I didn't move to the San Francisco Bay Area because I loved mountain biking, but I ended up loving mountain biking because I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Any local mountain biker knows that the tire-on-dirt options in the vicinity of the City by the Bay are damn-it's-good-to-be-alive tasty. There's literally singletrack magic in every direction (well, except west, since underwater riding isn't yet practical).
North is Marin County. East, I've got the Oakland hills. Then there's south...oh, south. I want a 100-mile arm span so I can hug the peninsula. And the Santa Cruz Mountains, including UCSC land...oh, so forbidden.
This, however, isn't an article about the mountain biking scene around San Francisco. This is a story about the mountain biking scene in San Francisco. No, not all that is two-wheeled and pedal-powered in SF are fixies. I'm talking dirt and singletrack. Hills covered in trees! I'm talking 200 riders on an epic ride, covering 30+ miles and 4000 vertical feet, all within the borders of beautiful San Francisco.
Our story begins:
Drinking like a fish with Gary Fisher at the Saloon
It's a Thursday night and I'm pretty drunk—scratch that—really drunk. I've just ridden home from a Soil Saloon event, an underground race/party in Golden Gate Park.
As an added bonus to the fun of being bad at the event, I met and chatted with Gary Fisher. Gary is actually a big Soil Saloon fan. He even rocks "The Kit," a Soil Saloon riding jersey and shorts, complete with a holstered six-gun printed down the hip.
A two-year-old tradition, Soil Saloon almost always takes place somewhere within the 1017 acres of Golden Gate Park and features a multi-lap race around a small loop, followed by an only semi-rowdy post-race campfire party.
People race hard and fast, that is, until they reach a checkpoint task, which must be completed before continuing. This night's checkpoint tomfoolery required riders to embarrass themselves with their best freestyle cowboy poetry and then take a shot of booze.
If you're curious, here's "the founding father" Gary Fisher's poem:
"Miles was a fireman and he shot his wiz real high.
Miles shot it in the sky, and it landed in my eye.
Miles that fireman—YEAH that special fireman!
He shot his wiz...into the sky."
He took third in the race, and, in my not-so-humble opinion, throttled the other riders' poems, adding to a long history of him ripping it up in the park.
Gary has raced here countless times. The park has been hosting big cyclocross events since the early '70s, when fellow Bay Area natives Jim Gentes (who went on to start Giro) and Clark Natwick ruled. Those events gave locals off-road biking fever, exploding the scene.
Soil Saloon is just one of many bits of proof that off-road riding is still hot and sweaty in Golden Gate Park and the city. Along with other more official races, San Francisco's Team DFL cyclocross club has held underground events here for 15 years, including their annual Cross Dress Series ride. If you love bike racing and men in drag, go to YouTube for footage.
Though he no longer runs it, Soil Saloon is the brainchild of an impressively sharp guy in his late 20s. We'll call this anonymous man of mystery Chris.
Refreshingly, the philosophy of Soil Saloon isn't about promoting bicycle awareness or anything like that. It's exactly what it sounds like: bike lovers coming out to the park, doing a race, having some drinks, and doing it just because that stuff is fun.
"I love bikes, and I love to race," explained Chris, "So I thought, why don't we put on our own race? And let's do it more for the fun, social aspect of biking rather than pure competitiveness. It's just an event people put on for each other."
One message that Chris does like to push is that anyone can do this kind of thing.
"I think bike communities can absolutely do this if they have the open space. Just do it and clean up after yourselves."
Soil Saloon helped inspire a couple locals to create one of the raddest days in San Francisco mountain biking history.
SF Urban Riders, the Mt. Sutro Stewards and the legacy of a guy named Adolf
It's the day after Soil Saloon and I'm headed east through Golden Gate Park. Fortunately, my helmeted head is no longer throbbing. In fact, I'm grinning chin strap to chin strap since I've ditched work early.
Golden Gate Park is truly a beautiful place, full of trail to explore. I love its slightly unkempt wildness. If NYC's Central Park is a groomed, gorgeous debutant, Golden Gate Park is a hot hippy chick.
I'm headed for Mt. Sutro, named for Adolf Sutro, a Prussian immigrant and brilliant mining engineer who owned huge areas of land in the city and was even mayor for a couple years. He also planted the eucalyptus forest, now called the Sutro Forest, on his land on Arbor Day, 1886.
