san francisco

With the forecast reading 50% chance of rain, I expected at least a drizzle, but oddly enough, it was dryer than yesterday.  Maybe a tad more humid, but not one drop of water from the sky.  As a contrast to that, I must’ve eaten at least 5 gnats that filled the air along the bike path leading to Camino Alto.  On the short climb, I saw a guy at the side of the road, his bike propped up.  He was pacing back and forth, with his hand on his hip.  The corner must’ve caught him off guard, and he slid out, off into the bushes.  I called out to him, asking if he was okay (which received a mixed facial expression), and if he needed me to call anyone – he said that he already had someone coming for him.  The guy seemed frazzled, but mostly okay.  I can’t speak for his bike though.

Then I caught up to the school bus, but the kids appeared to have stepped up their game, since they were on the bus and seated in a flash.  As I rode back towards Sausalito, I saw 4 guys, one of which was definitely Travis (and then I’m assuming the other guys were Connor, Joe, and Naveen, maybe?).

Shortly thereafter, there was a construction worker blocking the pedestrian side of the bridge with a stop sign.  I guess a mini-truck was heading the opposite way, or something.  Soon, about 8 of us were on our way.  There’s been construction at various points of the Marina greens, so I’ve been fairly cautious of where the new curbs and pedestrian slants are.  Last week I smacked a 2″ curb with the front wheel, and surprisingly, it still rolls smooth/true.  Today, I was coming around one of the bends and saw this massive 4″ gap of asphalt that was about 4″ deep.  I was perpendicular to the gap, but was making a sweeping left turn over it.  My front wheel slid into the gap for a split second, and my momentum started shifting forward.  I was prepping for the inevitable endo, but somehow, the front wheel bounced out of the gap, shimmied for a second and kept going straight.  There was a commuter changing out a flat at the side of the road that yelled out: “That thing nearly split my tire!”.  That’s some dangerous stuff…there should at least be a safety cone there.  You could face plant yourself into the ground if you were running in low light.

I believe the good weather is about to leave us, briefly.  The forecast for this morning was foggy, so some mist was to be expected, but I didn’t expect it to be drizzling in Marin.  Camino Alto was a tad wet on the descent, enough to get the tires glistening, so I slowed it up a bit as not to slip out.  Luckily, this time around, the rear derailleur cable didn’t snap, though it was a bit sticky the whole way through.  Not to worry though, I’d rather have the cable sticking to the inside of the housing rather than having it sheer off in the shifter.  So from that perspective, the ride went well.

Eventually, the drizzling stopped.  I caught up to a school bus but was making decent time anyway, since the wind was minimal.  I didn’t see any cyclists I knew, though I did see Tito, the bridge patrol police officer, chilling in one of those mini car things.  Ominous clouds are lurking…I really hope it doesn’t rain, but I have a feeling that it will.