On Saturday July 1, the direction of our annual  Palo Alto to  San Francisco ride (since 2003)  will change. Instead of ending in the Golden Gate city, we are riding to Palo Alto, the true cornerstone of the National Bicycle Greenway, a city through which all genuine rides across America on our coast-to-coast route at BikeRoute.com must pass. Including Jobst Brandt (author of the famous wheel-building book “The Bicycle Wheel” and inventor of the bicycle computer, etc, he is pictured above talking to Don Armstrong the owner of the lot where we were getting our bus ready to sag me and the Eagle as we towed the Busycle to DC – story), the bike celebrities who have had such a huge impact on cycling have either died or moved away from Palo Alto . It still, however,  has the fruits of their labors including great access to the Dumbarton Bridge. Built in 1928, it crosses the Bay from its neighbor on the other side of the freeway, the City of East Palo Alto, with the only bike path to the East San Francisco Bay area.

The above map is LIVE HERE!

Besides the first bike boulevard in the nation running right by its City Hall where our ride from San Francisco will end, Palo Alto also has a wonderful myriad of bicycle undercrossings and bike bridges and enjoyable bike roads that connect it to its mountains, the Pacific Ocean and Stanford University, a true bicycle heaven almost beyond compare, THX in part to Davis resident Brodie Hamilton, who before had worked his magic on the UC Davis Campus.

Nor does San Francisco biking need any promotional help. But the peninsula cities that connect to  it do. And it is the memorable as well as pleasurable biking our ride has discovered in Milbrae, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Burlingame, San Mateo, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City and Menlo Park that needs to be celebrated. So, instead of getting beat up by the famous San Francisco hills at the end of our ride, they will be addressed at the start of our day when we are fresh and can enjoy a legendary city while fewer cars are on its roads.

And THX to civic leader, Yoriko Kishimoto, the former Mayor of Palo Alto, who is helping to lead us, the reception we are hoping to do at the Palo Alto City Hall  will also  be a notable one. Besides Yoriko, her dynamic husband Lee Collins, will be joining us. We are also hoping that Apple computer wizard, Drew Wilson, will return along with Apple employee number one Daniel Kottke, as well as the man who genuinely reinvented the light bulb, Barry Burr of Barry Beams. Other notables too.

For San Francisco to Palo Alto 2017:

– Meet at the San Francisco, 4th & King Caltrain Station at 8:45 AM (the train from Palo Alto arrives at 8:38 per this timetable) for the ride south to Palo Alto

btw: Here is what our 2013 ride looked like. On my plane flight back to Ireland, where I lived for five years, I had the opportunity to create this report

btw2: Yoriko sent me the following bit of bike history about Palo Alto. 

From “Palo Alto Remembered”, a book by Matt Bowling, Betty Gerard,
Palo Alto Historical Association Palo Alto Historical Association,
2012 – Palo Alto (Calif.) – 205 pages