last few years, trying repeatedly to get a campground reservation and failing every time. I finally got one for the weekend of September 9th, but Bowen had some math contest and Boen had a soccer tournament. Kids don't appreciate that these hard to come by reservations may never happen again, but a sure way to turn your kids off cycling and camping and other outdoor activities is to force them into it so I didn't push. (And to be honest, I'm a lousy sales person anyway!)

Over labor day week we all caught COVID and only got better the week after labor day. While I was able to ride the kids to school, I had no motivation to ride hard or to train, and I was warned by people that over-exertion could be one factor that causes long COVID. But I wasn't going to miss on on that reservation, so I gave the other 2 spots on the campground to Stephan and Otto, who would drive over, while I would ride the easiest route to the campground. If it proved to be too challenging I was prepared to take the train home on Sunday.

Departing from home, I had my vintage 1993 North Face sleeping bag, my Nemo sleeping pad, the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1 and a ground sheet for it (which I don't consider optional), and a Klymit camping pillow. I had tools on the left side of the saddlebag and food on the right side. I had a toothbrush/toothpaste kit, floss, two packets of Apple Cider, and 3 instant coffees. I eschewed bringing freeze-dried food or a stove to keep the load light, planning to buy a burrito in San Francisco on the way to the campground, and mooching off Stephan for breakfast. I held everything with a Carradice Camper Longflap and a bagman saddlebag support. The Carradice had to have the long flap unfurled in order to support the tent, and once in place the tent wouldn't fall off. However, if I'd tried to load anything more the tent would start slipping if I stood up so I gave up bringing my CPAP setup. I thought about bringing the Roadini instead, but I'd just had COVID and I wanted the lightest possible load for a tour I wasn't sure I was going to complete.

Upon setting off, I felt good enough that I rode over Arastedero road and Portola Valley road before climbing Mountain Home to get to Canada road. I stopped at the Pulgas Water Temple to get some Hetch Hetchy water into my bottles and to eat a couple of bars. Upon departing the Water Temple I rode on Skyline and followed another cyclist onto the Sawyer Camp trail. I was told that the trail had a closure that prevented me from using it all the way to San Francisco but I could get off and use the road and the 280 connector instead. Who did I meet but fellow Western Wheeler Rao Loka.

We took a selfie to commemorate the occasion and I headed off onto the road. It had been more than a few years since I rode this route and I made more than a couple of wrong turns before finding the Northern portion of Sawyer Camp trail to avoid riding too much on Skyline. The ride was much worse than I remembered, with a very dirty shoulder that's obviously not maintained and 2 major freeway intersections, once with Highway 1 and once with Highway 280. Both were challenging unloaded and are painful with camping gear.

Once in San Francisco proper I got into Great Highway which was closed to cars. I used my Fenix to navigate through Golden Gate Park to Gordo Taqueria in Clement. They didn't have my favorite Al Pastor but the service was fast and they didn't even so much as blink when I rolled my bike into the shop to place my order.

After I rearranged my saddlebag to give an entire side pocket to the burrito, I again used the navigation system to navigate to the Golden Gate bridge through the Presido, a gorgeous ride. You couldn't see the tips of the towers on the Golden Gate Bridge but the views were nice and I was tired of sun anyway.

The bridge was an obnoxious crossing as usual on a Saturday afternoon, full of tourists on rental bikes clogging up the narrow bikeway. I overtook as safely as I could, and then headed up  Conselman road despite the GPS telling me otherwise. It was a mistake as the wind and the fog made it a slightly unpleasant experience. On the other hand, I always enjoyed the descent, though it wasn't as impressive as when the Western Wheelers do it in Spring when you get gorgeous views.

Arriving at the campground I rode my bike down to it and being a little tired, slowly pitched my tent. I did it so slowly that by the time I finished Stephan and Otto had arrived.

The view from site #3 at the campground was nothing short of amazing. But we had site #2. It would turn out that site #3 never showed up --- at $25/night people would book these incredibly hard to get campgrounds and abandon their reservations when their plans changed. The obvious solution is to charge a lot ($100/night), but then people would complain about how unfair that would be to poor people. So instead, it takes 3 years to get a reservation and many people who would love to camp in these amazing places just might never be able to get a reservation.

