"I have ridden the mighty Moon Worm." - Part 1
"I have ridden the
mighty Moon Worm."
- Al Gore*
"Good for
him."
- Phillip J. Fry*
*From Futurama: Crimes
of the Hot
"Black muddy river, roll on forever.
I don't care how deep or wide
if you've got another side
Roll muddy river, roll muddy river
Black muddy river, roll"
-
The Grateful Dead. Black
Muddy River, In the Dark
Stop for a moment and see this in your mind’s
eye. To men, both exhausted, driving back from Bike the Bridges. The two are
about five miles from the passenger’s house. The passenger has become quiet as
he looks out the window at the hills the separate Livermore and Tracey. He is
thinking about how he has been up there and road those hills. He thinks about
the hill he road today, but most he gets lost in the thought riding by those
windmills. He stares off into the distance tired but pleased. Proud of his
accomplishes from a week ago and proud of what he did today. The motion of the
car has lulled him into a trance. Transporting him from the car, back to his
bike, he is coming down Flynn Road at top speed. The grin the splits his face could light up a
dark star. He has just conquered climbing
the Altamont Pass and he is coming down wind blowing in his face. Victory was his. “I have ridden the mighty
moon worm.”
He is back in the car. He feels the Drivers glance on him, and he
looks over and the glance simply says “WTF?”
The passenger explains that he was back in the
hills in front of him, that he had passed those very windmills, and rolling
hills. He had ridden to the very top and
that the only thing that I could possibly come to his mind to express his
accomplishment at that point in time was that “I have ridden the mighty moon
worm.” He also explained that it wasn’t even original that he stole it from
that ever so great creator of the environment Al Gore. Well not really Al Gore
but kind of, you see he says that on a Futurama episode. The driver says oh
like when he is just a talking head in a jar, and the passenger agrees. I
really don’t have any words that convey the excite or the type of awe of what I
did. So, I have ridden the mighty moon worm, is all I could come up with. They
both shared a laugh in the M’s drive through when they stopped for a coffee and
the passenger shared the video of the Futurama clip with the driver. The
passenger added the best part of that is when Fry adds at the end “Good for
Him”. And Scene…
We come to the heart of the matter; I don’t feel
like I have the words to express how awesome Bike the Bridges was. Was there some controversy, yes, but we will
get to that. Was there some pain, yes,
it is called a terrible head wind. Was
it hard, of course, but isn’t hard what makes it so worth it? It was also beautiful. Peaceful. Just plain and simply an awesome
day, start to finish.
Part I:
The Ride:
Let’s just put the stats out there from the
Apple Watch…
Ride Time:
3:33:22
Distance:
31.74 Miles
Elevation Gained: 2,139 FT (Coospo had 2600,
Strava for the Beav had 2300)
AVG HR: 151 BPM
AVG Speed:
8.9 MPH
2 bridges crossed
2 bite me zone moments
1 Naraly Head Wind
The ride was fantastic. The first 27 miles or so were damn near
perfect. The last 5 because of the head
wind were harder than they needed to be, but that is just life.
The ride started in downtown Benicia which is
a gorgeous little town. Really, super
cool. We started in a park called the
First Street Green. Fabulous. Great view of the bay. From there you ride out and head for the
first bridge.
I had never ridden across a bridge
before. The Benicia-Martinez Bridge will
always be my first. As we crossed the
bridge, I forgot what exactly I was crossing over, so I broke out into song as
we rode over. “Black muddy river, roll
on forever. I don't care how deep or wide if you've got another side. Roll
muddy river, roll muddy river. Black
muddy river, roll” I sang my favorite Grateful Dead song because there for a
minute I thought I was crossing a river.
Only later did I realize I was crossing the bay, and thus the song
probably made little to no sense, however, I loved it. I smile big and wide as we went across. I enjoyed the cool air on my face. Looking out into the water at the boats. I
have a special relationship with water.
I am part Orca after all, they don’t call me the Black Fish in certain
circles because I am a land lover. There was something about riding over the
bridge that was just amazing. It took me to a very peaceful place. Playing the Black Muddy River over and over
in my head from the Dead didn’t hurt either.
After the bridge all I remember is
climbing. Lots and lots of
climbing. It was good climbing
though. I think I realized on the way up
the ride that I really like riding hills, and that probably makes me a
masochist. I think I told David either in the car on
Friday or on Saturday that my love of hills made me a masochist. He didn’t disagree with me. Which makes me think perhaps I am going down
a dark path here. I wish I knew the name
of the trail we rode. It was
gorgeous. I really enjoyed it. The scenery was fantastic. The views from up on the heights looking over
the bay. I should have probably taken
some photos, however, when you are locked into 30 miles of climbing you don’t
want to stop for photos or at least I don’t.
