safe routes to schools respecting the road - Marin County Bicycle ...
safe routes to schools respecting the road - Marin County Bicycle ...
safe routes to schools respecting the road - Marin County Bicycle ...
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How About Bike Touring?<br />
By Dwayne Price<br />
Your bicycle can be more than a workout machine or beach cruiser. It can also be a<br />
<strong>to</strong>ur bus opening up <strong>the</strong> world in ways you may never have imagined. People have<br />
been bicycle <strong>to</strong>uring since <strong>the</strong> bicycle was invented and <strong>the</strong>y keep doing it, young and<br />
old, solo and groups, wanderers and schedulers, with friends, with children, with pets<br />
even. Is it for you?<br />
It’s early evening in <strong>the</strong> hiker/biker site at Veterans Memorial Park in Monterey. I am<br />
sitting at a picnic table that’s loaded with food and cooking gear, and listening <strong>to</strong> a young<br />
couple, he from France, she from <strong>the</strong> UK, as <strong>the</strong>y talk about <strong>the</strong>ir ride down <strong>the</strong> Pacific<br />
Coast and how <strong>the</strong>y hope <strong>to</strong> get a job on a yacht out of Panama or Columbia heading<br />
<strong>to</strong> Morocco. Across <strong>the</strong> table, ano<strong>the</strong>r young Brit is nursing scrapes from a minor spill<br />
earlier that day.<br />
Welcome <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> world of bicycle <strong>to</strong>uring, where you meet interesting people, eat all you<br />
want, see things in new ways, and find as much adventure as suits you. As you probably<br />
already know, riding a bicycle exposes you <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> world and intensifies <strong>the</strong> experience in<br />
ways <strong>the</strong> insularity of an au<strong>to</strong>mobile will never enable: “Gee, I never knew that hill was<br />
<strong>the</strong>re!” “Now if I leave a little early, I can get a tailwind.” “Will that little dog still be sitting<br />
by <strong>the</strong> steps when I go by this morning?” Traveling by bike will enrich your <strong>to</strong>urist<br />
experience in <strong>the</strong> same ways.<br />
It’s late morning as Amtrak’s Capi<strong>to</strong>l Corridor train slows down <strong>to</strong> cross Suisun Bay.<br />
My wife Nancy and I got up early this morning at <strong>the</strong> Lake Solano Campground so we<br />
could enjoy our ride through Pleasants Valley <strong>to</strong> Suisun City, where we caught <strong>the</strong> train<br />
<strong>to</strong> Richmond. Now we can relax, enjoy <strong>the</strong> ride and take in <strong>the</strong> scenery while our bikes sit<br />
<strong>safe</strong>ly s<strong>to</strong>wed in <strong>the</strong> racks that most of <strong>the</strong> Capi<strong>to</strong>l Corridor cars have. We started this trip<br />
two days earlier, taking <strong>the</strong> train in <strong>the</strong> opposite direction in<strong>to</strong> Sacramen<strong>to</strong> so we could<br />
ride <strong>the</strong> American River Trail <strong>to</strong> Beal’s Point campground in Folsom, <strong>the</strong>n head back down<br />
through Sacramen<strong>to</strong> and Davis <strong>to</strong> Lake Solano near Winters. In <strong>the</strong> reverse of that trip,<br />
we will transfer <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> Golden Gate Transit Route 40 bus <strong>to</strong> get over <strong>the</strong> Richmond/San<br />
Rafael bridge and back home.<br />
<strong>Bicycle</strong> <strong>to</strong>uring doesn’t have <strong>to</strong> involve putting your bicycle in a box for shipment, getting<br />
a passport, and flying all night so you can ride around Italy for two weeks—though<br />
that would be a very nice trip that I would like <strong>to</strong> take someday. From <strong>Marin</strong>, you can go<br />
for an overnighter, a couple of days, a week or more just by riding out your front door<br />
and heading north, south, east or even west. By using <strong>the</strong> bicycle racks that virtually all<br />
transit systems now have (thanks in part <strong>to</strong> advocates like our MCBC), you can extend<br />
your trip and/or make it an easier ride. For instance, book a visit <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> Pt. Reyes Hostel,<br />
and hop on<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> West <strong>Marin</strong> Stagecoach <strong>to</strong> Pt. Reyes<br />
Station if you don’t want <strong>to</strong> ride <strong>the</strong> full distance. Or take<br />
