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| From Woodside Port... |
When I go for bike rides, there is a route I like to take when I feel like climbing the big hills. Sometimes I make it longer and climb the REALLY big hill, but that adds about 10 miles and about 1200 more vertical feet. Ouch! But now it is your Portola loop too.
It is quite scenic, to say the least! So now that you'll really only take a nap if your mom drives you around, she takes this same route and I'm kind of glad, not that you'll remember this scenery, but this is something I'm really really going to miss when we leave. You mostly like it for its abundance of big trees and horses.
I like it because I ride past Buck's, one of my favorite Valley restaurant scenes ever. The most unassuming place to eat brunch shoulder to shoulder with Valley luminary millionaires. You can always tell them because of the Costco jeans and t-shirts. Jeez I love this place... Hard to tell that just over this unassuming bridge begins the march of $20 million (and up) estates, home to Charles Schwab, the amazing place Oracle's Larry Ellison built for something like $150 million, and so much Real Estate pornography you eventually become numb to it (kind of).
I think it drives your mom nuts that I take pictures while riding. I don't know, not really the same doing it out here as it would be in the middle of Redwood City. Plus sometimes I get the blurry edges, because I'm going so darned fast. I took a lot of pictures on this trip, thinking about long Chicago winters and having these pictures on a screen saver in front of a bike trainer. Or so I tell myself.
Besides, hardly any cars (but for the occasional Porsche, Ferrari, or gigantic SUV), there are more bikers on these roads than cars most weekends.
It really looks like rustic undeveloped land. That's because $20 Million buys you a lot of land, and you use the parts by the road to insure privacy.
So it is not all about the real estate. Those 'privacy acres' make for some really amazing bike scenery, very lush and green and shady and marvelous.
This is the intersection where the ride could get serious. Turn up Old La Honda, and you are in for some real leg-twisting climbing... And a VERY fast trip down the hill if you climb all the way to the aptly-named Skyline, which sits about 2200 feet above sea level! If I translate that ride to Chicago, I think I'd have to ride all the way through Wisconsin to do that many vertical feet. I don't think I'll be trying that in February though...
Yeah, just like Chicago!
If you can't tell, I've got some issues about this move. I know it is for the best, and we'll be close to family and that is great! Plus, I'm not in immediate danger of having over a million dollars for a house, and that's not a nice house by any means. Still, I'm going to miss bike rides like this.
It is really fun hammering through these mountains. This shot is 100% safe, by the way, both hands on the handlebars and I've worked out a nice system. Only 1 in 10 of the shots turn out, but I think they are pretty cool.
Also going to miss the gigantic eucalyptus, redwood, and douglas fir trees lining driveways and the road. Completely amazing.
And then, joining up with the big road to go back down the hill towards home. I had to bail on Arastradero Road this trip, cause I took so many darned pictures. That part of the loop dumps you out down by Stanford, which is quite a nice place to eat an energy bar and contemplate how awesome the ride was.
Oh yeah, this is some good stuff.
California, I will miss you terribly. We're trying to take full advantage while we can, but laying around sick as heck sure isn't very much fun. Three more days until we head to the Midwest, and as we're looking at house listings with front yards full of snow, I just keep thinking in the back of my mind...
Ahhhh, serenity now!
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