Here you go:
“How mountain biking’s mega-success started on Mount Tamalpais”
Right here:
“When Joe Breeze did what thousands of Mill Valley kids had done before him — stood on Miller Avenue across the street from the 2 a.m. Club and stuck out his thumb to hitch a ride — he didn’t know he was changing history.“
Let’s chalk some of this up to a kind of CW Nevius-style local rah-rahing.
Now let’s compare that with a less patriotic, a less Bay Area-centric source like Wiki.*
What’s that, it was only the “mega-success” of MTB what got started on Mt. Tam?
Al right, but that means Cascade Canyon Road is on “a western ridge of Mt Tam …”
“They all came together to race Repack, a steep downhill drop on a western ridge of Mount Tam, plummeting 1,300 feet in 2.1 miles.”
…as opposed to it being on nearby Pine Mountain, right?
So on this map (which isn’t exactly pointing north, oh well) the peaks of Mt Tam are on the lower right, and Pine Mountain is on the left across a chain of lakes, and Cascade Canyon Fire Road (aka “Repack” – you can’t expect Marin Co guv’mint/The Feds to honor that bike-centric name) is in the upper left.
Here’s another map, with Mt Tam way off your screen, down and to the right – knock yourself out.
Anyway at least now, a Chron writer is showing his/her work. So, if you think Pine Mountain / the San Geronimo Ridge / Cascade Canyon Road/Repack is a part of Mt. Tam, then, maybe mountain biking gestated, a little, on Mount Tam, sort of.
But if not, then not.
I’ll tell you, IRL, Repack is way far away from the West, Middle, and East peaks of Mt Tam, so that’s why I’m saying mountain biking was NOT born on Mt Tam.
END OF LINE
West Peak, Middle Peak, and the East Peak of Mount Tam in Marin County, all above a very good place to look for wind and fog and general cloudiness:
Click to expand
This Russian-made Yak-50 acrobatic airplane used to be seen all over the skies of the San Francisco Bay Area – buzzing Mount Tam in Marin County, checking out anti-abortion rallies along San Francisco’s waterfront, that kind of thing.
But here’s your take-away: These things had a working life of just 50 hours back in Mother Russia, as the stress of all them 9G loop de loops and whatnot led to bad things, such as “main spar collapse.” Ouch.
Anyway, looks like fun:
Circa 2005, Marin County, Canon 300mm 2.8L IS + 2x extender
Remember that Yak-50 what used to buzz about the bay area? Good times. (See below for some shots taken from the East Peak of Mt. Tam.)
Well this is better, this one’s a Yak-52 (Як-52). Hurray!
(It probably killed fewer pilots per hour than the single-seat Yak-50, so that’s nice.)
As seen from Land’s End:
Click to expand
(In Soviet Russia, plane kill you!)
What kind of crazy airplanes will Mother Russia send over next?
“This Russian-made Yak-50 acrobatic airplane used to be seen all over the skies of the San Francisco Bay Area – buzzing Mount Tam in Marin County, checking out anti-abortion rallies along San Francisco’s waterfront, that kind of thing.
But here’s your take-away, babe: These things had a working life of just 50 hours back in Mother Russia, as the stress of all them 9G loop de loops and whatnot led to bad things, such as “main spar collapse.” Ouch.
Anyway, looks like fun:
Click to expand
Canon 1D Mark II with 300mm 2.8 IS I and 2x extender – ISO 400 and lots of digital zoom:
Happy trails.”
How many hills do you know of what come with their own Yelp entry?
You ought to get on up there sometime to check it out:
“Hill 88 is a wild ghost town in the sky, hidden way up high in the Marin Headlands. It’s on Wolf Ridge, between Fort Cronkhite/Rodeo Beach and Tennessee Valley. You can barely see it from below, and it’s nothing like most of the old little rusty lifeless bunker sites. This is a crazy Cold War mega-complex teeming with tons of crows dancing in the whipping wind above huge expanses of the bay and SF. It’s part of the old Nike Missile program, officially SF-88C. Was apparently the radar and control center (aka the IFC, or Integrated Fire Control area) of the Nike Missile launch site that’s further down the hill to the east.”
So, those are some of the remnants of Project Nike on top of now-flattened Hill 88 in the foreground along with the three peaks of Mount Tam (with the West Peak also flattened by the Air Force) in the background.
As seen from San Francisco:
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Now, you Know Better Your Marin County.
Well, here’s an update to this old post from 2008. The big change since then has been the arrival of the Presidio Landmark apartments. Enjoy:
In the foreground we see the Presidio’s now-abandoned Public Health Service Hospital (PHSH), site of the old U.S. Marine Hospital and Defense Language Institute.
On the left further back in Marin is Hill 88, former site of Integrated Fire Control facility SF-88C Wolf Ridge that used to house W31 nuclear warheads and Nike Ajax / Nike Hercules defensive missiles
And on the right up high is the West Peak of Mount Tamalpais, former home of Mill Valley Air Force Station.
Not much going on at these places these days.
This atypical view of San Francisico with Sausalito in the background makes the 415 look a little like a village – evidence of Manhattanization is all to the left, so all you see is basically the same as what you would have seen in the 1930′s.
Click to expand
This Russian-made Yak-50 acrobatic airplane used to be seen all over the skies of the San Francisco Bay Area – buzzing Mount Tam in Marin County, checking out anti-abortion rallies along San Francisco’s waterfront, that kind of thing.
But here’s your take-away, babe: These things had a working life of just 50 hours back in Mother Russia, as the stress of all them 9G loop de loops and whatnot led to bad things, such as “main spar collapse.” Ouch.
Anyway, looks like fun:
Click to expand:
Happy trails
If it’s colder than normal this AM and there’s some white stuff on the ground, well then I guess you could say it snowed in the San Francisco Bay Area. But back before the global warming the climate change, back in 2002, we had SNOW, baby.
As here, in ought-two up in Marin County on Mount Tamalpais, when I was out prospecting for gold with my donkey and/or on my Trek 8000 mountain bike (born 1991, Waterloo Wisconsin, died 2006, Civic Center, San Francisco). This is what it looked like in the afternoon ’til the rain melted everything.
Click to expand, why not? Heading to the East Peak with the Richmond San Rafael Bridge below:
Now that was snow, the most we’ve had since 1976.
So, nothing after 1976 has beaten 2002 for snow in the bay area. (I think.)
Stay warm!
