Let's walk on the trail!

Even though we bought the county regional park membership last January, the weather was cold and rainy so we couldn't go.  And we got sick and stayed home most of  February.

Finally we pushed ourselves to go one of the parks.  Because the traffic was jammed on the way to the park we chose first, so we changed our mind.  

We came to Sonoma Valley regional park where we have biked  and hiked before. This is the gate to go down the usual way.

But we wanted to try the new trail, so walked back from the parking lot to reach the new gate we've never seen before.

This trail was the new trail.

 The crushed rock path was getting steeper and steeper, but then we saw a beautiful oak tree forest 

and blue foggy valley hills.

After going down the gentle slope we found a red water grass covered pond down there.
That is called, Damselfly Pond.  

I wanted to try going on this Cougar trail all the way to Glen Ellen, but the slope got steeper and I can't walk on a slope for a long time, so we u-turned and went back to the parking lot.

Next time we want to walk through.


 

Remade a soft-sided ice chest to ..

This is my "Rear Seat Trunk bag!

Took off the strap and cut them to size.  Sew them on to one side of bag.  Sew on hard Velcro to the end of the 2 straps and sew soft Velcro to the other side of the bag to be easy to take on and off. 


Unfortunately my left eye bleeding this morning by fatigue, so I was going to rest completely today.  But I need to test the bag on a ride to see if my own design trunk bag works or not.

Just rode for 45 minutes, 6 miles.

My remake Rear Seat Trunk Bag worked very well!

Twilight ride until sunset

Luckily yesterday's bashed knees by falling didn't carry the pain so long.  The swells have also gone.  Lucky for me, so far.  But I should be more careful, and think about doing something for my legs.

It was too hot again.  We managed to ride until twilight time.  At the beginning it was still hot, but it started getting windy and the temperature cooled toward sunset.  I rode the folding bike again and tried pedaling slow for a while again.  

An Interesting video

Had a short ride in the morning. Felt like we are getting weaker and weaker recently for some reason, but we don't give up.

Found another interesting video.  Ride of my life

Baked oatmeal and raisin cookies to energy up!  

 

65F was very comfortable!

Another chance we got today.  It was nice and cool with breeze this morning.
Pulled out our folding bike to try, because I haven't ridden it for a while now.  That was much more comfortable to ride than before, because my body learned a lot.

As I wrote before that we purchased a new replacement for the seat of this folding bike, because it was uncomfortably hard for my butt. And I was happy at that time.

Today I noticed the seat was too thick and in the way for pedaling.  

And surprisingly the cushion didn't absorb the shock of hitting bumps.  So I asked him to change the seat back to the original. 

I've just ridden on it for a while- about .4 mile, I was much happier which I couldn't feel long time ago.  
I'm looking for the next ride on this folding bike.  Because Mr. Whp fixed the handle post too which was crooked a little bit and I didn't care about before, but do now.

And I'm getting annoyed about my lovely regular bike HANDLE which is curving around in front of me.  I liked it before, but now it's in the way and feel heavy and clumsy.  If I'm just relaxed and take time to enjoy some scenery, it will be just fun and graceful.
And when I climb steeper slopes, I can be secure with this lovely bike not folding bike.  Because the folding bike doesn't have a front gear choice.  

So I'm thinking that I should train my body to be able to climb a much steeper slope with that folding bike someday.  I'm not sure if I can though.

Distance:  9.7 miles + .4 miles (with the original seat)= 10.1 miles




 

The whole sky was covered by mackerel clouds!

That was a good sign?!  I wondered when I got up and saw the sky in this morning.  Yes, it turned out to be a merciful gift for us.  We had such a nice cool morning that we could ride a few hours later.
Clouds were starting to bloom out a little bit. 

I was humming away while riding.  People with their dogs seemed happy and cheerful this morning.

So were those geese.

Finally we could ride over 10 miles, but we got tired suddenly, so we stopped.

Time, Distance, and Average&Max Speeds.

Yes, I remembered that we got into a main road and sprinted for a few minutes.  That sprint was a necessity to finish before the cars came.  Watmaugh road is always scary! 

Wasn't the best condition, anyway rode.

Somehow I got this weird symptom,  right side of my head skin is very sensitive and untouchable literally, and also right side of my head hurts when I swing or shake sometimes.  Last night the back of my right eye felt weird and hurt.  I guessed that I just got tired.

Last night I had a hard time to get sleep.  My shoulders, back, and legs were hurting.  And my neck got really stiff with tonsil pain.

This morning the most of symptoms had gone, except head and tonsil, but a little bit calmer than yesterday.
So we rode.  We both know that 10 miles is just right distance for us, so no more than that we thought.