After the tent was pitched Stephan suggested visiting the Point Bonitas Lighthouse trail, which I'd never been. We arrived after the trail was closed, but the location was nothing short of gorgeous.

Stephan discovered that he'd forgotten matches. So we made  a trip to Sausalito to buy them. We then made dinner and after I'd helped eat some (in addition to the Burrito, which I'd already finished while Stephan and Otto were pitching their tent), I walked up the hill and made some sunset pictures from the nearby gun batteries.

When Stephan and Otto were done with dinner we decided to go exploring in the car. The sun was long since down so I suggested we visit Fort Baker to see the golden gate bridge as everywhere else was fogged in. It was a nice view.

We went to bed early as I was quite tired. I promised myself that I'd ride the tunnel road the next day and if I had no vim I'd ride to the train station and take the train home instead of my ambitious plan to ride Purissima Creek home.

I got up at 6:15am and started taking down the tent while the coffee was being made. I was motivated to get an early start in case I decided to take the ultra-long way home.

I helped Stephan and Otto eat their home made yogurt and granola, and also gave Otto my snickerdoodle cookies. I was full and ready to leave at 7:30am, and to my surprise rode my loaded bike up the trail back to the road with vim!

I made it easily through tunnel road and onto the entrance to the bike path to discover it was too early and so it was closed. I had to take the bridge over to the other side. After that, Garmin navigated me through the presidio again and back onto the Great Highway. I dreaded the climb out of San Francisco along a bad road, but two things changed. First, I was fresher, and secondly, Garmin knowing I wanted to be in Pacifica got me off Highwy 35 very early and along a bike route into Pacifica! The bike route rolled along residential streets before descending into Pacifica along a road unknown to me previously, eschewing traffic and was in general a stress free experience.

Once in Pacifica, I rode along bike paths under cloudy skies, and happily rolled along, discovering bike paths I didn't know existed until I got to the climb out of Pacifica onto devil's slide. This was a narrow piece of road and I had to be assertive to keep cars from trying to squeeze past me. Fortunately, it's fairly short and once I got to Devil's slide it was pretty enough and memories of me mountain biking in the area came back to me.

Once past the bike path on Devil's slide I was descending and traffic was light enough that I could let fast traffic past me and then pedal like crazy to try to keep up with traffic until I got to half moon Bay, where the sun finally came out, forcing me to stop and take off my arm and leg warmers as well as put on sunscreen.

In downtown Half Moon Bay I stopped for a smoke salmon bagel that was excellent if costly, and then turned off navigation on my watch as I was running low on battery. It had been more than 10 years since I climbed Higgins Purisima road, but I was heartened to see road closure signs. That meant low or no traffic! 

The climb was steep and slow with a loaded bike but I had plenty of food left so didn't hesitate to eat the remains of my caffeinated Clif Bloks. The road climbs to over 700 feet before descending back to 400 feet at Purissima Redwoods Park, where I ignored all the closure signs and rode into the park to begin climbing Purissima Redwoods trail, a hike I'd done with the kids before that looked rideable on a bike.

I passed a woman hiking and she said: "Hey, I saw you earlier riding on the road! I'm glad you made it!" I rode up the gentle fire road and to my surprise there were not wet sections that were slippery. Despite my load I could tackle every steep pitch with aplomb, though I did stop a couple of times to rest and give my back a break. On an unloaded bike this ride would have been a piece of cake. A woman walking the other way told me that I was incredibly strong to be able to do this on a bicycle. I didn't feel strong but every encouragement helps so I told her I had began the day in Marin County.

At the end of the climb, I ran into two rangers who told me that the alternative to Tunitas Creek would have two steep pitches that I probably would have to walk on my bike. From there, I descended Kings Mountain Road slower than usual and then rode home via the shortest, fastest route, meeting up with Shelley on the way.

What a great trip. I'm so glad that COVID while it sucked, didn't take away this trip!