I rode Jesse Marsh’s SF – Millbrae via Tunitas Creek Road permanent populaire for the first time last Friday as my last chance January effort towards the P-12. It’s a 104k (64.6 mi) ride described as a “point-to-point route from San Francisco to Millbrae. San Francisco to Half Moon Bay via Highway 1 and the new Tom Lantos Tunnel, over the coastal mountains on Tunitas Creek Road to Woodside, back to Millbrae BART via Canada and Crystal Springs Roads. Offered year-round.”
Highlights for me included shredding hard from start to The Bike Hut, where I ended up spending almost an hour chatting with the manager, Jay. Tunitas Creek was obviously rad, as was Kings Mountain Rd. The few miles through the burbs at the end were a bit meh, but understandably necessary for the route to end at BART. But once I was in Milbrae, I figured, why not just ride all the way home? And if riding all the way home, why not crash that hot tub along the Bay that I’ve seen so many times but never got in? So that I did:
I had a wonderful day in the saddle and in the bubbles, no doubt, but as I discussed in this post, it would’ve been way awesome to have ridden and soaked with friends. Steelhead is also on the route, in addition to another good hot tub at El Rancho Inn, so the moral of the story is that we need to ride this populaire together. I should also mention that the hot tub on The Bay has BBQ grills we could use as well. . . .
All this is to say that I want to start a First Fridays Populaire club. Here’s what I’m tentatively thinking:
Every First Friday we ride a permanent populaire (there are over 30 owned by SF Randonneur members)
7am departure from SF
Casual, steady pace of approx. 13mph rolling with most stops taking no longer than 10 minutes
Beer/food/hanging out at the end
Who’s in? Would anybody be up for doing this ride on March 7? If so, email dasbikesf [at] GGEEEEEMMMMAAAAIIILLL by Feb. 23 so I can organize our paperwork as a group. Please note that YOU MUST BE A REGISTERED RUSA MEMBER TO RIDE. I would be happy to help show a new randonneur the ropes, but please let me know if you are new to randonneuring beforehand so we can have a brief chat about it.
