Alactraz Invitational - San Francisco Bay

Today I competed in the Alactraz Invitational, run by the South End Rowing Club. It was a roughly 1.27 mile swimming event where a ferry took us out to Alcatraz and we - after a fashion - emulated what it would be like to escape from the prison. I really want to thank Nataly for inviting me to do this event - it’s something that I have considered for many years but for some reason just never had the nerve to do it. It wasn’t so much the physicality that I was dreading. I’ve done, for example, a half ironman, which uses a very similar length swim but then follows it up with a 56 mile bike ride and a half marathon. So in a purely physical sense this was pretty straightforward. I was just concerned by the logistics of it; the wetsuit, the waves, the ferry, the expense of the thing. It helped a lot to have a “tour guide”. I enjoyed Nataly’s company as well as that of her swimming friends. One of them, Paul, even turned out to be a swimming celebrity and he finished in second place! Pretty incredible. I finished in 59 minutes and 23 seconds, which was interesting to me because it was almost exactly the same time that I ended up with for the 10k that I did two weeks ago. I definitely wasn’t going all out; I wanted to enjoy the event and make sure I finished, both of which were accomplished. Maybe next time I will go a bit harder, but honestly maybe not.

Other than sunburning my neck, there were no casualties; I don’t even feel that tired! That’s the great thing about swimming; it’s easy on the body. Lots of hot swimmers of both genders out there today, as well! If swimming these kinds of events gets me a body like theirs, I’m all for it. There’s another event coming up in two weeks at Keller Beach and I may sign up for that as well.

On a physical level, I definitely need to improve my stroke; I could tell I was inefficient. I need to master alternate side breathing and make sure I swim always with earplugs (which helps with that). Some of that is mental, some of it’s physical. But it’ll be a fun journey!

Ragbrai Day 8 - Lansing, IA

And so we come to the end of RAGBRAI! As I sit in the LaCrosse airport with my $5 coffee cake and reminisce on the terrible hotel that I stayed in last night, it seems appropriate to summarize my Iowa cycling adventure. But first, the details of yesterday.

Oftentimes, my anxiety doesn’t serve me, but once in a while, it’s very useful, and yesterday was one of those days. I was really worried about getting there on time and catching the Pork Belly Ventures shuttle from Lansing to La Crosse, and I woke up very early and got on the road by 6:04 AM and hammered the 65 miles to Lansing. I had done the math and was counting on the logistics in Lansing to be a nightmare; I had to get in, pick up my stuff from the trailer, load it all onto the bike, ride to the shuttle pickup point, find a box, box the bike, then get on the bus. And despite hammering hard, I just barely made it. But I made it! I rode next to a nice guy named John from Jersey who was doing the same thing. We were both ready to go home. The terrain in Iowa finally shifted for the last 30 miles or so, becoming hilly and more like the areas of the East that I’m used to riding through - which was fun, but also slowed us down.

Amazing fried pie at mile 51, though.

So, to summarize my RAGBRAI experience: fun, hot, people, corn, pie. A few observations, in no particular order:

• Cycling doesn’t make you skinny. There were a lot of slightly to very overweight middle aged men riding, so much so that there were teams making fun of it, like Guys Who Get Fat In Winter, etc. It’s a reminder that just doing some cardio won’t improve my physique.

• People are oddly blase about the physical accomplishment. In other events, a big part of the focus is the self pride in accomplishment, with folks cheering by the sidelines, lots of messaging about “you can do it”, etc. But not RAGBRAI. It’s just kind of assumed that you’ll ride 470 miles; it’s just your ticket to the party.

• Not all pies are made equal. I probably had 10-12 pieces in 7 days; some sublime, some merely ok, a couple actually pretty bad. And you can’t really tell by looking.

• The “Windows Desktop” experience is real. I may never have seen bluer skies, greener fields, and whiter clouds. It looked like a postcard. Pretty cool.