When bike computer show the distance 9.45 miles, we started cool down riding.  It seemed good for us.
 


 

Saddle down and just fine!

Practiced to stop and to restart again.  Also tried to tilt bicycle to stand on one foot.  My left foot could stand, but right foot was weak and useless.  Seems the saddle was too high for me to come down and land on one foot sometimes.  So with the saddle height changed down to 3.5'' it seemed much better than before.  Physically comfortable is very important too, I thought.

I really felt the necessity of walking and exercising for feet strengthening, butt moving flexibly and quickly--maybe abdominal muscle strengthening.

At beginning I was tired but kept riding, then after adjusting the saddle down and riding a couple of miles I felt much better.

Time, distance, average speed, and max speed.
 

The body hasn't gotten it yet.

Today I was going to ride 12 miles or 15 miles.  And tried pedaling steady on the long slope.

I thought I got it very well.  Stop and restart with lifted up saddle.  I was fine until ....

After continuously pedaling steady on the long slope a couple of times, I came to the top and I was going to stop for drinking water.  But I was tired more than I thought, then my right foot, which supposed be down and hold me up, didn't do its job, and both my legs were hanging down, of course neither of them could reach the ground, so I fell, but I didn't want to bash my right upper arm, so I used my right elbow to support, which was totally no good.  Anyway I checked my elbow, but the skin was just lightly scraped.  So I kept riding until it started hurting.

At home I was icing my right elbow on and off.  Now it's OK.  The swelling was reduced to almost nothing. 
I need to go to bed soon.  Hope I will be OK tomorrow morning.

As I always think that any accidents must be a voice from the sky, so I should think about it.  

 Time, Distance, average speed, and max speed.

Not only bicycling but also gardening!??

Yesterday I was still tired in the morning.  So we didn't ride at all, but Mr. WhP was cleaning and lubricating chains and parts of our bicycles, and Mrs. WhP did some kitchen chores and crepe myrtle tree trimming.
We found a good movie and enjoyed it very much.   He was so cute! 

Well, next morning which is today.  My shoulder and neck were very stiff, and my right heel got pain!!  I know why, because of too much looking up for tree trimming and a little bit using a hoe in our garden.

I figured out that any activity make my body hurts by my age, so just deal with it.

I tried cycling 10 miles with the same cadence whether flat or slope.  Oh, I lifted up my saddle to 4 inches, and that was the best so far.
Drank a glass of juice immediately when I got home.  And had easy lunch immediately, yes! these are TV dinners.  

And we had this simple Dessert each. Canned yellow peach and yogurt.

So we feel quite good now.

Rode 10.66 miles in an hour and 8 minutes.  average 9.3 mph, and max 17.8 mph.

Twilight ride

I was going to get up early, but I did too early so I returned to bed this morning, and what?!!  We both slept until 11 am!!!!!  We can't believe it.  We must have exhausted.  The hot weather heated our house and the room temperature has been very weird.  During our sleeping at night suddenly the bedroom got hot.  This kind of incident really disturbs old folks sleeping.
So anyway we lost the chance to ride in cool air in the morning, and waited until late afternoon again.

Today we had a chance to use our "blinky lights".
Front one is blue:

Back is red:

Somehow the red one has much better visibility than the blue one on the road.

Time, distance, average speed, and max speed.


By the way, the more we rode on the main streets, the more we got scared to ride next.  And also watching somebody crashing into the door opening or some accident in movies gave us a small trauma too.  I wish I could find a decent enough place to ride as a bike trip.

Late afternoon ride

It was crying hot day today.  So we had to wait until the temperature went down.  While we were riding, the clouds in the sky were getting grayer and grayer.

We haven't been able to ride 10 miles for three days.  And we both were tired and weak at beginning.  But took long warm up, had some sprints, and relaxing cool down, and rode 11 miles!

Time, Distance, average speed, and max speed.

Quick start no worry

Finally I got it.  Just start and stop, but it's not easy to get right.  I'm still not perfect sometimes, but I'm comfortable now.

10 miles ride; I'm getting used to it.  But 5 minutes before the end, I got toe cramps on my left, oh, gosh!  I forgot to cool down today.  We were on a tight schedule.  agrrr...

Distance, average speed, max speed and time.

We watched the movie " Quicksilver,"  a story about bike messengers like " 2 seconds."   The job is so dangerous, but not appreciated and paid unfairly low.  The dangerous-ness attracting people to watch made me very uncomfortable.  I felt a silent message like riding bicycle is only for unusual people.  I don't think so!

