San Fran!

I spent the weekend in San Francisco visiting an old friend from high school. We drove to the city from Vallejo and had to navigate the maze of freeways and detours caused by the tanker truck accident last month, it was gridlock all the way to the Bay Bridge. Fisherman's Wharf was amazingly busy and coincidentally quite annoying. It's the definition of tourist-trap with street hustlers and performers all trying to catch a buck. Coit tower provided a scenic shot of the city skyline at night and a more tranquil experience of the city. The Tour of California has staged it's Prologue here for the last two years, and the climb up Lombard street is nothing to scoff at. I ended up talking about our lights to a couple of cyclists we ran into at base of the tower, one of whom works at R.E.I. It's a small world. We went for a bite to eat in Chinatown and ended up at a restaurant that I had been to about seven years ago, it was pretty weird since we just walked into one at random.After a delicious meal we cruised across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County. It is always cool going to the place where mountain biking got it's start, but it's frustrating to know that there are so many trail access issues in the area. There's a really cool movie called "Single Track Minds" that documents the rise of mountain biking around Mt. Tamalpais and the eventual legal battles that ensued. It's about 30 minutes long and is worth the time if you've got access to it. On to Oregon!