• You have to travel with folks that you are compatible travelling with. When you’re counting on people to carry your stuff and handle your logistics, you have to make sure that you’re compatible with their preferences and desires. There’s lots of ways of doing an event like this, and they’re all “correct”, but some will annoy the crap out of you.

• I don’t love camping in a tent. I knew this already, but BTUSFMS only makes you camp for a day or 2 at a time before you get a roof over your head. This was 7 straight nights of camping, and it was too much for me.

• If you get up and get rolling at 6, and are at mile 40 at 8:30, RAGBRAI feels very different. It really opens up and the lack of people means there are no lines. In some ways I preferred it, in other ways it was kind of dull.

• Not all church dinners are made equal. CF: pie, above.

• Always use the small vendors. Ignore the big shiny ones that you see everyday and buy your sirloin sandwich from the local fire department. You’ll be glad you did.

• It’s not as wacky as I thought it would be. I’d heard it was sort of a Burning Man on wheels, but it’s not. There were a few wacky moments and a couple of costumes; a slip and slide, a guy in a Bugs Bunny costume in Lawler; but by and large, it was just folks biking and eating and listening to music.

• I love my bike. I just love it. It’s reliable, predictable, comfortable, works in every setting, even got me through the full 48 mile gravel day. I love it.

• I have more fun when I feel safe. When I have to worry about logistics and arrangements, it really detracts from my personal ability to relax and have fun. All week I was a bit on edge. I think next time I would get professionals to help out, like the Pork Belly folks. That seems like a huge win for people with anxiety like me.

• It’s too bad that people of working age in this country have to work so hard. There certainly were people my age, but a lot of folks were retired or young. We work too hard in this country.

• There were so, so few mechanical problems. It really makes me wonder if there’s anything we can learn for BTUSFMS. I saw almost no people on the side of the road with flats or other issues. I put most of that down to the road quality, and the fact that we could ride in the road instead of on the shoulder.

And so, another adventure completes! I’ll remember the sunrises, and the flat open roads, and the slip and slide, and hanging out with Teri, and riding the gravel with Reid and Cheng. Good times, and I’m glad I came.

Ragbrai Day 7 - West union, iA

Time ticks along and we come dangerously close to the end of my little vacation in Iowa. There’s been some good, some bad, but overall it’s been a pleasant experience, though not one I’m likely to rush back to. It’s just a bit too hot and too busy. But the pie has been as advertised and i do love seeing the countryside as always. I’ll remember the stops for a daiquiri at the libertarian candidate for governor, and the different kinds of rhubarb pie, and all the kind folks selling or giving away water. The slip and slide, the friendly grocery stores, the beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and the endless straight and gently rolling road filled to the brim with cyclists of every shape and color. Oh, and the corn. Lots of corn. Today was 65 miles that flew by. Teri wanted to start early and ride fast so we could beat the lines to Beekman’s homemade ice cream; we kept seeing them out with their home-spun (forgive the pun) gas powered machines for churning the ice cream. You always knew they were there because of the occasional sound of gasoline exploding in the piston chamber. Anyway, the plan worked flawlessly, and we got ice cream, chocolate. I can report that it tastes a lot like a vastly superior Wendy’s Frosty.

There are many other stories; about the man who borrowed a book from the public library just for the night to read in his tent and offered to leave a cash deposit. About the fried chicken line that closed at 8 at the grocery store. About the music at the lake that kept us awake until 11. It’s been an interesting trip.

