The weather this past week has been crazy and scary (commence fire season; I woke up this morning to the smell of smoke) but also incredible. I’ve gone to sleep every night sweating on top of my bed sheets (why have I never purchased a fan?!) and got pummeled by hail at Mt. Tam on Sunday (channeling this guy’s energy from a crazy hailstorm in France), but I’ve also seen some incredible sunrises and sunsets, and spent many late evenings in the park without bringing a blanket and two jackets.
I’ve started to think I should use this blog to post photos since there’s only so many times I can spam followers on Instagram with my – let’s be honest – mediocre iPhone photography. And it’s nice to have photos and memories aggregated somewhere.
So, Saturday:
Thomas and I – admittedly, stupidly – did not check the weather and drove from San Francisco, where it was an abnormal-but-bearable 89 degrees, to Petaluma. I wanted to do a bike ride around the Sonoma Coast and decided on a 60 mile loop that started in Nicasio and headed toward Tomales Bay, down to Point Reyes, and back up along the Nicasio Reservoir. By the time we had loaded our bikes in the rental car, driven the hour there, and spent a substantial amount of time applying sunscreen, it was just before 11am when we hit the road. Sure, it was hot, but after plenty of chilly and cloudy San Francisco “summer” days we were eager to embrace the heat. We did not, however, appreciate just how hot it would be.
The ride was absolutely beautiful, taking us along Sonoma’s golden rolling hills,
past dairy farms and herds of cows crowded under the shade of a single tree,
and along the stunning coastline on a cloudless day.
But after two hours of riding unshaded roads in the middle of the day we started to crack. We stopped at Hog Island around mile 40, not to eat oysters (because 1) the line is always obscenely long, 2) oysters are extremely expensive for a food that neither of us particularly enjoy, and 3) I’ve never met anyone who craves oysters in the middle of a bike ride), but so I could refill my water. Although I’d already consumed over a liter of electrolytes and had two “salted” energy gels, my pee was bright yellow (if you don’t want to read about my bathroom habits, unsubscribe now).
I still felt surprisingly good, though, and it was only at mile ~55 that I thought I might keel over and die. Miles 55-60 featured me focusing on taking deep breaths and trying not to vomit while pedaling at a snail’s pace to the car.
Overall: 10/10 for the bike loop, 3/10 for my preparation and foresight, and a solid 9/10 for the 7/11-brand Pedialyte which brought me back to life on the drive home.
