I love doing dangerous things with friends. For me, the danger keeps boredom at bay and makes me appreciate the little things more.
Just a few of the dangerous things I have done with friends in the past:
- Hiked Half Dome with stomach cramps
- Hiked Yosemite Upper Falls during a thunderstorm
- Hiked Yosemite Lower Falls through a mountain of snow
- Hiked 7 miles with only 2 bottles of water and a sprained ankle
- Hiked Mt. Fuji with stomach cramps
- Hiked Mt. Fuji a second time without a flashlight during nighttime
-Climbed onto the top of a building at 5 a.m. to watch the sunrise (one of my favorite moments from college)
I just realized that most of these things involved some form of strenuous physical activity done in the Great Outdoors. Stupid or brave? I say both!
Recently a good friend of mine from college invited me to bike the Golden Gate Bridge. I had recently acquired an old but sturdy mountain bike and decided it sounded just like the kind of grand adventure I often crave. We met at the Ferry Building in San Francisco on a Saturday afternoon and, after a lunch of overpriced burgers and tacos, started our journey to the iconic bridge.
Prior to this adventure I had been biking around my small, humble city a couple times a week, mainly because I lacked a car to get around. Like in most California suburbs, my biking was the exception rather than the norm. I could feel people's stares as I biked my way through town to grocery stores, libraries, parks, and the BART station. Let's get something straight: I am not your typical physically fit, spandex-clad, helmet-wearing biker. After a month of no regular exercise and many months of eating oily but satisfying Taiwanese food, I was not in the best shape for hours of non-stop biking. Oh and yeah, San Francisco has its fair share of hills, bless its heart. But I didn't care, because I love adventure.
I love my friend too because of how equally unprepared she was for this trip. She had purchased a trendy bike many months before but didn't seem the least bit accustomed to riding it. The seat was too tall for her and she had no helmet. Her thin, willowy legs also had no muscles whatsoever. Riding downhill on her bike made her nervous.
But I still love her because despite all this, she was still down for the adventure. You know those friends you have who you can call up on a whim and ask them to do practically anything, knowing that more likely than not she'll say yes? I'm lucky to have a couple of friends like this, and she is one of them.
Biking from the Ferry Building to the Bridge, and then to downtown Sausalito, is apparently the most popular bike route in SF, which I didn't know about until after the fact. It was great because I haven't been home in awhile, and doing this trail allowed me to get reacquainted with the city's beauty. It was like seeing everything for the first time again and I must say, I could feel myself falling back in love with this city by the bay. I was even more encouraged by the fact that there were so many other bikers on the road! It reminded me of being back in Taipei.
We kind of got lost on the way back but luckily bumped into a friendly policeman who helped us carry our bikes down through a dark alleyway that led back up to the bridge. He also rode his own bike with us in the same direction for awhile, which was rad. I never got his name, but so grateful for kind officers who go out of their way to help lost girls. Nothing reaffirms my faith in humankind like the random kindness of strangers.
By the time I had taken BART back to Union City (bike on board, of course), it was 9 p.m. and dark out. I decided to bike home anyway. I don't really like the route to and from my house to BART because of 1) the many stoplights along the way and 2) this one intersection that crosses through two freeway entrances. The lack of sidewalk or bike lane here makes it difficult to get across without a higher than usual possibility of getting hit by a car. Luckily I made it without any injuries.
Total number of miles biked: ~30 miles, which is more than I've done in awhile. I think the last time I biked this much was in southern Taiwan, when my friend and I biked from our hotel to the southernmost point of Taiwan. We got exhausted and sun-burnt, but it was so worth it.
I can't wait for my next biking adventure.
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