Tomorrow will be a bit of a mess, a real travel day. I’m taking a pork belly shuttle from Lansing to La Crosse and it leaves at 1pm so I have to really hustle to get in and get my stuff from the sag wagon and say goodbye. Until then, it’s time for one more church dinner.

ragbrai day 6 - CharleS City, IA

Today was reasonably uneventful (with one exception which i’lol get to later) so it might be time to just blog about Iowa. It’s always interesting to me when stereotypes turn out to be accurate and I have to say that Iowa is exactly what i imagined it would be. First the 900 pound elephant in the room; everyone is white. Everyone. Ans that dies make for an interesting 1950s dynamic where there is no ethnic tension because there is no ethnic. there also definitely is something to this idea of Iowa Nice and i found myself wondering, and i know this is cynical, if the two were related; that not having ethnic differences around makes it easier for people to be nicer. Never have i had more teenagers in a grocery store ask me if they could help me find anything. Today i was in a grocery store and when i came out there was a motorcycle in front just idling; the owner had gone inside. That would not work in Oakland, let’s say. It’s also just full of corn and fields. And its pleasant; it’s not poor, it actually seems pretty affluent. The public library stayed open until 8 and was well staffed with little old white ladies and very nice computers. But the internet didn’t work and they didn’t know why; they seemed confused on the whole nature of the internet.

So yeah, it’s nice here. Almost too nice. Pleasant.

On another note, because i always tell it like it is for posterity, i have to say that I’m really ready to go home. This morning one of the older women on my ‘team” completely lost her shit directly at me and started yelling at me this morning and I just really wanted in that moment to go home. I felt bad for her that she was so angry and sad but I did not want to deal with her insanity on my vacation. I need some vacations that are really vacations, with desert islands and beaches and no crazy old ladies yelling at me, and i can shave whenever i want to.

Ragbrai day 5 - mason City, Ia

It’s funny how riding 100 miles has become almost routine. This day was the memorial Century Day, named in honor of one of the founders of RAGBRAI who loved to ride 100 miles. Most years it’s optional but this year it was only optional in the sense of skipping it, which I of course did not. One of the other riders, Reid, had never done anywhere near that distance before and she was excited but also nervous. And she killed it! But, Because of that, we didn’t do much stopping or anything, we just busted down a flat road with a tailwind, and we got in super fast. The night time entertainment was the potluck dinner we invested in at the Lutheran church, which was the best pork chop I’ve ever had. I’m not even a big fan of pork chops. Then the pastor saw my Rice cap and came over to talk to us because he had just had his oldest son get into Rice and was going to attend. So Cheng and I got to reminiscence. All in all it was a very pleasant, if long, day.

Ragbrai day 4 - Emmettsburg, IA

Day 4 was the official Gravel Day and despite riding on Ross with his 28 inch slicks, I decided to give it a go and made it the whole way. My BTUSFMS experience taught me what I needed to know and gave me the confidence to pull it off. I rode with Reid and Cheng the whole way and we had a great time. One joyous thing was that the gravel route want very popular so we had the place to ourselves, relatively speaking, and we got to talk and ride side by side. I also feel like I got to see much more of the “real Iowa”, which included peeing in some corn. I got a patch and everything! We also stopped at the Grotto in West Bend. My phone hasn’t been working at all which gives me a throwback feeling to the early days of riding. Tomorrow is a challenge; 103.5 miles. For tonight, it’s a pizza buffet and an early night.

Ragbrai Day 3 - Pocahontas, IA

The absolute best thing about RAGBRAI so far was the slip and slide about 35 miles into the 73 miles yesterday. Off to the left, I probably would have stopped but Cheng made sure we stopped and I’m glad we did. 50 feet of downhill on my belly, 3 times into a puddle. Best thing ever. The riding was relatively dull but fine; the weather cooperates and was mild and threatened to rain all day but never did.

Ragbrai day 2 - Ida Grove, ia

53 miles today to the bustling metropolis of Ida Grove, home of a couple of very odd castle type commercial structures. One of which seems to house a very midwestern fancy skating rink. Today was good; I was exhausted but rode with Teri who got me through it and then treated me later to some compression treatment for my legs (seriously it’s a big balloon you stick your legs in and it costs $1200 and it rocks). I drank a couple of beers and ate some Doritos and Oreos and generally enjoyed myself. The ride was hilly but acceptable, with lots of cyclists the whole way. We repped our BTUSFMS jerseys and got a lot of questions which we happily answered. Sunny, hot, but a good ride.

