This weekend, on a spontaneuous whim I decided to bike to San Francisco. Starting from my home in Palo Alto, the ride was estimated to take 3-4 hours one way. Of course, I ended up getting lost and the journey ended up lasting from about 9AM to 3PM.
I like to bike because it’s an activity where I can explore purely for the joy of exploring. I have no real objective in mind, I’m just steadily moving forward and taking in the sights. While in real life, I often have to come with good ideas or some kind of plan to proceed, when biking, I’m always making progress little by little.
Some highlights on the journey: (These are my names, these places are not actually called these names).
- Nostalgia Road, a place near the bay nearby an old port. This place is a dirt road with patches of grass, elevated slightly over a large grassy field. I can’t quite put my tongue on why, but this place reminds me of an old Ghibli movie or something from my childhood.
- Tech Salt Field, a path along the shore with a stunning contrast. On your left are the super modern-styled buildings of the new Facebook headquarters, and on the right are flat salt fields looking out into the bay.
- The City of Water (Foster City). After biking on the highway and industrial zones for a few hours, I finally entered a suburbian area. Oracle basically owns all the office spaces here, but the town nearby is laid out near a bunch of water inlets and rivers. I accidently went down a long peninsula and had to backtrack quite a bit.
- Coyote Point Park! As I was running out of water, I stumbled upon these lush hills with a park building nearby. I was able to refill, use the bathroom, and I also took a nice nap in the sun.
- Airport Death Alley, a road leading out of the baylands and into SF Airport. I call it this because at this point of the journey I was very tired. This road is a long straight line, and the wind was pushing me completely in the opposite direction. It was definitely the toughest stretch of the journey with my legs burning.
- 3rd Street Entrance, when I finally left the hills of South San Francisco, and I could see the skylines of the city on the horizon. From here on out, it would be easy cruising.