San Francisco, CA

Once I arrived back in Portland I retrieved my car and started heading back south. I was thinking of camping in Oregon for the night and trying to make it to Oakridge, OR the next morning for some mountain biking, but the forecast was even worse now than the week before when I passed by, so I bypassed that and made it back to the Shasta Lake area where I had camped on my way north. As I passed through the mountains in Oregon I could see that there was a decent covering of snow on the ground up above 4000’ meaning mountain bike season in the area was pretty much done for the year. I had resevations for the night in Pescadero at a hostel that is in the former lightkeepers quarters of an old lighthouse, and since Oakridge was out I had some time to kill. Originally, I left San Francisco out of my plans since I had been there a few times before and thought that I should spend my time exploring other areas, but with no where better to go I decided to spend the afternoon by the bay. I drove in and parked at the Marin Headlands where I ditched the car and unloaded my bike. Being the birthplace of mountain biking, I figured I had to do some riding around there and took off on a fireroad that led me down to the beach below the Golden Gate Bridge. Despite the history in the area, mountain biking has been pretty much eliminated from the headlands with bikes not allowed on any trails, but the fireroads were good enough for the casual ride that I had in mind. After cruising around the headlands for a short while, I rode across the Golden Gate and headed for Chinatown for dinner. Once fed I headed back to the car, and remembered that I no longer had my tailight, which was either stolen in Portland or lost on the train to Seattle. Fortunately, the streets were lit well enough that I was visible to cars and didn’t have to worry much, especially considering that I only had a short ride until I reached the Presidio where there was virtually no traffic. I made my way back across the Golden Gate and found an attendant waiting at the other side to close the gate for the night as soon as I got off. Fortunately I wasn’t any later than I was, or I would have been in trouble. After loading everything back into the car, I headed to Pescadero for the night so I could tell everyone that I spent the night in a lighthouse.