RAGBRAI - Day 1 - Sargeant bluff, ia

Well, its time for another adventure! As some of you know, I.decided this summer, given the opportunity, to tackle RAGBRAI, the annual 7 day bike ride through Iowa. I’d never done this ride because i a m usually busy doing BTUSFMS stuff, and also because I wanted to go with a team and hadn’t been invited yet. But this is the year!

I try to keep it real on this blog, because it’s partly for me to remember experiences in the future, so I won’t sugarcoat things; today was tough. I left yesterday at about 2:30 Oakland time, and I just now at midnight on the following day am here complete with my bicycle. This is twice in a row that airlines have failed to deliver my bicycle and I’m done with them. It’s a nightmare because they never tell you anything. But I’m here, and I’m safe, and I”m going to try to turn things around. Iowa is incredibly hot, but everyone we meet has been very nice. The grocery store had a ton of high school kids working there and all of them were almost creepily nice. I got to catch up with my old friend Cheng, and got to eat at Culver’s so it wasn’t all bad. And Teri from my last ride is here so I’m looking forward to chatting with her. This whole environment is so different from BTUSFMS; there are tens of thousands of riders and the atmosphere is much more celebratory and remains me of a big music festival, but with bikes. I’m very tired but going to try to rally.

2022 - Camera Study - Byron, CA

Recently I decided to get back into photography, inspired perhaps by my recent trip and looking at my old photos. I upgraded my camera to a used Sony Alpha a7 II, which is a middle-of-the-road pro-amateur mirrorless camera, kind of a compromise but way better than my old one. I wanted a place to explore the camera versus my phone, and I had heard about this abandoned hot springs and building out in Byron, CA about 45 minutes away, so I went there this morning and took photos with both the camera and the phone.

My two main takeaways are that the phone tries too hard to make pictures look amazing and oversaturates the colors and second that the zoom lenses are indispensable and something the phone can’t reproduce. I couldn’t go up to the building so I had to take pictures from about a tenth of a mile away and the phone just can’t do it well. I’ll post in the captions below which is which.

Zoom lens with the Sony Alpha

iPhone, from the same spot.

Sony Alpha, with my full frame non-zoom lens

Sony Alpha

iPhone

Sony Alpha

Sony Alpha

Sony Alpha

2022 - All My Posts On A Big Map

I’ve had this going for a while, but because many of you likely haven’t seen it, I have a way to view all my biking-related posts on one big geographical map. It is honestly very cool and I’m proud of it so if you’re interested in seeing my travels evolve over the years, check it out!

http://www.adamhunter.net/blog_posts.html

2022 - Riding to the End - outside Livermore, CA - 53 miles

Today I rode 53 miles in a sort of solidarity to the team, which is still out there riding and did 66 miles today. I stopped and turned around because it was incredibly hot and I reached a literal sign that said “End” and I figured, why argue with the sign. I’m trying to explore further and further East, and was trying to get to a town called Byron which apparently has some cool abandoned buildings, but I didn’t make it. I think next time I will start further East, like from Livermore itself (this time I started from Danville).

The Iron Horse trail was under construction, which was annoying.

Day 30/31 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Derry, NH

Well, my trip has come to an end. I write this post while actually sitting in a Denny’s in Oakland, CA, but this post will be about the last two days of the trip - I may write a longer “tying up the loose ends” style post in a while. The ride into Derry was really nice. I was in a bit of a hurry because I had a 4pm flight to catch out of Manchester, NH but I rode the first part of the day with Ted, David and Dick and enjoyed taking pictures with them at the “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire sign. The weather was supposed to be incredibly hot but it actually ended up holding off on the heat until we got into camp. By the time I flew to Philly though it was 95 degrees, and I can’t say I’m going to miss that!

My last rest stop was in the parking lot of a Walmart, which somehow seemed appropriate. David B remarked on the absurdity of the whole thing, hanging out in a parking lot in Walmart in New Hampshire. It’s such a weird hobby.

