Shelly Horton has given me permission to publish this retelling of Eddy Merckx's 1969 Tour de France, originally published in the email newsletter she produces with her husband Brett, 1K TO GO, using photos from their Horton Collection . Part one is here, and part two is below. Merckx Crushes the 1969 Tour Welcome back for Part 2 of Merckx’s domination of the 1969 Tour; hope you enjoy the…
Once before, an issue of the "1K To Go" newsletter from Shelly and Brett Horton, who maintain the Horton Collection , was so interesting that I wanted to share it, but couldn't, because the newsletter is email-only, so Shelly gave me permission to share it on my blog . They've produced another one, this time about young Eddy Merckx's first Tour de France, and it's again so good, and again,…
I love going on bikepacking trips. I often find myself daydreaming about going back out, not long after returning from one. But I have had enough suffering on trips lately. I've been thinking about how to have more fun. You know who has more fun? I think California Travis has more fun. I've been hearing stories and seeing pictures from his regular, social outings, and decided to try one. He shared…
LOST ON MOUNT TAMALPAIS. Gustav Herz Spends Three Days and Two Nights in the Dense Underbrush. He Missed the Trail and Became Hopelessly Astray in the Ravines of the Range. AWFUL HOURS OF DESPAIR. A Seasoned Traveler, He Attempts to Descend to Bolinas, but Was Overtaken by Darkness and Could Not Retrace His Steps - He Was About to Lose Hope When He Found a Fence, and Followed It to the Cabin of…
I volunteer with NICA , training coaches and working with the league to put on races. I've also been a coach and a head coach. I've done it for a long time, since before my kids were old enough to participate. They're now in their late twenties. My wife works at NICA, and I believe in its mission of getting more kids on bikes, as a way to 'build strong minds, bodies, character, and community.'…
Riding the Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc (OCVA) bikepacking route to Bend, Oregon My bike, just before I rolled out About to to roll out, mile zero Yes, I had anxiety. Not sure Jesus could help. I like to do rides from my door, if I can. I purchased a one-way ticket from Amtrak, Emeryville, CA to Klamath Falls, OR, with a checked bike for $20 extra, and the extra fee that would allow me to cancel…
OCVA to Bend, day one Camping with Jev and Grant Tapatio, for my breakfast of biscuits & gravy I shared some water with Jev and Grant, enough so that they could have coffee. They spoke like brothers, but they weren't. One of them told me they work together. I tried to guess what they did for a living. Turns out, they are letter carriers for the USPS. Grant and his bike, a Singular After a few…
OCVA to Bend, day two Climbing NF-700 in the AM, back to solo NF-700 panorama We all agreed we'd detach. Jev and Grant climbed faster than me, and to be honest, I preferred the solitude. It was one of the reasons I planned this trip. at the top of NF-770 Looking north on NF-2154 A beautiful view off NF-2153 blooming rhododendrons You see blooming rhododendrons all over the SF Bay Area. They're…
OCVA to Bend, day three I don't know why, but a Superchunk song, Tower kept looping in my head, specifically these lyrics: I have my days for sure But I don't count them Our free time is our wealth . Adam and I are copacetic. We did a tour last fall , along with three others, and we'd been bike riding friends for years. Our pace is usually in sync, as are our conversations. He'd left his home in…
OCVA to Bend, day four This would be my fourth day of riding all day on no sleep, and I'd really done myself a disservice by taking a second dose of diphenhydramine at 2:30 AM, four pills total. I was OK in the morning, but as soon as we started climbing, I could tell I was in big trouble. Adam's tent and bike morning breakfast along the McKenzie River Trail Adam on the MRT Adam on a bridge The…
OCVA to Bend, day five Three-Fingered Jack Love Bigger We got to the big hall, where breakfast is served at 8. Young people were queued up, and the kitchen was busy with workers. I spoke briefly with the director of the Big Lake Youth Camp , Les. He's a very nice guy, welcoming, and an outdoors person. Everyone was very kind and friendly. I got to the serving part of the line and I answered every…
Dan announced to some of us that on June 13th he'd ride the East Bay portion of the Bikepack the Bay route , used for a bikepacking race starting and ending in Fairfax, lapping the San Francisco Bay . Dan's route starts in El Cerrrito, and is mostly dirt along the ridge line to Union City. The idea is that you can link the start and finish with BART trains. I chose Sunday, 5/24 to ride a portion…
