One of the great aspects of cycling is the unique perspective it provides on journeys. The sun, wind, fresh air and scenery all contribute to the adrenaline rush from vigorous ascents and speedy decents. Unlike most dedicated road cyclists, I often take bike paths instead of roads due to the better views and fewer fumes, preferring to share my journey with pedestrians over cars and trucks. Since people walking along paths don’t always abide by rules of the road, a quick “on your left” or “excuse me” followed by a pleasant ‘thanks” helps avoid mishaps and promotes the shared experience. As a friend recently reminded me, pedestrians always have the right of way.
After an exhilarating 30 mile cycle from my boat, Calypso in the Santa Cruz Harbor up the coast to Davenport and back, I decided to take a spin around the harbor and was struck by this scene of the harbor lighthouse. Although the harbor was built by the Army Corps of Engineers forty years ago, the lighthouse is relatively new. built only a few years ago. The jetties that form the harbor mouth are made of massive, multi-ton jacks that interlock together. The story goes that the lighthouse was painted white after several boaters mistook the initial red color as a navigation marker, “red on right upon return” and unfortunately the lighthouse is on the left of the harbor when approached from the sea.
The harbor was dredged from one of twin lakes in two phases. The south harbor with free clearance to the channel was built first and then the north harbor was added a few years later. Although the north harbor is easily accessible by power boats, sailboats must tabernacle their mast to go under the bridge. After the harbor was opened it was discovered that the location which is down current from the mouth of the San Lorenzo river, was ill advised. The silt that pours down the river during winter storms flows down to the harbor and fills up the channel each year. The harbor must be dredged during the winter to maintain a navigable channel.
Calypso, my 27” sailboat is located by the launch ramp on the east side of the south harbor and has great access to the channel as well as many of the harbor amenities. I often spend long weekends on Calypso , taking conference calls on Friday morning from the boat. Pam joins me for one or two nights and then I commute to work on Monday morning. The harbor serves me as a base for cycling as well as sailing with many trips up the coast to Wilder Ranch, Davenport and some times even Ano Nuevo. After a weekend of cycling, sailing, romantic dinners and quiet nights, rocked to sleep by the harbor ebb and flow, I am ready for another week of challenges and opportunities in Silicon Valley.
Pam and I sailed Calypso across Monterey Bay and back a few years ago. We spent a wonderful few days in Monterey at Breakwater Cove Marina. The marina was inundated by sea-lions which would commonly jump onto the docks around where Calypso was berthed. Although the barking was a little disturbing, we quickly fell into the harbor pace. We walked around cannery row and visited Monterey Bay Aquarium. Most days we barbecued on Calypso and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Monterey Bay.
The most exciting part of the trip for me was the sail from Santa Cruz to Monterey and back. Each way took one day to complete. The sail down was a nice reach down the coast with the winds picking up in the afternoon. The sail back was cloudy and windy. We beat into Capitola and then motor sailed around the kelp into Santa Cruz Harbor in time to watch the sun set.
We videoed our journey and stay in Monterey. I recently uploaded the video to YouTube. There are great sailings scenes and beautiful shots of Monterey Bay. We also captured two sea-lions on the docks who seemed to pose and preen for the camera. All in all it was a wonderful and memorable adventure. Pam was an amazing first mate. The video ends with a charming scene of an otter playing in Santa Cruz Harbor.
Last weekend I set out on my typical bicycle ride. I’ve been trying to ride 100 miles each week to loose my “winter 15″. I couldn’t ride to work during the week which meant 30-35 miles a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday of course was a work day and a busy one at that. I finally got away from work at around 5pm determined to put in my 30 miles. I chose a relatively easy ride to Morgan Hill and back along the Coyote Valley bike trail.
Upon arriving at my favorite break spot near Morgan Hill, I noticed a group of eight wild deer. I stopped to take a picture but the deer wandered off before I could get my Blackberry ready. After a quick break to get the camera ready, I started down the trail in the same direction as the deer. After a few minutes, I approached a clearing and there were the eight deer grazing on the grass. I stopped my bike and took quite a few pictures. Unfortunately since dusk was quickly approaching, the pictures are of limited quality.
After a few minutes, I headed down the trail thinking about the different wildlife that I had seen there in the past. As I rounded another corner, I was greeted by a bobcat crossing the path. Unfortunately the wild cat did not wait to have it’s picture taken.
On Saturday I went over to Santa Cruz to check on Calypso and took the opportunity to cycle up the coast to Davenport. On the way is Natural Bridges State Park. When I first moved to Santa Cruz in the mid seventies, there were three “natural bridges”. Two of the bridges washed away over the years leaving this one. The good news is that several more bridges are being carved out by the waves.
On Sunday I finished up the weekend riding along Foothill Expressway from Cupertino to Palo Alto and then up through Portola Valley to reach my 100 mile goal. It was a wonderful weekend cycling through the beautiful and varied California scenery.
I spent the last week in Austin Texas attending a conference on IBM mainframes called Share. Although I had two sessions, both had poor time slots and subsequently low attendance. The conference did prove worthwhile as I had many opportunities for professional networking.
My hotel was about a mile away from the conference so I took the opportunity to walk each way. Austin is the state capital of Texas. My walk to the conference was along Congress Avenue which leads directly to the state capital building. After registering at the conference, I wandered up and around the capital and even ventured inside to take a couple of pictures.
An interesting story about the Austin skyline was told to me by a local austonian. It seems that the tallest building in downtown Austin was designed by a Rice University alum. The building when viewed from a particular angle resembles an owl. The Rice mascot is the Owl and Rice is located in rival Houston. The “owl” overlooks the University of Texas campus in Austin and as the story goes, is meant to express Rice’s superiority over the University of Texas.
