Day 1: San Francisco to Los Gatos; 70 miles
 Rolling Commune - Every night, 60+ riders and staff rolled out the tents and made camp, except in Livermore, where we stayed in the high school gym or a hotel, as I did. Of the five camping nights, four were in church yards, doubling the number of times I've been to church in my life. It's 10 p.m. and I'm holed up in my portable cave, which will be my home for the next seven nights, except for the night in Liverwurst, when I will (apparently wisely) stay in a hotel. (Something to do with average accommodations at Livermore High. Oh, and the meningitis outbreak.) Obviously I won't be sending this today, but hope to send a communiqu' after day 2. Quite the fine ride today. Which is to say that it was generally uneventful. Which is good for Day 1. The weather was, duh, foggy and breezy early, but the fog burned off, and by the first rest stop, I stripped off the outer layer of wind breaker and tights to expose my nice, smooth legs. Pictures after they're developed. Oh, that reminds me. Go to www.greenbelt.org for a daily photodiary, which will give you a visual idea of the whole tour. To start, we wound our way from the start point at the St. Francis Yacht Club through the Presidio to Golden Gate Park. What an amazing thing to have in the middle of a major city. Stands of massive trees ringed by finely tended gardens and lawns. And with the roads closed to traffic on the weekends, plenty of pedestrians wandering aimlessly in the middle of the street. This never ceases to amaze me. The sidewalks were pretty empty, but the roads were full of walkers, sometimes three abreast, right in the middle. Made it hard for the cyclists and skaters to navigate. Anyway, we popped out of Golden Gate Park onto the Great Highway, along the great Pacific Ocean. This was the first time I'd ridden this way, and it's somewhat of a surprise to leave the park, go through a bit of neighborhood and boom, there's the ocean. Ocean Beach was mostly empty, due to the fact that it was still pretty early and foggy and cool. We climbed away from the ocean up to Skyline Boulevard and nine miles later arrived at our first rest stop, where I caught up to the guys who I'd be spending much of the next week riding with. They dropped me on the first hill on Skyline when I got hungry and went fishing for a snack at the worst possible time: right as the climb started. For much of the next eight miles, the route ran on two bike paths that provide some of the most beautiful scenery you'll see anywhere. The first, the San Andreas Bike Path, runs along San Andreas Lake, and, yes, takes its name from the famous fault, which pretty much runs under where we were, and, I'm guessing, helped create the lake. The scenery was pristine, the path narrow and winding. Yet another of the many new areas I would experience on this trip. After a short ride on Skyline again, we spent several miles on the heavily used - and understandably so - Sawyer Camp Trail, south of S.F. It winds around and through Crystal Springs Reservoir, and is rather stunning. Sadly, I did not photograph any of this section, tho' I have my camera with me as I ride. I need to make more of an effort to do so. After lunch, we made the climb up (world-famous to cyclists) Old LaHonda Road to Skyline. (Again. Skyline/Rt. 35 kinda ends at Route 92, which is the road to Half Moon Bay. Skyline/Rt. 35 restarts up the ridge toward Half Moon Bay off of Rt. 92. Confused? No big deal.) I climbed this a couple weeks earlier and had an easier time of it then. I chalk it up to the lack of sleep last night. But then, if I recall correctly, I was a wee bit hung over the first time I did it, so there goes that excuse. The views up on the ridgeline were incredible, even with the bits of fog still there. The ride along Skyline is mostly tree-lined and exists in what seems its natural state. Which is how we want it to stay. So we ride. There are about five of us who have been nicknamed the Jets (or the Alpha Males, depending on who you ask), and yes, we all have our legs shaved. It's rather amusing. Overall, I spent about two-thirds of the day with my head down trying to keep up with the really fast guys. I spent about two-thirds of that time failing. But that was OK. I was able to keep up with them on second leg of Skyline, which was the important section, until the last rest stop. After that, I worked with Roberto Amador, a slightly bent El Salvadoran, on the final section of Skyline to Route 9, where we waited for the rest of the Jets to arrive. From there, the two of us pretty much dueled on the descent down Route 9 into Saratoga - a winding, seven-mile screamer. What a blast! Unfortunately, after getting a new battery in the sending unit of my computer, I need to figure out how to turn the daily odometer back on, along with the readings for max speed and time on the bike. But we were probably on the bikes only about five hours today. We pitched our tents in a church courtyard in Los Gatos, walked down to the L.G. Athletic Club, which graciously opened its doors to us riders. The hot tub rocked. We had a dinner of pasta at a local restaurant, and will have a pasta dinner provided for us Monday night. I get the idea we'll be eating a lot of pasta. Hopefully, more interesting things will happen later. The talk now is to ride both Mt. Hamilton and Mt. Diablo on Day 3 because two of the Jets, Kai and Trey, will be departing after that day for various reasons. We'll see about that. Already, people around me in the camp are snoring. Loudly. Perhaps I will pull out the earplugs, as Roberto suggested, and use them to get some sleep. Which I will now do. More good weather predicted for Monday, with continued warming. Very nice. Adios! Go to Day 2: Los Gatos to East San Jose; 67 miles 
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