We were not exactly sure of the best way to get from our house near Woodside to San Francisco.

We thought that the best way would be to take one of our normal routes toward Crystal Springs and just keep going. It turns out that is just the thing to do. A little googling turned up The San Mateo County Scenic Bicycle Route. Piece of cake. So come next Saturday, we load up, hit the road and follow this route right to Ocean Beach where we will do the ceremonial Pacific Coast tire dip. Maybe. Or maybe we will do it at Crissey field which is a place near and dear to us.

We keep changing our minds but today we think we will leave from our house and head east along the Western Express.

We wanted to take this route all along but were intimidated by the passes and the remoteness of the route. Then, just over the past few days a couple of things happened that changed our mind.

First, we ran into a young man named Garth in Healdsburg who works at the local bike shop (Spoke Folk Cyclery) who took this route last year. We talked at length and came away believing that it was doable.

Then just last night we were checking out the first section on the web. The crossing of the Sierra Nevada my be the most extreme part of the whole trip so we wanted to check out lodgings and elevation gains along the route.

And what did we find? Nothing less than a great review of the scariest part of the ride, Mormon Emigrant Trail to Silver Lake by our local bike shop.

Being the superstitious mud eaters that we are, we took this as a sign. Now we are commited. You can’t go against the signs!