I find the small, 61-acre Mt. Sutro enchanting. Not only is it beautiful, it possesses this odd magic that comes from the fact that I'm in the middle a hugely populated city, yet I'm riding through densely forested land. Best of all, the trails are just flat out great: expertly designed for sustainability, impeccably maintained, and super flowy.
One group that deserves tons of credit for the trail is the Mt. Sutro Stewards, founded by a lifelong rider and San Franciscan named Craig Dawson. As a 20-year member of a community advisory board with UCSF (it owns of the majority of Mt. Sutro), Craig slowly but surely pushed an agenda toward managing the open space with habitat and recreation in mind.
To make a long and arduous story, full of countless hours of hard work, short, trails began to take shape—and new stuff is still being built. These days, The Mt. Sutro Stewards, along with other groups, lead volunteers in trail building and habitat restoration once a month.
As I'm climbing, a couple riders headed down give me a heads up that guys are working on the trail ahead. I already know who one of the workers is going to be.
Sure enough, one is a thin man sporting glasses, a ball cap and his favorite accessory of all: a landscaping tool. It's Dan Schneider, chairman/co-founder of SF Urban Riders, the main advocacy group and voice of mountain biking in the city. SFUR was founded by Dan, Dayton Crites and Mitch Monroe.
Mitch also co-founded, with his buddy Matt Harden, a group called SF Dirtlab. Its main focus was getting a mountain bike park built in the city. However, despite SF Dirtlab's efforts, some felt they weren't really getting much done in an official capacity.
As Mitch described it, "We were just like, 'Hey, if enough people say there's gonna be a bike park, there's gonna be a bike park.' So we were coming at it from a pretty immature standpoint."
So in early 2008, the need for more organized advocacy and tackling bigger ideals, especially in the area of getting more trail built, led to emails, online chats and flyering of local bike shops. Eventually a face-to-face meeting and the drinking of beer were planned at a local bar. That meeting was the conception of the SF Urban Riders. Along with the co-founders, Mt. Sutro Stewards founder Craig Dawson was in attendance. Dan had met Craig when both volunteered on an early trail project on Mt. Sutro. Dan himself is a founding member of The Mt. Sutro Stewards.
At this meeting of dirty minds, Dan quickly established himself as the biggest go-getter of the group. They had found their fearless leader.
SFUR has made an amazing amount of progress in its two years of existence. Dan brought the experience and civic connections he established while working with the Mt. Sutro Stewards, and had already begun a dialog with habitat folks. One of SFUR's main objectives has been to educate and unite, as best as possible, mountain bikers and habitat conservation advocates. Easy, right?
Another factor in SFUR's progress is the drive of its members. According to Dan, so far, SFUR members have volunteered over 2000 hours of labor in San Francisco's open space—a whopping 40% of the total hours donated. Not only does this muscle get more trail built and habitat restored, it gives SFUR more political muscle.
Says Dan, "Our guys work hard. People from our club show up and bust their asses. Not every volunteer is created equally. Some are just more willing and capable of harder work. Also, it's tough for habitat people to hate riders when they're on the hill next to them restoring and caring for habitat."
Dan has multiple stories about city official-type people who were not SFUR and mountain biker fans at first, but who now kinda like them, or even love them. A lot of these about-faces are because of pickaxe swinging SFUR members. Officials see that we mountain bikers are actually really cool, smart, driven and organized, despite the dirt jammed in the corners of our eyeballs.
SFUR still has much to do. For one, they want to build and take ownership of trails independently of other groups. Partnerships will always exist, but SFUR wants to lead some of the charges, not just help out. Another aspect of this is that Dan sees biking, with its links to recreation, alternative transportation and youth programs (SFUR is already working with the YMCA), as much more attractive to government dollars than habitat restoration.
With SFUR taking up the cause, San Francisco mountain biking is in very good hands, indeed, which is good seeing how much potential there is here.
As I've hinted, there's a lot more riding than just Mt. Sutro and Golden Gate Park within the borders of San Francisco. There's Mt. Davidson, which is loaded with fun singletrack. There's McClaren Park, in which SFUR is working hard to get permits and funding for SF Dirtlab's original dream, a bike skills park. There's Twin Peaks, with its stunning view of, well, everything. Plus, Glen Canyon, Bernal Heights, and so much more.
