campus

gorgeous winter mx

magic mountain ✨

testing

yaaaa / stunning morning on the mount.
followed gary snyder to the spiritual heart of mt tam and it was beautiful. elevating experience.


woke up too early, again! but felt pretty good and decided to head to tam for sunrise.  at 530 on a Saturday it is 30 min drive to mill valley :-). it was so freezing when I rolled out of the lumberyard with the humidity that I doubled back and grabbed my plaid, which I wore all day. I had a nice quiet climb up railroad and cut the lights at hoo koo e koo as winter dawn crested diablo and sf to the south and west.  I saw almost no one the whole way up, and then I was astounded to find like 40 people on east peak for sunrise!  Lots of bleary eyed city slickers in pjs and wrapped in blankets… though a few runners and hikers who had made the climb.  Perhaps the gates open early or closer to sunrise this time of year but I can’t remember seeing so many souls up top. It might have been something else, because every trailhead was busier than I have ever seen (east peak, cascades, mountain theater, Pantole, Tennessee valley). people were out!  But I actually saw almost no one the entire ride, so all at the trailheads or something — no complaints!

incredible light show all around the top as the sun rose, pallet changing from red to pink, purple, then citrus green. 

I wasn’t sure how the ride would evolve and had no real plan. I started down laurel dell, but turned around because it was so wet and muddy - the only time all day. It was the right call because rocky ridge to liberty gulch is quickly becoming one of my favorite segments in the watershed. so good.  I rolled  out alpine dam and up to ridgecrest on exquisite pave. It might have been nice to be on gravel with gears, but on the other hand the SS with xc tires actually feels great on pave / no bad feelings of road burn :-)  

wind was intense on ridgecrest! — the kind to blow you over or stop you in your tracks, depending on the angle. But the views through green mountain meadows to the sea were astounding, and no complaints!

found the heart of the mountain 🤩 and then headed down to Muir beach. I prob should have taken dias back to mill valley, but coyote ridge to Tennessee valley also sounded good!  it was.  But the insane melee at the Tennessee valley parking area and the ensuing flat road burn through traffic (not ideal on SS!) was subprime.  

would have been a great day for 10k / felt fine and still strong at the end, but didn’t want to push it after being sick all week. kept it fully restorative this morning!!!

inspired to try some bike-and-hike adventures on the mount.

Top Sports

Ben A

magic mountain ✨

49 Photos

4 Comments

Segments

Sign up to view more activities from Ben A

campus

gorgeous winter mx

magic mountain ✨

testing

campus

Want to see more?

The #1 app for runners and cyclists

Sign Up for Free. Track your progress and reach goals. Join 100 million active people on Strava.

See More from Ben