Alone in the SAG van, totally gassed having biked down the Alpine Lake turnaround, almost 34 miles from returning to Markleeville, my decision was whether or not to take the SAG or try to ride my way back. SAG stands for “support and gear,” but it also is shorthand for the “SAG wagon.”

The paved Stevens Creek Trail in Mountain View was originally named on March 25, 1776, by Spanish explorer Anza for an Italian Franciscan friar, Guiseppe Desa, whose native town of Copertino is located near the end of Italy’s boot heel. Guiseppe in English is Joseph, which as San Jose remains the name of the nearby pueblo. Elisha Stephens created a ranch upstream on Cupertino Creek, which then took his name, misspelled as “Stevens,” but not before a settlement used Cupertino as its name.

Joe Shami began biking at age 57 in 1992. In July 2008, he started weekly Sunday rides up Mt. Diablo, regardless of weather. Accounts vary but at least 600 weeks is agreed upon and up to 615 consecutive weeks. Allowing for 52.14 weeks per year, the streak covered 11 years and 9 months.

As I neared the Woodfords former Pony Express Remount Station at 3 p.m., my goal seemed assured. I had already done both sides of Monitor Pass and the front of Ebbetts Pass, now headed toward the Carson Pass summit some 20 miles ahead. This was Saturday, July 18, 2020, one week after the now cancelled official Death Ride 2020 date…

Sometimes in biking those areas far from traffic and pristine you can forget bicycling can be a way to explore and enjoy more than redwood groves and ocean views. Nick Peterson, Jim Zavagno and myself embarked in September 2020 on two bike journeys within a couple of weeks to four Bay Area missions. We chose those landmarks not to celebrate or honor the missions but rather because the sites are centuries-old and historically familiar. However, we found that three of the missions have been completely rebuilt.

With lots of time these days, I’ve listed my favorite Greater Bay Area roads for each alphabet letter, with a preferential nod to those close to my home near Arastradero Road. Here’s the list…

My friend, Jym Clendenin, upon turning 80 in the summer of 2019 expressed to his biking circle about wanting to do 80 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing. That would be the equivalent of twice biking Mt. Hamilton Road up and back from Alum Park Road. Biking to the observatory once is a challenge—twice in the same day would be very…

In 1845 George Donner, a wealthy farmer, twice widowed, decided to sell his property and take his current wife and daughters from his two most recent marriages to Mexico. At age 62, when most men were settled, he was venturing the wild Indian lands headed toward a foreign country, leaving behind contact with adult children from his…

Well off the beaten path is Rancho Cañada del Oro, or the Valley of Gold Ranch, another open space preserve. It’s a very romantic name but a recent one, not that of the original Mexican land grant. The cañada is tucked away in Morgan Hill and drained by Llagas Creek. Llagas is Spanish for “sores” and is this case refers to…

Back before vineyards spread everywhere that houses didn’t already take over, the hills of California belonged to cattle. Where hills are too steep for neighborhoods, cattle still roam as they did in Old California. Thankfully, such land has been donated or affordably purchased for open space preserves that allow mountain biking on primarily…

Sure, you can load your water bottles with powdered electrolytes and stuff your back pockets with all varieties of gels or protein bars. But sometimes a ride just needs a booster rocket in the form of a doughnut, also efficiently spelled as donut. According to the Smithsonian, the doughnut was developed by the loving mother of a New England ship captain, who actually put nuts in the soft center of a small round cake. This has evolved into what you crave…

“Stack ‘em, pack ‘em and rack ‘em.” — Fred Thompson (Mr. Trudeau, Dulles operations chief), Die Hard 2. For years, my vehicle bike carrier was the flatbed of my Ford pickup truck. Now some truck bed carriers are made special for that, such as the one owned by my buddy Pete from Chicago who can clamp in his bike without removing wheels.

“Meet me at the Bucket of Blood.” How often do you get to say that? It’s what I told my wife as part of a prolonged training ride a week before the Death Ride. Four days earlier, three of us—Andres, Bill and myself—had left Palo Alto for a four-day road bike journey from southern San Francisco Bay to northern Nevada.

There are two kinds of Peninsula Loop bikers:  those who bike the 11.5-mile long Loop in Portola Valley clockwise and those who bike counter-clockwise. They both begin from Santa Cruz Avenue, built in 1868 as a toll road from Menlo Park to the coastal town. The Loop done clockwise takes off on Alpine Road, once the cattle-drive trail down the ridge from a coast-side ranch.

One winter morning you decide that this is the year for your first Century ride, target being 100, whether kilometers or miles. A 100K is definitely a good start but 100 miles is where it’s at this side of Europe. But if it’s a 200K (124 miles), now we’re talking. However, this article is about a good ol’ 100 miler ridden for the first time.

One of many Lake Tahoe circumnavigation rides is the self-proclaimed “America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride” or AMBBR for short. Having done that ride, twice, I can say that the ride around Crater Lake, which I’ve done once, could also argue for that same title, or at least for America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride around an Out West High Mountain Lake.

Biking south from Carmel is bicycling’s version of going through a hundred mile wormhole. It’s one long mysterious trip and, if you’ve never biked the coast before, you’re unsure what you’re going to encounter.

Mt. Hamilton is San Jose’s Mount Olympus, hovering with its white domes over Silicon Valley.  For bicyclists, the road to the top provides a pantheon-like Apollo to Zeus...