Easter Sunrise ride, Marin County, California

[kbasa]

Out here in San Francisco, there's been a tradition of riding to the top of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County on Easter morning. Folks gather early at the Tam Valley Arco station and usually start heading up by 5:30 or so, arriving at the top of the mountain to watch the sun come up. I think the summit is about 3500 feet or so, so you're pretty high up there.

I've been a couple times in the past, but those mornings were clear and cold. This year, we had 50F and fog on the valley floor, but the top of the mountain was 60F and clear. The cloud bank you see is the fog we get regularly here. It's amazing to see and provided for some wet, misty, cold conditions on the way up to the summit.

I think there were a couple hundred bikes up there, by the time was all said and done.

I don't think there's much of a narrative here, so I'm going to post some pictures and leave it at that.

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408766-M-1.jpg

[kbasa]

You can see the glow of urban areas under the fog. That's Mt. Diablo in the distance, probably 50 miles away.

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408767-L.jpg

[kbasa]

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408785-M.jpg

[kbasa]

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408790-M.jpg

[kbasa]

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408795-M.jpg

[kbasa]

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408803-L.jpg

[kbasa]

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408805-L.jpg

[kbasa]

Out in the parking lot, there were some neat bikes.

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408822-L.jpg

[kbasa]

That's it. Thanks for coming along.

http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408889-L-1.jpg

Click here for the full sized panorama (http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/3408889-O-1.jpg)

[knary]

Nice. :thumb

How often are those bikes out there?

[username]

i was having dim sum under that fog... :)

great pics. from below it was neat, the tippy top of GG was in the fog, and the rest was below it. pretty cool...

[kbasa]

Originally posted by knary
Nice. :thumb

How often are those bikes out there?

Just once a year. It's quite an event.

Hey, username, where'd you go for dim sum?

[Cliffy777]

vera, vera nice. wow - I would get up at 5 am to see that. thanks

[Ironhorsecowboy]

The pictures say it all. Thanks KBasa:thumb IHCB

[username]

kbasa - three places. our goal was to try as many as we could, so we ate way more than we normally do. and i should say that i dont like the fancy sit-down-get-it-from-the-cart places, i like the really tiny places with about two tables. my eating preferences end up plotting in a bi-polar distribution - i either like a really wonderful sit-down meal with wine and salad and all the trimmings, or else i like to eat merely for sustenance. so i like the dim sum where you pop in, get a dumpling, eat it as you walk the next 50 feet, and youre done with breakfast.

i digress. all three were on stockton. "new fortune" was on the west side of the street, one or two shops down from sacramento. that one has chinese and english on the menu, so if youre new to the whole experience, it's a good place to start. the guy there will pretend not to understand you if youre anglo (which i am to an extreme. im whiter than soup.) but dont get flustered and youll get what you want. i went to his store three times, and on the third day he remembered me and interestingly his english was excellent and i got better service. conversely, my chinese still sucks. :) we had a bbq pork bun, which was incredibly good and cost $0.60. we also had a pot sticker and a beef dumpling. i dont know how they get the beef fluffy, and i dont want to, but it was all delish.

the second place i cant recall the name of, but its about the same. half a block down from new fortune, and they have no english menu, so you have to know what to ask for, or else make them open all the trays to show you everything, which isnt feasible when they have 10 other customers who not only know what they want, but can yell over your shoulder in chinese and get it while you stand there like an idiot. there we got a pork dumpling and a shrimp rice ball or something like that. both were excellent.

the third place was across the street, and was called 'fortune something dim sum.' there we got this really weird custard bun thing. it was like a gelatinous blob of rice noodle with the outside barely cooked and then covered with this light, sweet stuff. maybe some type of sugar. inside was a center of creamy egg custard. it fit into my hand like a small snowball, and looked like one. it was squishy, and felt like a novelty toy, like something you squeeze a little and it feels weird. as i was ready to bite into it i told my g-friend, 'i feel like im about to bite into a boneless mole.' and when i realized that it did indeed feel exactly like a mole, (i've never held a boneless one, but it's easy to imagine.) it became difficult to eat the thing. but i did. it wasnt that good, i like the flour-based buns better than the rice/noodle ones, and i think thats just my whiteness shining through my thin veneer of worldliness. ;)

the best part was all this food described above cost us $3.20. i am not making that up. it was fun to be someplace where your change mattered. normally i get change, put it in my pocket, and forget about it until i get home and stick it in that big jar of change. but here, having a quarter in my hand meant i could drop into a place and get a dumpling. too cool.

[The_Veg]

Wow Dave that's pretty cool! I'll have to come out there for that someday!

[ScottM]

Great shots. Mt. Diablo in the distance. I was over near there that morning.:)

[lorazepam]

Beautiful shots, Dave.
:thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb

[BMWBeauty]

Awesome pictures.....Breathtaking..... Thanks for sharing...:)

[crvalley]

Kbasa,

Great pictures...looks like a fun ride...

For the record, Mt. Tam is 2571 feet above sea level. I remember every foot counting when I used to mountain bike that little hill...

[j-budimlya]

Thanks for the morning shots....I can only remember the sunset shots with the bread, cheese, wine and...... that looked suprisingly similar......

Cheers,

Jim Bud