“Hello! My name is Dennis Augustine and I’m a Bikeaholic: A person suffering from an extreme love of bicycles."
Bill Rothenberg and I followed behind our friend, fearless leader and former bike racer, James (Jimi) Hunter and his wife Jennifer by car to San Francisco the other day. They laid out a plan to escape the heat and smoke that has continued to blanket Silicon Valley and enjoy another biking adventure that definitely made it to our top five list of great rides. It’s amazing how driving just sixty-miles north from where we live could make such a difference in air quality. San Francisco was the lone exception of the eight of nine Bay Area counties that has been blanketed with a dark, hazy, smokey overlay.
San Francisco is a proverbial paradise for cyclists with a passion for pedal power. After parking near the SF zoo we drove along the flat three-mile sidewalk along Ocean Beach known as the Great Highway on the far western side of the magnificent Golden Gate Park, considered to be one fo the best urban parks in the world that cover more than 1,000 acres. Sitting on the Pacific Ocean, the weather in Golden Gate Park was 35-degrees cooler than the 90-degree heat we were experiencing back home.
Everybody agreed we were in a magical fairytale setting. We passed grassy meadows, the grand polo fields, secluded lakes like Stow Lake, waterfalls, the 55-acre botanical gardens and the Conservatory of Flowers. We also visited the Chinese Pavilion and took in the majesty of the beautiful Huntington Falls. And, as if that weren’t enough we visited the bison paddock along John F. Kennedy Drive that were peacefully grazing. It was created to honor the Wild West. The first bison was brought to the park in 1891 and more were added over time from private and public herds.
We then rode through the Haight-Ashbury district. The unique colorful community was home to the “Summer of Love” in 1967 as depicted on the facade of one of the buildings I photographed. I also took a photo of my friend Bill on his bike on the corner of Haight and Ashbury with his curly hair, reminiscent of our hippy days. In fact, all of the guys have let their hair grow long since the pandemic. Considering we grew up in the 60s, we feel right at home getting in touch with our hippie roots that hails back to the time of Jimmy Hendrix, Janus Joplin and Jerry Garcia.
We retraced our path back through Golden Gate Park and continued to the Land’s End Trail near the Cliff House. We rode along the dirt trails along the coastline, looking out the Mile Rock Lighthouse, Sutro Baths, Seal Rock and glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge that we had crossed with our bikes earlier in the pandemic.
After completing our 24-mile excursion, we packed up our bikes and headed back home. During the drive, Bill and I ate a chicken burrito, thinking about how lucky we are to be able to experience such beauty from the vantage point of riding atop our two-wheeled companion.
Postscript: The Warrior One Yoga Pose was taken at the entrance of the Golden Gate Pavilion that was graciously accepted from the Honorable Teng-Hui Lee, Mayor of Sister City Taipei as a testament to the abiding friendship between the people of Taipei and San Francisco on the occasion of the official dedication of the Golden Gate Pavillion on April 15, 1981.