You might be thinking, "Wow, with all that trail, you could have a pretty insane event if a bunch of people hit it all in one day." Well, that's what 27-year-old voracious rider and SFUR Treasurer, Peter Durham, thought.
He wasn't the first person to have the thought. But he, along with many other motivated folks, was the first to actually make it happen.
One could say it was the coming together of Gary Fisher's legacy, the philosophies of Soil Saloon, DFL and SFUR, thousands of hours of trail work, San Francisco's bike culture, and just sheer balls.
It was called SF Flow.
Peter Durham and the courage to Flow
Peter Durham is actually the guy who introduced me to all the trails and personalities in this article. We were creative partners at a downtown ad agency. An insatiable rider and explorer, he knows San Francisco dirt like the back of his stem.
One day in late September 2008, Peter told me about this huge ride he and a buddy of his were putting together. His partner in crime (literally) turned out to be Dayton Crites, a co-founder of SFUR.
Over time, Peter slowly gave me more details about his big ride. I would also see over his shoulder that he was constantly working on posters and mapping, drawing trail on screen grabs of Google satellite views of San Francisco.
When I finally took in what he was planning, I wasn't just interested, I was drooling.
This ride he was calling "SF Flow" wasn't a race, but a free, all-comers adventure over most of the dirt available in San Francisco and, of course, the pavement in between. It would cover over 30 miles and punish the weak with over 3200 vertical feet going against gravity.
As it turned out, I wasn't the only one who thought this was a great idea.
Other than one posting on MTBR.com, SF Flow was only promoted on soilsaloon.com. Sure, it was going to be longer than the usual 20-minute race around Golden Gate Park, but still, it was just a fun ride among like-minded bike lovers. So why get permits? In their wildest dreams, Peter, Dayton and the other SF Flow organizers hoped for 100 riders. Realistically, they expected maybe 40.
To his credit, Dayton didn't have a holy-shit-what-have-we-gotten-ourselves-into-here expression on his face as the crowd grew to 200 riders, about five times what they expected.
Megaphone in hand, Dayton pointed everyone toward the trailhead and...
Ready. Set. GOOOO!
A new San Francisco dirt scene legend, and big trouble, was born.
SF Flow was every bit as bitch-slapping as a group that pre-rode the course said it was on the Soil Saloon site.
It was a freakin' amazing day...and freakin' hard. San Francisco is a city of grades, my friends, ranging from kinda steep, to Everest-like. The stretches between dirt did not necessarily mean it was time to cruise a bit. Let's just say my granny gear saw action, and it was mostly on pavement.
I don't know how many of the 200 or so riders who started the ride finished the whole 30+ miles, though I'd say the majority bailed out early. I was stoked to say that I, along with my twin brother, was among those who gutted out the ride from start to finish. No small accomplishment.
Though all kinds of bikes were used, most took on SF Flow riding their Saturday best: full suspension rides. I rode a hardtail, but only because I didn't have my Blur yet. I'll definitely be mounting my strongest horse for the next one.
To sum up the route: we went through Golden Gate Park, over Mt. Sutro to Twin Peaks, across to Mt. Davidson, through Glenn Canyon, followed by a long haul over pavement to the south part of the city, up San Bruno Mountain, over more pavement to McClaren Park, up a bunch of crazy-steep pavement, up to Bernal Heights Park, and finally down to the final destination, Precita Park for the post-ride fun. Peter's route was a work of art.
The coolest thing was that it was all about having fun. There were even five Soil Saloon-like checkpoints with booze and silly tasks like a slingshot challenge and a slot machine. We were also given a playing card at each checkpoint, with the best poker hand winning a prize at the post-race party. A woman actually got a four-of-a-kind. Cheater!
To top it all off, the weather was unseasonably perfect. It is a day worth repeating, to be sure.
Oh, if only life were that easy.
SF Flow is forced to grow up at only one year old
The second annual SF Flow had been penciled in for November 8, 2009, but that date has been un-penciled, come and gone. I'll let you know right now, this article isn't going to end with a section about how great SF Flow was this year. As much as the riders loved the first one, there were plenty of people who did not. The backlash was brutal.
"Attack of the biker barbarians" is one phrase, used in the rabid post-Flow bloggings, that still gives Dayton a chuckle.
