A few weeks ago, my husband and I completed our annual Tour de Bay bike tour. It’s a round-the-bay, multi-day bike-camping trip that we concocted and led for our friends each summer. This is a brief summary of our 2023 trip*. I want to thank my husband, Jon Randell, who’s created brief video logs of each day from this year’s 8-day trip (links below).
Biking across the GGB never gets old
Bike camping means different things to different people. For us, it basically means throwing all our back-packing gear in some panniers on our bikes and spending a few days riding from campsite to campsite, mostly cooking/eating on the road or in camp. We’ll occasionally stay in hotels too, if there aren’t any camping options or, if we just want to be inside for one reason or another. We ride both on and off road, and will go pretty far out of our way to avoid big car-y roads.
Bay Trail in Marin
One of the things I love about living in the East Bay is our proximity to bike-rideable, public campgrounds. There’s at least 12 campgrounds within a 40-45 mile ride from Alameda. (Thank you former visionaries for protecting our public lands!) What that means to you is that with a little research and planning, you can create your own world-class, multi-day bike tour from, and to your own front door!
Haypress campground in the Marin Headlands
Our trip has morphed over the 11 years we’ve been doing this, depending on campgrounds being open (for renovations, droughts, and floods), bridges being rideable (thank you Richmond – San Rafeal advocates!) road conditions, and new sections of the Bay Trail opening. The Tour has ranged from 5 to 8 days and from 250 miles to over 300, averaging about 35 per day. With minor tweaks needed here and there each year, we’ve never done the exact same ride twice.
Memorial Park campground in San Mateo
Even though the camping and biking is world-class, the most magical thing about this trip is its accessibility to bike-friendly public transportation. Between BART, ferries, and CalTrain, no one is ever more than a day’s ride from home. That kind of accessibility has allowed friends to drop in and out of the Tour based on their schedules. Some (Steve!) have even commuted to work in the City and rejoined us afterwards.
Coyote Hills Campground
I hope this quick glimpse into our annual tradition might inspire some of you to explore our nearest campgrounds and try bike camping for yourselves! Check out Adventure Cycling . They’re a non-profit organization promoting and advocating for better bike travel in the US) Be warned, it can be a deep rabbit-hole of information, resources, and community.
Happy Bike Touring!
Video highlights from day 2 (Coyote Hills to Memorial Park in San Mateo)
Video highlights from day 3 (Memorial Park to the hostel at Pigeon Pt. Lighthouse)
*We’ve been trying to figure out how to document this trip for a few years now, so I’m grateful for this push from BWA to finally put fingers to keyboards and share this experience with you.