Biking the Golden Gate Bridge

On Sunday I hopped aboard the subway to head downtown. Then I wanted to see if I could snag a cable car to catch a ride to Fisherman’s Wharf. The cable car turnaround was packed with a line that had over an hour wait. Being the smart traveler that I am, I headed up 2 blocks to another cable car stop. Then I only had to wait about 15 minutes for a cable car to stop by that I could squeeze onto. I was disappointed because I had to sit inside and I wanted to ride on the outside so I didn’t think it was that cool. In my haste to get a seat I didn’t pay attention to what line I was on so when I got off on Lombard street (the crookedest street in the world), I realized I was 2 blocks away from the crooked part of the street. Not a big deal except San Francisco is practically vertical so I had to huff and puff my way up to it.

Steep streets

It was worth it though because all the flowers were blooming so it was quite picturesque. The street is 1 way and only 5mph and primarily filled with tourists driving and taking pictures but it was still interesting. 

Lombard Street

Then I picked up my rental bike from Blazing Saddles and off I went along the waterfront. The bike path led up to the Golden Gate bridge but since it was a Sunday it was packed with bikers, joggers, dog walkers, and even a couple 5ks. Therefore it was a little frustrating to navigate. 

 

I stopped at Fort Point for a breather. The fort is a brick fort from the Civil War area so it was pretty similar to others that I’ve visited. However this one is literally under the San Francisco Bridge so it had a really neat vantage point. 

The architect of the bridge actually reconfigured his plans to make sure the fort was preserved. For the few minutes I was on top of the fort (it was super windy) the sun came out so I managed to get some nice pictures. 

The clouds came back and I headed up to bike across the bridge. There is a dedicated bike lane on weekends which was nice but there’s only a few spots to pull over so it was funny to have to wait to go in and out of the bike traffic.  

Biking the bridge

It was a pretty easy ride across and then it was on through Sausalito. I pedaled pretty hard until I reached the Sausalito bike path because I didn’t like being on the road with the cars. I rode it all the way up to Old Mill Park which preserves a grove of redwoods. It was so quiet and peaceful to be away from all the traffic that I took a long break to stretch my legs. 

Old Mill Park

Finally it was on to Tiburon where I caught the ferry back to San Francisco.

View of Angel Island from ferry

All in all I ended up biking almost 24 miles which I could not believe. I’ve never biked even half of that before in one day so I felt quite accomplished. To cap off my day I managed to snag a ride on a cable car and this time I was able to hang onto the outside! I rode it all the way back to the top and was much happier. I don’t think its worth it to waste time on a cable car unless you can be on the outside.

Catching a ride!