For the most part, riders stayed on the marked course and damage was relatively minor. Peter even used biodegradable spray chalk to mark the route. But they, like the parks, city and residents, just weren't prepared for so many riders. Since SF Flow was an un-sanctioned event and technically illegal, it was pretty hard to rally a legitimate defense of the ride.
Fortunately, Dan Schneider and SFUR did their best to come to the rescue, and take on the fury that was suddenly directed at mountain bikers in San Francisco. Eventually, with a lot of hard work, things began to look up for mountain bikers. As a result, things are also looking up for the second SF Flow. It's probably fair to say that without SFUR's defending of San Francisco mountain biking, the idea of doing the Flow again would have been laughed, or even screamed, out of the offices of policy makers and permission givers.
SF Flow has had to go legit. Obviously there's no way it can be done underground again, and it shouldn't be anyway. The general consensus is that because SF Flow was so amazing for the riders, it deserves to be a great, nationally recognized, and very legal event, complete with sponsors.
The fact is, done right, SF Flow is bigger than events like Soil Saloon, both in size and in what it represents for urban mountain biking.
However, even with the improved image of mountain biking thanks to SFUR, getting permission for SF Flow is not going to be a quick, asked-and-answered thing.
"Permit purgatory," is how Dayton describes it.
The ironic thing is that SF Flow's route isn't even illegal for individuals to ride. But hundreds of riders? That gets noticed.
"It's amazing that we have to do all this for something that's not a monthly or weekly event, but a once-a-year thing," sighs Dayton. "But if they're going to let us do it, we're going to say, 'All right, we want to get the city's full blessing on this, be legit, so, how do we do this?'"
But Peter is confident that the ride he and Dayton pulled off with great success is going to be approved. He talks about it in terms of when, not if, and he believes it'll be an even bigger hit as a sanctioned event.
"It's going to be amazing. When we're official, we're going to have people from all over, not just the Bay Area. Thirty-five miles, 4000 vertical feet. This event is kind of an epic. It's not your typical mountain bike race. It's a little bit above."
Dayton corrects him, "For the record, it's not a race, it's an adventure."
Peter thanks him with a laugh, and continues.
"It's going to be a monumental shift in how people view mountain biking in urban areas." Peter laughs then adds, "But this time for the better."
Not all the immediate post-race reaction was negative. For one, it more rapidly brought about discussions and the voicing of concerns that were going to happen eventually, regardless of SF Flow. Another good result was a marked increase in volunteering for trail building and habitat restoration by riders, which has given SFUR more political power and improved mountain biking's image.
Peter and Dayton are sure there will be even bigger positive effects. They see SF Flow as not just important for how mountain biking is viewed in San Francisco, but in other urban areas.
Peter continues, "After a second year, and a third, doing it legally, it's not going to be long until Portland, Seattle, L.A., Dallas, cities all over the United States are embracing urban mountain biking. I think it's got a huge potential."
If for whatever reason SF Flow doesn't get the approval of the city, it's certainly going to be a blow, not just for those of us who want to do the ride again, but for the acceptance and wider adoption of mountain biking, in general.
What a shame that would be. Excuse my "what about the children moment," but we need activities like mountain biking. It's one of those sports that, because of its less-than-clean-cut roots, possesses that outlaw edge that kids just can't resist, like skateboarding, but at the same time, whips them into incredible physical condition. It's like pouring melted Velveeta all over their broccoli.
Gary Fisher summed it up well at Soil Saloon as he talked about the future of the sport he helped invent, and the appeal it has to kids if given the chance:
"Kids have gotten into video games as more of a symptom of us limiting their options. The choice is, okay, you can be in a program, where mom is going to pick you up and whisk you off to this program or that program. Or you can fuck around and play with your friends. They're gonna say, 'Fuck you, I wanna fuck around and play with my friends.'" Laughing, he concluded, "Great kids. I love kids."
If SF Flow doesn't happen, I shudder to think how many kids will miss that pack of riders cruising through the city—all of them on colorful, futuristic-looking bikes, and looking freaking beautiful, fit and, most importantly, happy. Come to think of it, I shudder to think how many adults looking for a healthy passion will miss it, too.
| Exclusive Dirt Rag Web-Only Extras For Access: It All Flows Together in San Francisco | Read more by author Andy Beech at his website www.mtshredward.com.
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| Comment from Dirtbag Matt on 2010-04-05 |
| Great Article! Keep the awareness coming. I'll see you on Mt. Sutro for trail work soon... |
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