The trail was a complete tease too. Every time you got to a peak, you started to
come down. So, you thought you had found
the decent. That the madness was over. However, each time you came down, the trail
took you back up. There was never a
moment when it felt when you were truly just coming down out of the hills. It was a rolling up and down. I loved
it. I really did. I am proud to report every rise, I made it
up. There was not getting off the bike and pushing for me. Although a few times, I thought I had met my
match.
Like when I was climbing one nasty part. Then I heard voices, they were coming from
above me and I looked up and I saw people riding higher and higher above
me. I thought I was going to crap
myself. I had to go up there. No way that was going to happen. However, each time, I positioned my hands on
the crossbars and I went deep into my mind, and I started to peddle and each
time I made it to the top.
16 Miles into the ride we came to the Maritime
Academy rest area. Wow, do they know how
to put on a rest area. First, excellent
facilities to relieve oneself. Second,
amazing goodies. I had my first PBJ in a
very long time, OMG, it was so good.
Then we ventured over for a chocolate chip cookie. Fantastic.
All the while we could enjoy a nice game of water polo going on in the
Maritime pool. I told the Beav that we
should have had sailor outfits on for our bike gear b/c we were at the Maritime
Academy, but he said he didn’t want to be dressed like a seaman or covered in
it or something of this nature and I laughed out loud. I am one who does love an inappropriate
comment after all.
I made the mistake of looking at my watch at
this point and yes, we were 16 miles in, but we had only done 1,000 feet of
climbing, which meant the back half of the ride was not going to be all
downhill. I mean that meant if we had only climbed 1,000 according to the race
website, we had another 1,300 to go.
DIOS MIO! We were in for a long
ride. However, we would persevere, we
had too, it was the only way back to the car.
The back half of the ride was really
cool. A lot of ups and downs. A lot of climbing at least 1,100 feet
depending on whose count you think is accurate.
There was one steep guy after the Maritime place. It was on a street, that all I can think to
call it is Shakedown Street, because we passed like three houses that were
doing wake and bakes. My god, I love the smell of pot. It smelled awesome. When I climbed that steep bastard and got to
the top, I let out a huge bellow of victory.
I didn’t realize some dude had just ridden up next to me and I probably
popped his ear drum.
After that there was a really long climb. It was freaking awesome. It was a great challenge and I just kept
going, and going, and going. I rode a
lot of it with my burst ear drum new friend.
However, like most people he dropped me, when the up really
started. It was ok. I like to do hills alone in my own
headspace. The Beav was waiting for me
at the top and we road on.
There were a couple of rollers after that and
some great downhills. I caught David on
one hill, I think he let me go bye though.
However, it was the crowning achievement of my young cycling career to
catch the Beav on a hill and go around him.
One of these times I will get him when he is trying. Of course, he got me right back on the
downhill. I was very cautious on the
down hills for the most part because, I didn’t know the area. However, sometimes gravity just grabs me and
pulls me down the hill and I start mow docking.
That is always fun for me to swing around the people that pass me going
up. I will always be faster going down
than I am up. Gravity just works that
way on bigger objects.
The know I had two bite me zone moments. I only remember one of them. It was during one of the last few climbs and
I suddenly felt something pushing me from behind. It was my old friend the Wind God. It had shown up after all to see me on my
ride. What I didn’t know was that when I
took the next right, the Wind had a little something special in store for us
and that was a nice big Fuck You to the finish.
I don’t know what road it was I turned right
onto. I just know it was running
parallel with the highway. The wind
kicked into overdrive. It started
howling like a banshee. I am not sure
why the Beav thought it would be a good idea to come over to me at this moment
and start asking me about altitude.
However, the combination of seeing yet another climb in front of me and
the head wind from hell hitting me in the face.
I was like Altitude? However, I
am sure it came out like HEY FUCK YOU MOTHERFUCKER! Then I quickly waved him away from me. So, he peddled ahead of me, and I felt like
an ass eventually because I had acted like one.
Beav you are a good dude for putting up with all my bullshit! Thank you!
Then just like that we were heading back into
Benicia and its lovely downtown. We had
done it. For the first time in 10 plus
years I had completed a bike ride. I was
super stoked.
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