Again while looking for information in old ChainLetters on another topic I ran across another Ride Rumor about Bolinas Ridge Trail, this time from the July 2004 ChainLetter, five years after Doug O’Neill’s Annual Picnic ride there that I mentioned in a previous post. Kim Walsh led the ride with some newbies including Chris LaRussell, who crashed while going downhill although apparently without breaking anything. Here’s the ride listing from the Yahoo! group:
“Bolinas Ridge Mountain Bike Ride on Wednesday, June 30. Distance: 22.5 miles; Pace: B; Terrain: 3, mildly technical.
Ride Description: Come join me for a rollicking
good time on the Bolinas Ridge trail. The ride
is a mildly strenous, mildly technical mountain
bike ride suitable for advanced beginners and
more experienced mountain bikers. The ride is a
fabulous out-and-back on fire roads and double
track through a cattle ranch and parkland. It’s
listed as one of the “Northern California’s Best
100 Trails”. You’ll see great views, wide-open
grasslands, and cool redwoods. It can be warm
and dry on the ride, so bring your Camelbak or
two water bottles. Bring some dough and we can go
into Olema or Pt. Reyes Station for an aprés-ride
snack.
Ride Start: 10:30 am. Meet at the trailhead on
the Olema side. From the Golden Gate Bridge take
101 north to the San Anselmo/Sir Francis Drake
exit. Bear left and take Sir Francis Drake west,
following it to the trailhead, about 20 miles.
When you see the sign that says “Olema 1 Mile”,
the trailhead and parking area are just around
the next bend. Park on the wide dirt shoulders
on either side of the road.
Kim thought the trail was “mildly technical”, which is what I recalled it being. Note she doesn’t mention a parking lot. Either it was gone by then or it was a complete figment of my imagination! Here’s the Ride Rumor that followed in the ChainLetter:
“Bolinas Ridge Mountain Bike Ride – June 30, 2004
There were four motley riders on Kim’s mid week ride: Katrina who was on a borrowed bike as she has never done any mountain biking, Chris was also on a borrowed bike (just too lazy to change out the slicks on her bike), but at least Francois and April came with their own bikes. Katrina’s bike kept shedding parts she didn’t want while Francois, being the only boy, tried to learn how to use a really butch multi-tool. He finally handed a little pile of multi-tool metal back to Kim and she then figured out how the hell to put it back in one piece. While trying to do a downhill (and trying is the operative word here) Katrina-Bambi-Madsen made Chris-Vixen-LaRussell laugh on a little ledge teetering on a ravine with boulders. Yup, down into the abyss she went. Lying in a little heap, bloody road rash and all, it was Nurse Kim-Sneezy-Walsh to the rescue (deer names were given to all because Katrina was convinced that we were going to be eaten by Mountain Lyons, and we wanted to make sure Katrina was eaten first). She had proudly shown us her brand new first aid kit at the beginning of the ride and saw this as an opportunity to use everything in it. She tried to use the space blanket, brought out the tweezers (everyone tried their best to find something to use these on), but when everyone started talking about putting Chris to sleep like a horse that had a broken leg, she got up rather quickly and started back down the hill ahead of the pack, blood and all. At the end of the ride we all went to Pt. Reyes Station for snacks and beverages at which point we gave April (a guest), who has been on other DSSF REAL mountain bike rides, this disclaimer “if you EVER see a mountain bike ride listed by ANY of these people ever again, it’s best to just stay home!” A good time had by all!”
It looks like the trail was degenerating by 2004, as it sounds like conditions that we experienced this past July. Finally Jaime chimed on Bolinas Ridge on the Yahoo! group on 6/23/04:
“FYI, Rico, Victor, Victor’s boyfriend Kyle, and I did part of this route on Sunday
prior to the Club Picnic at Samuel P Taylor State Park. Bolinas Ridge is a terrific trail, and we agreed it is best done out-and-back rather than as the loop we did. Our loop included a horrendously steep initial climb of 1,400 ft. The out-and-back route that Kim is planning involves instead a gradual climb and a long but modest descent. It’s easy, and safe–no cliffs to worry about if you fall. Highly recommended.”
Apparently things change.
The Chain Letter 