The meeing place, Muir Beach, was cold and foggy, so I was wondering if anybody was going to show up. I knew there was sun at the top of the mountain but wasn't sure if anybody else knew. However, to my surprise, we ended up being a group of nine and had a super fun ride in the Headlands. The group was formed by nine awesome riders who were (from left to right): Gavin, Nicole, Jason, Chad, Celia, Cowboy, Debbie, Danilo and Alan.
At the Muir beach parking lot, I kept watching all the riders getting their bikes ready and was wondering if I could be part of this ride's Team A since I am such a Team A wannabe and was unable to qualify for the previous ride. (to find out about qualifications for Team A and Team B membership click here). Chad was a Team A member on the last ride but he was going to be the rear rider this time so I didn't have to worry about him.
We first climbed to Pantoll via Coastal View Trail. On the way to the trail head, Gavin started having problems with his chain but it seemed Chad was able to fix it... yeah right....just keep reading and find out what happened.
The Coastal View trail climb was spectacular once we were able to climb above the fog, it was sunny and warm, it felt like flying as we were on top of the clouds.
In my opinion, the ride had four Team A members. The first one was Danilo who must be related to Speedy Gonzalez, although Speedy is from Mexico and Danilo is from Costa Rica. Alan and I were able to catch up with him at some point of the climb just because he stopped to take off his jacket and wait for us. The second Team A member is Alan, also a Team A from the ride before who reached the top quite fast. The third Team A member was Nicole because she was one of the first ones to reach the top despite being hangover from drinking and partying the night before just a few hours before the ride. She paid the consequences at the top of Coastal View, but I will refrain from saying what happened because I don't know her that well yet....). And the fourth Team A member was Jason, who didn't reached the top first but managed to get back down to the bottom of the mountain first and riding on his back wheel!!!
I was glad Debbie showed up for the ride to hear all the stories Cowboy always tells. Because she was meeting him that day, she didn't know his stories about his fuzzy cool shorts and his adventures. So she kept him entertained. Here is Danilo talking on his cell quite fresh and enjoying the sun at the top of Coastal View Trail.
The second part of the ride was about to start, we were back at the Pelican Inn when Debbie said she was bailing. At the same time, Gavin's bike came with a bent chain. I then decided to take a look and realized his chain was totally dried, no lube has been applied on that poor chain for at least 48 years! I fixed it with my chain tool, my chain link and Debbie's chain lube. Girls in action fixing bikes!
After that Gavin was really bummed since he didn't have any reason to bail. So the group said bye bye to Debbie and kept going to climb Middle Green Gulch to then descend back to the Pelican Inn via Diaz Ridge.
Here is a picture of amusing things you may encounter when you ride in the outdoors by farms and ranchs....
After a fun technical descend we ended up at the Pelican Inn for beers and dinner.
Ride Stats:
Total Time: 3 hrs 50 min (Moving time 2 hours)
Total mileage: 15.5
Total climb: 3,159 ft
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