We ended up eating 3 separate times in 36 hours at the same restaurant across the street from the church in Westborough, called Civic. It’s always interesting to me how we go and visit these places but we do it in such an idiosyncratic way. If anybody ever asked me if I’ve been to Westborough, MA I would have to say yes but I really have no idea what the place is like. :). Except that the traffic when I tried to go to the Post Office was incredibly bad. I was glad I was on a bike!

Also we ended up sitting at a Laundromat for a while, which is another thing I only ever do on these trips. It’s such a weird life!

Day 29 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Westborough, MA

On this blog I post a lot of really pretty pictures of things - sites and sights that I visit. Sometimes I post pictures of people; myself, the team, certain folks that get caught in a shot. It may make it appear that all we do is surf around the country on bikes on a pleasure cruise. But today was one of the “other” kind of days. A lot of this trip is a struggle, and some of it is really mundane. If you can’t find fun in the little moments; the camp showers, the rain, the van, putting out the signs and picking them up; then you won’t enjoy these trips. But I hardly ever take pictures of those parts. So today, I drove the rest stop van and it was a challenging day. The weather started out very bad; rainy and cold, a bad combination for cyclists. By the first rest stop it became clear that people were not enjoying themselves, and several of them started to “bail out”. A couple hadn’t even started the day and more started dropping like flies. Out of 19 cyclists, only about 9 or 10 made it to camp on their bikes.

But that’s not to say it was a bad day. Everyone had a good day and there’s nothing but smiles. The warmth of a church or a van feels so much warmer when you’re cold first.

On a personal level, one of the other route leaders Elle got in the van at rest stop 2 and she asked if I wanted to ride so I rode from RS2 to RS3 just so I could say that I was in Rhode Island. Which I was, for about 6 miles. I rode some with Teri again today and then I had a great conversation with Elle in the van on the way to camp.

Day 28 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Windsor Locks, CT

Today was an interesting day.  First of all, it was my first official century for the trip, coming in at 103 miles.  We arrived at camp at about 98 miles but then rode 2 miles to get some ice cream at Tailwind, where I took a picture on a giant novelty airplane.  

We started the day and rode into Connecticut.  When I was a kid, they told us that the reason the roads were so bad in New York was because of the weather, especially the floods and the freeze/thaw cycle.  But that’s obviously bullshit because as soon as we rode into Connecticut the roads improved dramatically.  If we had to do all 100 miles on NY roads it would’ve been a disaster.

We also climbed about 6000 feet.  Hard day.

As you probably have noticed by now, I’ve been sneaking pictures of Ukrainian flags into my various days whenever we see some.  We’ve seen them sprinkled all throughout the ride, but today I saw as many as the rest of the trip put together - over 50 at least.  I’m not sure why, but it’s cool.  As somebody who thinks a lot about the Ukrainian conflict, it’s cool and makes me feel happy about America.

On that note, while there certainly have been some hateful signs; lots of “Lets Go Brandon”, some Trump, even one or two Confederate flags; it’s a lot less than in past years.  I’m sure a lot of that is due to where we were riding, but still, I’ll take it.

This may have been my last day riding and, if so, I’ll take it - it was a good day.

Day 27 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Clinton Corners, NY

There were a few notable things about riding today.  The first is that it was a gorgeous day, weather wise.  The temperature was probably in the high 60s or so, starting out a bit colder and getting warmer throughout the day, slightly overcast but getting sunny.  We rode for a while on a really old-school dirt trail which was hell on my 28mm road tires but I got through it with only a little bit of mud crusted onto my brakes.  That trail opened up onto the rails-to-trails pedestrian skybridge that went over the Hudson near Poughkeepsie and that was one of the coolest, largest and highest pedestrian bridges I’ve ever personally seen, because it used to be a railroad bridge.  Super cool.

I rode today with Teri, who I hadn’t ridden with yet, and she shared her life story with me (too private for the blog) and I gave her some of my patented high-quality life advice.  It was a good reminder, as I’ve had many of, about the power of speaking your truth and being honest.