a few days <strong>to</strong> ride down <strong>the</strong> coast <strong>to</strong> San Luis Obispo<br />
or Santa Barbara, <strong>the</strong>n take Amtrak back <strong>to</strong> Emeryville<br />
(<strong>the</strong> Coast Starlighter requires bikes <strong>to</strong> be boxed, but all<br />
staffed stations have boxes for sale for $10).<br />
It’s still early morning as my bro<strong>the</strong>r Joel and I roll our<br />
bikes on<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> Graf<strong>to</strong>n/St. Charles au<strong>to</strong>mobile ferry. On our<br />
left, <strong>the</strong> Mighty Mississippi heads on down <strong>to</strong> its meeting<br />
with <strong>the</strong> Missouri River and <strong>the</strong> Gulf of Mexico. On our<br />
right, somewhere amid <strong>the</strong> jumble of trees, water, and river<br />
bank, <strong>the</strong> Illinois River has joined us. Straight ahead, a mile<br />
or so away, is <strong>the</strong> state of Missouri. Joel and I have ridden<br />
here from Jerseyville, <strong>the</strong> little Illinois <strong>to</strong>wn that we last<br />
called home more than 40 years ago. We stayed with an<br />
old friend from high school. Over <strong>the</strong> next few days we will<br />
be sampling <strong>the</strong> Midwestern motel scene as we ride down<br />
through a bit of <strong>the</strong> Ozarks, across sou<strong>the</strong>rn Illinois, and<br />
in<strong>to</strong> Kentucky (via ano<strong>the</strong>r ferry across <strong>the</strong> Ohio River) <strong>to</strong><br />
visit <strong>the</strong> village where we were born. But first, this ga<strong>the</strong>ring<br />
of waters <strong>to</strong> cross: a mile-wide ditch constantly flowing<br />
south, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has <strong>to</strong> be seen<br />
<strong>to</strong> be believed—and seen from our level <strong>to</strong> be really felt.<br />
You see things from an au<strong>to</strong>mobile or bus, but you<br />
feel <strong>the</strong>m from <strong>the</strong> seat of a bicycle. On a drive through<br />
Big Sur, <strong>the</strong> many pullouts and vista points offer amazing<br />
pho<strong>to</strong> ops. But when you’re riding a bicycle, you also<br />
feel <strong>the</strong> sun, <strong>to</strong>uch <strong>the</strong> fog, and become a continuous<br />
specta<strong>to</strong>r as <strong>the</strong> murmur of <strong>the</strong> surf slowly follows you<br />
up and down. In <strong>the</strong> twelve years that my family lived<br />
in Jerseyville, I’d never taken that ferry at Graf<strong>to</strong>n; <strong>the</strong><br />
bridge at Al<strong>to</strong>n was much more convenient for driving<br />
<strong>to</strong> St. Louis. But a bicycle trip begs, even requires, that<br />
things like ferry crossings be experienced. Touring by<br />
bike, you will see things you never saw before—and<br />
<strong>the</strong> things that you have seen before will be different.<br />
It’s been almost an hour since we set out with full panniers<br />
and empty s<strong>to</strong>machs. There has got <strong>to</strong> be an open<br />
restaurant around here somewhere. Well, ask someone.<br />
“Try over <strong>the</strong>re around that building and down <strong>the</strong> stairs,”<br />
he says. Yep, <strong>the</strong>re it is and <strong>the</strong> menu posted out front has<br />
BISCUITS AND GRAVY! They turn out <strong>to</strong> be big biscuits<br />
with lots of gravy just <strong>the</strong> way I like it, and I can eat as much<br />
as I want because I will be burning lots of calories for <strong>the</strong><br />
next six or seven hours.<br />
Indulge! But instead of coming back from your trip<br />
with a few extra pounds you will probably be cinching<br />
in your belt a notch. Just make sure you don’t continue<br />
<strong>the</strong> habit when you’re not getting places by bike.<br />
It’s about midnight when ano<strong>the</strong>r car rounds <strong>the</strong> bend<br />
and briefly lights up my bivy, my air mattress, and my<br />
pannier-laden bicycle. Not <strong>the</strong> best choice for a guerrilla<br />
camp, but no one bo<strong>the</strong>rs me and I will be up and out at<br />
dawn. Why am I here? Well, Golden Gate Transit got me<br />
and my <strong>to</strong>uring bicycle <strong>to</strong> Santa Rosa. Mendocino Transit<br />
<strong>the</strong>n <strong>to</strong>ok me <strong>to</strong> Willits before it headed west <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> coast<br />
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