I picked a Saturday/Sunday in the middle of May for this month's BAM. Mark would join me. I hadn't done a bikepacking trip with him since he had to leave the Oregon Outback early , so I was glad that he wanted to do an overnighter with me. At the last minute, JP said he'd meet us out there, after coming back from Bolinas. The NIKE site, at the end of the Nimitz trail in Tilden is close to his…
My friend and neighbor Bobbi knows that I've been researching the Holy Names University property near where we both live. She shared this photo with me: "I bought it like 20 years ago from a photo collector on College - Bosko's." She felt it might be from the 1930s. I did some digging. The Spanish-style homes on what's now Monterey Boulevard and Guido were built by A. J. and J. S. Flagg in 1929 ,…
I georeferenced this map , from the Oakland History Center of the Oakland Public Library . It's here in 300dpi, zoom-able. (46MB) If you want the qgz and related files for QGIS, I'm happy to share them. Download and view it in 300 dpi here Enough of our modern city and county borderlines still match the original demarcation that I was able to georeference using only those points, and the map…
Descending on singletrack from Gudde Ridge, IYKYK April was a challenge to my project of sleeping outside, once a month on a bike ride, AKA Bivvy A Month , or BAM ; weather, travel and other commitments meant I only had a few days where I could squeeze one in. Thursday 4/9 to Friday 4/10 would be my monthly BAM. Friday is a work day, and an 8:30AM online meeting would be my finish line. I have…
My Hudski Dualist, leaning against a tree on Bolinas Ridge Background I started bikepacking on a mountain bike. I had been doing endurance MTB races - 100 miles , 8 hours, 24 hours, that sort of thing - and a person who was coaching and inspiring me was Lynda Wallenfels and her partner Dave Harris. I'd met them in 2008 at TransRockies . I'd paid Lynda to coach me to get fit for that race, and I'd…
My friend Sol wrote: And just throwing this out there - a bucket list ride for me is to do the Indians Road loop around the third week of March, which should be a stunningly beautiful time of year. Anyone want to join? This ride starts pretty close to Pinnacles, in my observation you can count on the 3rd week of March having spectacular wildflowers and green scenery at Pnnacles and in the…
I'm part of a dumb bike club called dfL. Ducky is our current ring leader. He has instituted series of spring-time Wednesday Night Rides, (WNR) ideally monthly, usually about the middle of the month, starting circa 4 or 5. I first had the honor of hosting one in 2020. We'd planned for a March 2020 Oakland hills MTB ride of my devising that Ducky called the "GP Morgan Fletcher." GP means Gran…
Back in June I spent a night on Bolinas Ridge, near the northern of two picnic benches . As I continued south I noticed a second picnic bench. I decided to stay there, another time. With March BAM coming up, that was my goal. I'd recently gotten a new handlebar bag from Bags By Bird . I wanted to try it out, which meant bringing my Hudski Dualist , my "ATB." A lap of the San Francisco Bay on…
Genealogy Othniel Young , 1758-1846 was my 5th great-grandfather. He was born in Smithfield , Rhode Island, USA and died in Burrillville, Rhode Island, ten miles away. Six generations later, my father was born sixteen miles from Smithfield, in Providence. What I found in military records was his pension application from August 7, 1832, made when he was seventy-four years old, for his service…
PIONEER DAYS. Another Batch of Oakland Reminiscences Bull Fighting and Wandering Cattle - The Lumber Business - The Teaming Boom and The Profits Derived Therefrom - Horace Carpentier's Pound - Cattle Thieves and Their Fate - The Tragic Death of George Sheldon. During 1851, 52 and 53, the town of Oakland was known as Contra Costa , and was surrounded by a dense forest of oak trees. The property of…
I found this Trail Map, Oakland Park Department in newspaper archives, on newspapers.com. It's from the Fremont News Register, June 15, 1968, Page 38. It's part of a twelve-page supplement called the Alameda County Weekender, focusing on the Sunday, June 16 Open Forum and Horse Show of the Metropolitan Horsemen's Association , including lots of photos from past events. Trail Map, Oakland Park…
Mullins and Coach People ask me what dfL stands for. I tell them, "It's whatever you want it to be." dfL is a dumb bike club, and I'm really glad to be a part of it. The elder statesman of dfL is "Coach." He'll be 70 this year, and he is stronger than me on a bike, and a tough nut. He likes to go on bikepacking trips and make routes. I've known about his trips for a while, but never done one with…
My friend Mark hosted a bike camping weekend at Point Pinole . He's interested in old bricks, and he collects them. His front yard has a nice border of bricks with the different maker's marks, and part of the draw of Point Pinole was an old brick dump, where I found this brick: A San Francisco City Hall brick It inspired me to research the bricks used for the second San Francisco City Hall, and I…