Then I drove the van for a bit so that Sean could go get his knee checked out.

The terrain and weather is really starting to remind me of being a kid in Buffalo, which is hardly surprising.

Day 26 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Port Jervis, NY

Today was a really old-school day of riding through some fairly serious hills. We followed the Mighty Delaware river up through the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, going back and forth across the river and between the states. I rode mostly with Ted and David and we kept a pretty solid pace up some 14% climbs and about 4400 feet of elevation change. Our rest stop was with an alum who brought up some delicious sub sandwiches. All in all it was just a very nice day of riding.

I remarked to one of the folks at dinner that I feel like I finally have all my gear “dialed in”; I’m not looking for new equipment anymore; I have the perfect bike computer, the perfect shifting system, the perfect bike. I do need a new rear tire but that’s about it.

We rode on a few closed streets today, closed because they got washed out, and it was really nice. I realized that was one thing I’d been missing, the ability to just ride along side-by-side and talk to the folks I am riding with; we really couldn’t do that in the Southeast because of the busy roads and small shoulders.

Day 25 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Phillipsburg, NJ

Yesterday was a rest day and it was a nice pleasant day but not too much all that photogenic happened so I’m rolling it in with today. Today I rode the bike and we went about 70 miles up into New Jersey, crossing and then riding along the Delaware River. I rode with Ted an company; David Suriani showed up yesterday, one of Ted’s friends and a really good guy that I know from the UK ride a while back.

We stopped and ate at a Jewish deli that he recommended in Stockton, NJ and I had a delicious Nova Lox sandwich on a bagel. Yum.

The riding is hard now, it is resembling the Trans Am with the rolling hills. If I wasn’t taking every other day off I think it would be really wearing me down. The terrain has started to resemble the area I was born in, exceptionally green and with some rocky hills.

Day 23 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - Conshohocken, PA

I drove the rest stop van again today. It was a wet, rainy day and there were a number of logistical challenges but they aren’t particularly interesting to recount. The most remarkable thing about today’s trip is that we rode through Mennonite country. I grew up around the Amish and Mennonites (I honestly don’t know the difference) in Upstate New York so I knew some of what to expect, but it was still really interesting. A lot of what we saw might sound very stereotyped, but it was real and true. For example we saw a number of different clotheslines with an entire family’s worth of clothes swinging in the breeze drying. I saw multiple women in muslin dresses. At one point I had to stop the van on a narrow road because a 4-5 year old boy was looking in the side of the road for his baseball. A buggy came up in the other lane and an older Amish couple started talking to the boy; I couldn’t hear what they said but I assume it was something like “get out of the road”, because he did and I moved on. We stopped at CVS and the owner told me I couldn’t park in the big parking spaces because those were for buggies, and I noticed that they had hitching posts. I also watched a team of four horses plow a field, and a man pulling an automatic hay baler with a pair of horses.

It’s beautiful country; it looks just like a postcard.

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of great pictures because, as I say, I was stuck in a van. Also the Mennonites aren’t crazy about having you take their picture.

Day 22 - Atlantic Coast 2022 - York, PA

Today I rode, and we did most of the 60 miles on a bike path, an old Rails to Trails path. That means they took an old railroad track and turned it into a bike path, which means they are usually really flat and often dirt or limestone, which this was. It was like riding into a green tunnel, with lots of affluent little semi-rural neighborhoods along the way. Tonight we are back to churches.

I stopped in York at this really amazing old-school video arcade called Timeline Arcade that was obviously a passion project; it had a pretty impressive collection of old school games and some timeless 80s decor including garish neon wall paint and old Nickolodeon clips playing up on the wall. I played some Turtles In Time, a little Tron, and just generally wandered through my childhood. They didn’t have a Pac Man Jr though; that’s my holy grail. I did play the original arcade Punch-Out though; it’s a lot harder than I thought it was.