I'd like to watch movies of which bicycles got into the life of people.  Is there any?  Maybe Europeans might have made some, if it's so, I really would like to watch those movies.

Main road trip to Cotai with 2 punctures

We wanted to try riding on main roads in another city.  So I planned to park at Penngrove park & ride, and we were ready to bike.  But Old-Redwood-Hwy, which is in front of the parking lot, was quite busy with high speed cars and trucks, I got freaked out.  But once I got onto the bike lane I was fine, then we turned right onto Main St. which has no bike lane but is a bicycle friendly road.  The road was also busy and an up-slope so it was quite challenging for me.  Finally we got up to Petaluma-Hill-rd with bike lane.  That road speed limit is 45mph, but car and trucks were passing at a much faster speed, then I saw another slope was standing ahead.  I took some breaths and started again.

Just in case, I decided to change left-hand gear 1 just before the slope.

As you see, the drivers are courteous enough not to pass too close to my elbow, I was lucky.

When I turned left onto E Cotati Ave, I carefully moved into left turn lane with cars.  Beginning of E Cotati bike lane was not finished yet, but there is a nice side walk all the way to where the bike lane starts.  So it was quite comfortable, except for small gravel bits and tree seeds.
But suddenly a broken and poking out surface on the bike lane came up to me and I was really surprised.

They should paint it to warn us, I thought.
Then I noticed that I heard a strange noise from my bicycle, and found the front tire was flat.

Mr. WhP examined my tire for a while and finally found the tiny hole.

  

OK, we started enjoying the ride on E Cotati, and dropped by Oliver market to get sandwich. 

We crossed Old Redwood Hwy by walking and got onto Old Redwood Hwy.  Suddenly Mr. WhP said something.  Now his rear tire was punctured!

Other than that the ride on Old Redwood Hwy was quite fun and comfortable.  With bike lane the speed limit should be 35- 45 mph should be the best I thought.  Like this road. 

When we returned to the parking, we continued riding to cool off in the small parking lot.

Distance, average speed, max speed and time.
 

Adding a pich of salt worked pretty well.

Drinking water sometimes felt not quite right.  Read about adding a pinch of salt in the water, so we did.  We both felt good today.

Showing Distance, Average Speed, Max Speed, and Time

China Camp State Park, San Rafael

Maybe we might ride either on road or on some of trails, we thought.  Took exit San Pedro Rd of 101 Fwy, drove all the way to Bullhead Flat parking lot.

Grabbed a envelope to write down information about our car and purpose, with $5 into the metal bin near the sign.  Put the tab which was cut from the envelope in our car to show.
OK, let's cross the street to try Shoreline Trail.  Umm, left side one looked too steep, maybe right side.

I was excited and went over there.  Oh, no!  The trail has fence both sides and it is narrow for me.  When I get psychological fear, that's the end.
Gave up and I started climbing up the paved road. 

Cars might scare me, but at least I can ride.  But quite a number of cars were coming down on the other side of road.  How much should I climb up, I wonder?  I couldn't go so much.  Stopped and took a picture.

Even while we were stopping at there, speedy cars came by and passed us.  Well, we'd better to go down to the parking lot.  Oh, the coming back way is the San Francisco Bay side!

I was fine, I was scared about cars passing by more than the cliff.  When we came back to the parking lot, I wanted to try the trail on which I couldn't go 10 mins. ago.  And I could get in and rode some!  Until the trail got steep, I gave up.  But anyway jump hurdles one at a time.

From the road to a little more ahead of here.  But I told Mr. WhP if he wants to try more Shoreline Trail, go ahead.  He went for a while, and came back with huff 'n puff.  Just for my memory/record I asked him to take a picture.
He tried other side of the trail too.  But both trail are getting steeper and steeper, he said.  Energetic young guys passing us, and we were amazed.
 
Then I decided to ride more on the road down, maybe next parking lot down up there.

Reached! From down there the whitish building spot to here. 

Weber Point also has a restroom and a nice view.  But I was anxious to return to our parking lot.
Be careful to watch the car passing by!

we safely crossed the street to come back.  The late afternoon wind was very nice.  Somebody was eating her early supper while looking at the bay.

Ready to load our bikes to go home. 

My speedometer shows:  Time 20'59, Average Speed 5.6mph , Max Speed 15.5mph, Distance 2.013miles.

That was the most tense 2 miles ride I've ever ridden lately.

I'm not a mountain biker type at all, I realized now very well.  And we really need to find a relaxing beautiful paved road next.  It is the time to travel, maybe.

Surely we both got really tired.