San Mateo to Costanoa (10 miles north of Davenport)

50 miles, 3500 feet of climbing, road kill report soon

What a day! Save for the last 10 miles of the route, this is a route we know well - especially Arn - as he has ridden it many times when we lived in the Bay Area. We got to ride some of the classic roads on the Peninsula, and even had the correct timing to take advantage of Bicycle Sunday on Canada road. We saw hundreds of riders today while riding on the east side of the mountains - once we crossed Skyline, there were still lots of riders but they were more spaced out.

We also considered this our "make-up exam" for our shuttle day when Arn had a broken spoke. The Adventure Cycling Route has you travel from SF to our location today staying on the coast. Instead, we rode inland yesterday followed by a crossing of the coast mountain range today. Our "make-up" crossing of the coast mountains.

We started the ride with a fun, quick ride over to Woodside Bakery where we met Dave A., our "domestique" for the next 26 miles to Pescadero. Dave and Arn have ridden countless miles together and it was fun that he got to ride with us for a part of our journey. In Pescadero, we stopped at our favorite deli for lunch and picnic sandwiches.
After, we parted ways and enjoyed a leisurely 10 miles to our resting spot for the evening. We knew it was getting close to Halloween as we saw lots of pumpkins near the coast.
Today was the first day in our journey when motorcycles were a real problem. Usually, motorcyclists are super courteous - especially Harley-riders. The people riding Japanese bikes are often riding for speed more than scenery and sometimes pass more dangerously. Well, today it was absolutely crazy with motorcyclists passing us going much faster than the speed limit, leaning into turns with one knee practically on the ground. On some corners, they literally were a foot away from us or less going way to fast. Fortunately, there was only about 6 miles of the trip with a high density of motorcyclists. Uggh.

Tonight we have another treat as we are meeting some other friends, Dave and Sue, and their family at a nearby farm (a friend of theirs owns it). After spending only 5 hours apart during the past 3.5 weeks, it is good to be in the company of friends to help balance out all of our blissful togetherness :-)