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Health & Fitness

Climate Ride Day 5 – The Grande Finale: The Marin Coast to San Francisco

For the first time we had a deadline.  We had to be at the Civic Center by noon for our welcome home rally.  The plan was to gather at the Sports Basement in the Marina and all bike in together.  But first we had another round of the rollers of Highway 1.  Well, no, rollers would be kind.  Today we’re climbing a mountain – the side of Mount Tam to be exact.  I’ve never ridden south of Olema, so this was new territory for me.  It was fairly easy going up until Stinson Beach.  But then - let the climbing begin!  It’s a long slow haul up the side of the cliffs.  Unlike other days, I couldn’t take my time and since I can’t go any faster up those hills, it meant no stops for me.  I slogged up the first climb making sure to enjoy every ocean view because who knows if I’ll ever ride this way again on a bike.  Then it’s a downhill to Muir Beach and back up again.  I peered down at the expansive gardens below me and knew that I was seeing Green Gulch Zen Center’s magnificent gardens. 

This is a narrow and winding road with no shoulder to speak of, so the cars are close by.  As a lone rider, it was fairly easy for a car to get around me, but I still had some impatient drivers roaring their engines in disgust as they went by.  I had to snicker because I knew that just up the hill they were going to encounter 130 more just like me and not all of them would be lone riders.  Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t like to inconvenience cars and always try to make it easy for them to pass.  But sometimes their road rage needs a little reality check.  Those few seconds they are trying to save could mean someone’s life.  Share the road.

Another downhill to Tam Valley and it’s on through Sausalito.  By this time it’s really getting late and I don’t know if I’m going to make it.  By the time I hit the climb up Alexander Ave.,  it was almost 11 and the Peloton would be leaving at 11:15 sharp.  There is construction just shy of the bridge – new bike lines so can’t complain – but by then we had no time to spare.  The bridge was packed with tourists and you can’t ride fast through there.  I didn’t have the time to enjoy the view, which is a shame, since the other times I’ve bike the bridge it was thick with fog.

I finally got past the last of the tourists winding down the bike path to the Marina.  When I hit the road I put on the power, biking as fast as I could.  I saw Sports Basement ahead and saw the last of the riders leaving.  I gave it the gun again and actually caught up with them.  By now I’m exhausted, having had no breaks  for the last four hours.  I long for the sandwich in my seat bag and wish I had the time to strip off my windbreaker.   With stop lights and stop signs, it was slow going, thank goodness.  One more hill to climb on Polk before we rolled into the Civic Center, chanting Climate….Ride!  

We were welcomed by Melanie Nutter, San Francisco Department of the Environment, followed by some brief remarks from Paul Hawken who rode with us from the Sports Basement.  Hawken has been at the forefront of the ecology movement.  Famous for founding Smith and Hawken, he is a prolific author of trend setting books like The Ecology of Commerce and the Next Economy.  He talked about how carbon is our friend, not the enemy.  Carbon is essential to life.  The problem is the excess of carbon that is causing the greenhouse effect that is warming our planet and changing our climate. 

We lingered at the Civic Center, saying our good byes to our fellow travelers.  It’s hard to part company after sharing such a life altering experience together.  I counted up the miles from my odometer on my bike and I rode close to 300 miles.

It was a little sad to come home and find that while I was bicycling the most challenging ride of my life, people in Marin were trying to stop solar panels, a new transit route and bike lanes in supposedly environmentally aware Marin.  Climate Change is real and it is caused by our use of fossil fuels.  This is a fact, not opinion and the energy industry-sponsored studies that try to cloud this fact are based on spurious arguments.  Do Marinites think they can buy a Prius and use low energy light bulbs and that will be enough?  The inconvenient truth of Climate Change will require some inconvenient changes in our lives.  We can do them consciously or we can let the sea waters roll over us.  Marin’s Carbon Footprint is higher than the national average and 65% of those greenhouse gases come from transportation and most of the rest comes from the energy consumption in our homes.  You might have to put up with a shuttle on your road, or a bike lane in front of your house, or solar panels on a nursery.  We might even have to add a little density to our towns in order to reduce the traffic on our roads.  These are small sacrifices compared with whole islands what will be swallowed by the rising oceans; or the devastation caused by super storms like Sandy.  

I rode 300 miles to raise awareness about Climate Change and to raise money for my organization -  the Marin County Bicycle Coalition.  I was tired, sore and aching by the end.  But mostly I wanted to show that nothing is impossible.  For a casual bike rider, like myself, to find the strength to get up those steep hills, putting in 60+ miles a day is a simple act compared to what we must do, as a culture, to find a way to live with the natural environment instead of exploiting it and destroying it.  We Climate Riders are working to find a way for humans to co-exist with natural systems, using renewable resources wisely.   It’s not just about preserving wetlands and creeks, although that’s an important piece of the puzzle.  It’s about how we live.  Will we live more locally, preserving energy and encouraging renewable?   Will we learn to drive less and bike and bus more?  The younger generation gets it.  Will we, as the older generation follow their lead?   
www.climateride.org  
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