"Listen to the wind it talks, listen to the silence it speaks, listen to your heart it knows."
We drove up to San Francisco in two cars for this much anticipated bike trip with friends Jimi Hunter and Gary Covell in one car, and Bill Rothenberg and me in Bill’s old but trusty SUV with 175,000 miles on it. We parked in front of the Cliff House, off loaded our bikes and did some touring of sections of the city before riding the coastal trails to the Golden Gate Bridge. The first stop was The Palace of the Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum that sits atop a bluff at Lands’ End overlooking San Francisco Bay. A copy of Auguste Rodin’s “Thinker" sits on a pedestal in front of the Ionic columns of The Court of Honor at the entrance.
We passed the late Robin Williams old Victorian pink residence in the Sea Cliff area just west of the Presidio. The comedy legend had an epic collection of high end and custom bikes that was auctioned off by his kids after he died to support charities Williams championed: The Challenged Athletes Foundation, which supports athletes with disabilities, and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Known as an avid cyclist himself, and a big fan of professional cyclists and friends Greg LeMond, Lance Armstrong, and Scott Tinley, the two-time winner of the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, Williams became a super fan during Le Tour de France. The story goes he rode bikes while working on film sets. Our very own Jimi Hunter, a former triathlete himself, befriended Tinley back in the day and was invited to join him at a party at Williams' estate after Tinley won one of his Escape from Alcatraz competitions. Williams showed Jimi his most prized bike collection. I guess this puts the rest of us three degrees of separation from having met the genius comic—sort of:-)
We circled back and hopped on the California Coastal Trail at Lands’ End and continued on toward the Golden Gate Bridge. This 4.4-mile excursion featured a dirt and gravel trail and lush foliage. I stopped to take a photo of the Mile Rock Lighthouse (or what was left of it) out in the distance, in front of Mile Rock Beach. To our right, we saw a small glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge, a prelude of what was to come. Even though this is one of the sweet spots in all of the Bay Area, it is virtually unknown to many residents, We spotted the cliffs above the water and watched the crashing waves, sailboats, and surfers at Fort Point, while experiencing breathtaking views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands across the bay. This was my first experience biking along these parts, and it left me visually, mentally, physically and spiritually uplifted. It was a great way to explore nature surrounding San Francisco, the City of Love.
Upon our return, we took the long MacArthur Tunnel, formally named after General Douglas MacArthur located within the Presidio, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Golden Gate Bridge which is 1.7 miles long and runs from San Francisco to Marin County is arguably the most beautiful and well-known bridge in the world. It was so named because it spans the area called the Golden Gate, where the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean meet and is considered one of the Wonders of the Modern World. When we returned to Lands’ End, we secured our bikes on the bike racks, retrieved our bagged lunch and ate overlooking the protected Coastal Dunes, where sand has been deposited by wind and waves over thousands of years. Now covered by vegetation, they support a rich diversity of plants, insects, birds and other wildlife, including rare and threatened species.
Suddenly, we spotted a hawk that caught a thermal and it hovered in stillness directly above us. It descended lower and lower. I was mesmerized. It reminded me of a quote I once read. Listen to the wind it talks, listen to the silence it speaks, listen to your heart it knows.
Postcript: The last photo is in memory of Robin Williams who made us all laugh and cry.
The photo of the Greyish blue monument was presented to SF by its' sister city Osaka as a token of friendship and goodwill between the USA and Japan May 17, 1960.
