Eight miles didn't sound like a long ride, especially when the brochure said it would only take us about 1.5 hours to get from Pier 39 to Sausalito. Plus, it'd be cool to tell our friends that we biked across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Well, that was what drove us to take up the biking challenge.
The plan was too simple: bike to Sausalito, have lunch there, take ferry back.
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| Ready to take off! |
We donned our finest sports attire for the occasion (for all the photos we planned to take, of course!) and rented bikes from
Blazing Saddles.
It was an exceptionally foggy day, but it made an irresistibly great picture for the Golden Gate Bridge. Despite the short distance from the Fisherman's Wharf to the bridge, we took an hour to reach the bridge proper because of the endless photo stops.
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| So near yet so far! |
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| Still not there yet... |
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| Reaching... reaching... |
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| Goofing around for the last time! |
The uphill slopes along the way were quite a killer too. They varied in the degree of steepness, and made us work those muscles like crazy. On more than one occasion, we were left sweating and panting like mad. Nonetheless, we soldiered on with wobbly legs.
And then finally, we are on the famous Golden Gate Bridge!
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| On the GG Bridge |
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| Enjoying the great view |
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| Yay! We finally made it across the bridge! |
Once past the bridge, we had to make a rather confusing detour due to construction works. We had to carry our bikes down a long flight of stairs and cross under the bridge, before moving onwards to Sausalito. A couple more gentle slopes await us.
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| Down and under due to construction works |
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| You can feel the tremblings from the cars above |
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| Seeing light again! |
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| Onwards to Sausalito |
When we finally got to Sausalito
four hours later, we were quite relieved to be able to peel our butts off the bikes. We were practically starving, so we had huge scoops of goodness at
Lappert's ice-cream, followed by yummy hamburgers and hotdogs at this famous hole-in-the-wall shop called '
Hamburgers'. Burp.
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| Finally reaching at 3 plus... now where's our lunch stop? |
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| Ice-cream cures all things! |
We almost could not make it back by ferry because it was fully booked. Just as we were starting to panic, the ferry company decided to add one more timing to the schedule. Thank God.
Carrying the bikes on and off the ferry was quite a hassle though. It was a tad disorganised and everyone milled around the deck while waiting for others to claim their bikes and load them off the ferry. In spite of the mess, we made it back in time to return our bikes.
All in all, it was a day of amazing achievements. I never thought we could cycle this far! The tiredness is sinking in now... And the satisfying sense of muscle pain will become full blown tomorrow!
