An Overnight Bike Trip in San Francisco

My friend Eric might need an introduction. “I’d rather Dwell in Obscurity” is scribed on one of my favorite merch items for his Low Pressure Zine - a truly hilarious, insightful, educational and entertaining publication that if you have not read yet I would highly recommend. Eric is a very talented writer and illustrator and Low Pressure is my favorite bike media I have ever consumed.

Beyond that Eric is really good at organizing and getting people together and this year he wanted to “engage with the homies” every full moon for a little backpacking campout at different locations in the bay area. Because the full moon can fall on any day of the week. A lot of these bikepacking excursions are just overnighters but some have been longer too. I hadn’t made it out to a bike campout yet, but this month was at San Francisco’s Kirby Cove campground - a mere 5 miles from my door - so how could I say no to that?

We met up at the market, I grabbed a burrito for dinner and some snacks. Friends and new friends stacked up until we were ready to roll around 6:30. Although I hadn’t been to Kirby Cove the ride was a familiar one - through the Presidio, over the Golden Gate Bridge then up Conzelman - pretty much the start to any headlands ride from San Francisco. Just as you start climbing though, you drop down a dirt road alllll the way to the ocean and the campground at its shore. I still can’t get over how beautiful it is here and with a good bit of cloud cover and the sun popping through today was no exception. The sun shone through as we rolled over the bridge. A winding dirt pulled us down to the campground and all the flowers were in bloom for spring. The sweet smell of sage and fennel and bay laurel filled the air. It really does smell nice in California.

Anyhow as the 20-ish of us rolled into camp people set up their tents. I went to the beach to explore. I’m pretty much all-in on the bivy these days. Not only is it super light and compact but it means you don’t really have to set anything up. So much more time for activities. I opted to take my daily-driver SuperSomething basket bike on this trip. The dry bag on the saddle just had my sleeping bag and pillow. I put a tarp and bivy, stove, sleeping pad, down jacket and down pants up front in my bag. Funny to put so much ultralight gear into a not-ultralight setup but I kind of love that.

We sat by the shore and had a lovely time as the sun set and the lights of the city turned on, our view framed by the Golden Gate Bridge. What a view. We looked for the full moon, hidden by clouds, and all yelled in celebration when it finally popped out through a break in the fog. We talked about whether the moon landing was real, what kind of cheese it is made out of and other fun things before I finally snuck off and bivied up for the night.

In the morning we made our coffee (I have been using the tea bag style coffee for camping and it is pretty great) folks headed to work. I said one last goodbye to the beach and then headed on back to the city.

It is easy to get caught in routine but good to remember that routine is also easy to break it. We are lucky that in San Francisco you can hop on your bike and ride 5 miles to a beautiful place to spend the night with some friends and still make it to work the next day. Chances are there is a place like that near you too. I hope you have pals like Eric to get a little campout organized or maybe the motivation to do it yourself. You’ll be glad that you did.