“You are only one bike ride away from a good mood."
The Coyote Creek Trail is a scenic and peaceful stretch of land along Coyote Creek, a favorite trail for hikers, joggers, horseback riders and bicyclists in San Jose, California. It was designated part of the National Recreation Trail in 2009. When we started these weekly biking trips about two months ago, it was just James Hunter and me. Then friend Bill Rothenberg joined us. During this particular trip, veteran bicyclist, and yoga buddy, Gary Covell came along.
We began our ride at the Coyote Creek Visitor Center parking lot at Anderson Lake County Park at around 9:45 AM and continued along the Coyote Creek Parkway which is the maintained southern Santa Clara County portion of the trail that includes a chain of county parks along the creek. The county portion is about 30 miles of a mostly flat paved trail heading up to Hellyer Park. It was sunny and the temperature would hit 89 degrees.
Just the day before I went to see an orthopedist for a follow-up check-up of the small fracture of my pinky finger resulting from the injury I sustained while biking along the Ritz Carlton Golf course just a week ago. The doctor's last words before I left his office were, keep a splint on my finger, ice as needed and “Don’t ride your bike!” I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity and felt reasonably assured with my self-clinging splint and bicycle gloves with finger cut-outs, I would be fine. There was no pain, the swelling and bruising were gone. I made due by just using the other finger four fingers to grip the handlebar and front right brake.
As we continued along, we saw hawks, deer, wild turkeys, an abundance of trees, green and brown grass and plants, bridges. The trail got a little busier with other bikers passing us going in the opposite direction. We met a young man on our return who had stopped off to the side with an electric retro-styled bike/moped made by the San Francisco-based ONYX (Photo). The retro styling is reminiscent of the 1970s and ’80s. This one was painted with the number 69. Though he had functional pedals, it was mostly for show and to escape being caught riding on a bike path with a vehicle that although street legal can hit a top speed of 60 MPH as opposed to ours that tops out at 20 or 30 MPH when driving downhill. His bike had much higher battery power and he told us it retailed for $3600 compared to my $1,000 Sondors’ with a seven gear Shimayo gear shift.
As we made our way back to the parking lot at the Coyote Creek Visitor Center a husband and wife passed us with their majestic horses and made their way to their horse trailers. Lunch today was at the Taqueria at the Chavez Supermarket recommended by Bill, one of ten locations in the Bay Area. Judging by the predominantly Mexican-American clientele we were at the right place. I ordered a Chicken Burrito in a taco bowl. Muy delicioso!