The highlight for me was a visit to a local bike shop called Mellow Johnnys which is owned by none other than cycling superstar, Lance Armstrong, I spent more than an hour wandering around the store, admiring the Lance memorabilia and even returned a second time to buy a Mellow Johnnys cycling jersey. By the way, the name Mellow Johnny is american cycling slang for maillot jaune which is french for the Yellow Jersey that symbolizes the Tour de France. The term was popularized by Lance during his 7 year reign as Tour de France champion and is sometimes used as a nickname for Lance.
I am very fortunate to live in an area with extensive bike trails and lanes. On any given day you can see dozens of cyclist enjoying the California weather. I live in south San Jose and work between San Jose and Morgan Hill. This area is hilly with several reservoirs and extremely popular with cyclists. I ride in these hills and valleys every week, taking different roads depending on my mood and available time.
One of my favorite stops along one of my favorite rides is Calero Reservoir, a Santa Clara County park. It is usually bustling with activity and has restrooms and picnic tables but no potable water. I like to stop here after riding the grade up to the dam that forms the reservoir to snack and stretch. The remainder of my ride varies, I’ve been descending down Willow Springs Road lately, a steep grade that most people attack from the other side. I often ride these kind of grades backwards, preferring the more gradual climbs and steep descents.
I was able to capture the output from my Garmin Edge 705 GPS and import it into the GreenWanderer Google map. Click on the route or any of the icons to see more information about my ride.
My first mate suggested that I track my travels on a interactive map. In researching WordPress, I found this great plugin called XML Google Maps by Patrick Matusz that supports embedded Google Maps. So after some experimenting I got it to work. Of course the hard part was inputting my previous travel. I thought I’d start by sticking a pin in my international travel and interstate destinations.
Pam and I had a lot of fun going through her email log to figure out the dates of the trips we took together. We were able to pinpoint all the dates when we traveled together.
I plan to track my travels at GreenWanderer Google maps. I also added a link to the GreenWanderer Google Maps to my web site for anyone who wants to follow along.
This weekend concluded the fourth running of the Tour of California bicycle road race. Levi Leipheimer, a Santa Rosa resident, won his third consecutive tour and continues the US dominance of this event. This is not surprising given the location and timing of the event, but many of the international cycling stars have made the trip to participate in what is becoming the start of the international pro cycling season. Micheal Rogers (AUS) and Jens Voigt (GER) finished 3rd and 4th. The Schleck brothers (LUX), heroes of the 2008 Tour de France. were also highly visible participants.
But of course the star of the show was Lance Armstrong. This was Lance’s first real race in his comeback. It was fun to watch Lance in his comeback and certainly Lance’s presence energized the crowds. The most amazing aspect was to watch Lance serve as domestic extraordinaire and lead the peleton in the final stage to ensure Levi’s win. It is rare and refreshing to see an athlete of Lance’s caliber and fame, be totally subservient to the team goals and sacrifice his own standing to help a team mate win the Yellow Jersey.
To help celebrate another successful Tour of California, here’s my video of the first Tour of California in 2006.
This video highlights the 2006 Tour of California time trials held in San Jose CA. The time trials began in front of the IBM Silicon Valley Lab where I work and finished near my house. I was able to see the start in front of the lab and then rode my bike to the finish line to capture this exciting video.
As part of my social networking, I created youtube.com/GreenWanderer and uploaded many of my videos. I thought I would feature them here to help launch the site. I also added one of the videos to ChannelDB2. So far I’ve received over 200 hits between the two sites.
A quick little video about the re-Christening of my 1973 Cal 2-27 (27′) sailboat. This event marks the beginning of GreenWanderer in my mind. You can see more about Calypso at jaybruce.com
Part of my journey into YouTube required an upgrade to WordPress 2.7.1 that I use to host this blog. After a lot of worry and procrastination I finally upgraded today and was greatly relieved as to the ease of the upgrade. I also upgraded the theme to give a new look and feel to the GreenWanderer blog. There are more changes in the pipeline. The Ocean Mist 2.0 theme that I use is available from TenByTwenty.com
After an exhilarating 30 mile cycle from my boat, Calypso in the Santa Cruz Harbor up the coast to Davenport and back, I decided to take a spin around the harbor and was struck by this scene of the harbor lighthouse. Although the harbor was built by the Army Corps of Engineers forty years ago, the lighthouse is relatively new. built only a few years ago. The jetties that form the harbor mouth are made of massive, multi-ton jacks that interlock together. The story goes that the lighthouse was painted white after several boaters mistook the initial red color as a navigation marker, “red on right upon return” and unfortunately the lighthouse is on the left of the harbor when approached from the sea.
The harbor was dredged from one of twin lakes in two phases. The south harbor with free clearance to the channel was built first and then the north harbor was added a few years later. Although the north harbor is easily accessible by power boats, sailboats must tabernacle their mast to go under the bridge. After the harbor was opened it was discovered that the location which is down current from the mouth of the San Lorenzo river, was ill advised. The silt that pours down the river during winter storms flows down to the harbor and fills up the channel each year. The harbor must be dredged during the winter to maintain a navigable channel.
Calypso, my 27” sailboat is located by the launch ramp on the east side of the south harbor and has great access to the channel as well as many of the harbor amenities. I often spend long weekends on Calypso , taking conference calls on Friday morning from the boat. Pam joins me for one or two nights and then I commute to work on Monday morning. The harbor serves me as a base for cycling as well as sailing with many trips up the coast to Wilder Ranch, Davenport and some times even Ano Nuevo. After a weekend of cycling, sailing, romantic dinners and quiet nights, rocked to sleep by the harbor ebb and flow, I am ready for another week of challenges and opportunities in Silicon Valley.
