For the very first day of the new year, we decided to take advantage of the break in the rain and explore the gorgeous hills and forests that surround our new neck of the woods. Megan, Mark and the two girls came up and my parents came down, all with bikes in tow. The eight of us took our bikes to the reservoirs in Ross, which promised a nice flat trail around the lake. Or so we thought...
The day was muddy, but it wasn't raining. We followed the line of dog walkers and mountain bikers from the parking lot to the reservoir. It was beautiful. Travis and I were excited to find this natural park so close to our house. Having outdoor recreation so close was one of the main reasons we moved to Marin.
The eight of us huffed and puffed up to the lake. OK, six of us huffed and puffed. May was on my dad's bike and Mira was riding with Megan. We saw signs for turtle habitats, but no turtles. We did see a really cool log cabin.
As we turned to continue our loop around the lake, we were bummed to see the trail continue uphill. I'm more of the type of biker that prefers flat or downhill paths. Uphill just doesn't interest me as much. Conveniently for her, my mom decided to fall over at the start of the uphill. She scraped her hand a little bit, so she, my dad, and May decided to head back down the trail back. We would meet up with them shortly, since we were just going to to loop around the second half of the lake. Right?
The remaining five of us continued uphill. We turned the first corner and saw that the uphill continued. We turned the second bend and still trail continued uphill. At that point, we nominated Mark to ride up ahead to find the top of the hill. A few minutes later he came back and said that the top was just up ahead. Surely, we only have to endure another 50 yards or so of uphill and then it'd be smooth sailing back around the lake to meet up with my parents and May. And then we'd all have a yummy lunch and watch some football.
Well, the top of the hill ended up NOT being the top of the hill. As soon as we turned around another bend in the mountain, we'd find ourselves confronted with another steep uphill. Now, let me step back and paint the picture a little more clearly. None of us are entirely opposed to a little strenuous activity. It's just that we weren't properly geared up for it. Mark was borrowing Travis's mountain bike; that's why we sent him up ahead to scout out the trail. Trav was on his miniature road bike that looks like it has 12" diameter wheels. Megan was on a regular Specialized type hybrid bike, but had Mirabelle sitting in a seat strapped to the front handle bars. And I was on my pink Schwinn 12 speed that I bought at a garage sale. 7 months pregnant. For those of you who don't know, Marin has a lot of gear heads. I mean, mountain biking was invented here, for crying out loud. Everyone has the $1000+ bikes, with matching outfit, including gloves, shoes, etc. In our gear, or lack there of, we were not making a favorable impression. We got more than one person laugh at us as they flew pass us downhill. All I have to say is that we were riding along just fine without all that gear and expense, thank you very much. I was more than capable of riding on that trail in my pink 12 speed and 7 months pregnant. I didn't need toe clips and gloves and spandex (though I'm not sure the spandex biking outfit would have entirely fit over my baby bump at that point). But I digress...
As we continued up the trail, and I mean up the trail, the grade never flattened out. Around every bend was another up hill. But we could still see the lake and saw that we were at least head in the right direction. At this point, we had gone uphill enough, that we couldn't give up and turn around. As each turn approached, we had to see if that would be the point where it starts heading back down to the lake and then to the car and then to lunch and football. Haven't you ever been on a trail where you weren't sure exactly where it lead, but you felt that if you just go around one more corner, you'd find out? Well, we did that. About 10 more times. Suddenly, we couldn't see the lake. We weren't even sure we were on the same path. It certainly wasn't "looping" around the lake like we originally thought. And it certainly wasn't going downhill. I laughingly remakrked about how funny it would be if we were climbing Mt. Tam without knowing it. Oh, ha ha hee hee. Guess what? We WERE climbing Mt. Tam. Let me paint that picture again: Mark on Trav's wobbly bike, Trav on super small bike, Mira strapped to the front of Megan's bike, me on pink Schwinn 7 months pregnant. None of us in biking gear. I think i had embroidered flowers on my sweatshirt. Biking up Mt. Tam, the tallest mountain in Marin BY FAR. There's snow on top sometimes.
When we reached a point where the trail started to fade out and I swear I saw tundra, Mark was able to flag down some fellow bikers to get a sense of where we were in relation to the lake. Have you noticed how I've referred to the lake/reservoir as just that? No name? That's because I wasn't entirely sure of the name. Turns out, the trail we were on connects to several different reservoirs/lakes. Not so helpful when you're trying to find out how to get back to the nameless lake you started from. It turns out we were just miles from the top of Mt. Tam. From the lake we started from, we had no idea.
That's when Megan and I made the executive decision to turn around and head back down the way we came. This decision just about crushed Mark's spirit for the whole year. Thus, I promptly named our trip "Defeat 2010." Poor Mark was a good sport to follow us back down the mountain though I'm sure it was against everything in his being NOT to finish the loop around the lake, no matter if he had to forge his own trail.
Anyway, we made it down Mt. Tam in record time, found my parents and May and had the now well deserved yummy lunch (including croissants!) and watched football for the rest of the afternoon. And Trav made a cool boat out of leftover carboard for Mirabelle. Including looking glass!
We found some cool fungi along the way:
Are we at the top yet?!?!
I hope 2010 is as filled with as many adventures the whole year as the first day showed us!
