RR: Vintage Steel on a Vintage Ride

[GP_pilot]

This past weekend I was up visiting my brother and bother-in-law in the San Francisco bay area. Fortunately, I had a completely free day to do anything I wanted. With my new toy sitting in his garage, I really wanted to ride down across the Golden Gate Bridge, through San Fran, and pick up Skyline Blvd for a visit to Alice’s restaurant in Woodside. But I’ve put the other ride off for long enough. There are few sports where you can visit its birthplace and enjoy the surroundings in its original state. Playing a round of links on St. Andrew’s old course would immediately come to mind for golfers. For mountain bikers, it’s riding Mt. Tam.

Since my brother lives in Marin County’s Kentfield, this is the view from his front door I’m faced with every time I’m up.



Of course no ride on Mt. Tamalpais would capture the essence of early mountain biking without some vintage steel. About as close as I want to get to a vintage 70s kluncker is with a 1991 Giant Igauna rigid hardtail.



I bought this bike to replace Scott’s first mountain bike that got stolen my sophomore year at college. (Wow, I
feel old now.)

So I set off for a leisurely ride to the peak being nearly 2,600’ higher, trying to put aside the fact I haven’t
done a significant ride on a fully rigid bike since the mid-90’s. But the first stop was the Village Peddler to
pickup the Marin bike map produced Marin County Bicycle Coalition.

Obviously, Mt. Tam lies w/ in Mt. Tamalpais State Park. Which is also well known for endless battle between the
Sierra Club and mountain bikers for access to singletrack trails. So much like Cuyamaca State Park here in San
Diego, bikers are mostly relegated to fire roads.



But today I didn’t care. It was all new dirt for me and I’m going up about as fast as I’m going down. I’m merely
out to enjoy the environment and views.







Mt. Tam is actually 3 peaks within 58’ of each other, but most everyone visits the east peak with the visitor’s
center. The other two have communication towers and radars and don’t have as good of views to the bay. Getting to
the east peak, most folks will take the old scenic railroad grade out of Mill Valley. But I went up the most direct
way from Kentfield which happened to be Indian Fire road to Eldridge Grade.



The climb seemed pretty grueling in parts with an average 11% grade on Indian Fire Rd and 7% on Eldridge, especially
with early 90’s gearing.



Eldridge offers more shade on the climb up with a few sections of forest.







Lookout tower comes back into view



Top of Eldridge



Reaching the visitor’s center up top, you park your bike then hike up to the lookout station.



Views on a clear day are worth the climb via foot or wheels. Or a drive up if you’re a couch potato.



San Fran & Sausalito in view



With lunch in devoured, it was time to head down Old Railroad Grade. This grade is packed down enough that I saw
several roadies going down and up. On the way down, you past one of two 100 year old inns on Mt. Tam, the West
Point Inn.



Although going down the Old Railroad Grade is nothing to write home about, there’s a few spots of interest if you’re
riding slow.









Instead of descending all the way into Mill Valley, I cut back over on Hoo-Koo-E-Koo Rd and back up Indian Fire Rd
to rejoin with the other end of Eldridge.



Forest canopy almost blocks out all of the light.



This late in the day, I was running into more people getting a head start on their weekend.

A view of Indian Fire Rd from lower Eldridge.



Heading north to Fairfax, I then joined up w/ Shaver Grade and Deer Park Rd. After a quick visit to Sunshine
Bicycle Center in Fairfax, I picked up Bicycle Route 15 to drop me back by Kentfield. These county routes are
marked like interstates for bicycles with signage to keep you off heavily traveled roads. So with 25 miles in the
books, I was definitely appreciative of bike suspensions. But I was also reminded how much slower you go and more
time to take in the sights around you.

If you’re going to spend any significant time in Marin, you’ll want to pickup the $12 bike map produced Marin County
Bicycle Coalition. Although you can view it here (http://www.marinbike.org/Map/SideA2008.jpg), it’s barely legible
even when printed on 11 x 17 paper due to its sheer size.

[lizardking]

Wow, it's beautiful up there!
Great pics!

[Pho'dUp]

Sweet. No head over to China Camp!

[CalEpic]

Thanks for taking the time to put together a great RR. The details you put in your reports help to capture a feel for the place.

Craig