Marinless in Marin

For more than 10 years now, I've been the proud owner of a Marin Bear Valley mountain bike. It was the first expensive thing that I bought when I graduated and I've had it on a lot of trips - in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland and New York.

I never knew what the name meant before coming to California. But today I went on a bike tour of the Marin Headlands, just north of the Golden Gate, and beautiful mountain bike territory. And the bike? In storage in New York. I made the decision not to bring it here because of the hassle. You might say I am kicking myself about this decision now, but that would be wrong: I am riding around on the bicycle equivalent of an old white Datsun over a lot of the hills and trails that I should have had the Marin on. And that hurts a lot more than kicking!


The headlands offer winding road going up and crazy brake singeing drops down to the shore again and then huff huff huff back up to postcard views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Its not the first time I've been on the bridge, but this time I took the opportunity to take some photos.