Dearest Gentle Reader, It seems we have a rather special announcement. Congratulations to esteemed members of the Ton, Natalie Telis & Kira H for completing their first double centuries riding across all the Bay Area's major bridges (and many, many other ones, big and small, as well)! They were a bit unsure about being able to do it but I assured them they could and they did! 🥳 This is technically my fourth year of this tradition of doing a double century for the summer solstice but the third completed one as we had to bail on the second year. I don't remember what the inspiration for this year's route was anymore but crossing all the rideable bridges and it being the third (complete) double, Bridgerton Season 3 seemed apt. I liked that it was amazingly flat compared to all the other routes around the Bay Area I've created so far. Natalie had mentioned that she'd never done a double (neither had Kira) and wanted to. This seemed like a great route for a first attempt and we all had Juneteenth off. Natalie was tentatively in from the start. Kira reluctantly was going to join, then decided not to, then decided to start with us at least and see what happened. I did a lot of refining and fine-tuning to get the route just right and in the end we ran into a washout on the Bay Trail in Pinole and had to cut stuff at the end because it was getting late and we just wanted to get home before Natalie turned into a werewolf. We had a slightly late start as Natalie forgot her water bottles and had to go back home to get them - TWICE! It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be in the morning but still a bit chilly. Once rolling though, spirits were high. We were all just grateful to be out on an adventure together. Immediately though, we were feeling more of a headwind than we expected to and it lasted pretty much the whole way north. Epic Ride Weather hadn't predicted that so we were worried about how bad the rest of the ride might be. It was also more overcast than expected so we didn't get much of a sunrise. It wasn't until we got to Sausalito, when the sun started to peek out and the skies started to become clear and blue. Coincidentally, our day ended that way as well where it became cloudier when we got back to Berkeley and didn't have much of a sunset. I am glad I had gone outside the night before and got a taste of how cold the wind was. That's probably why the start wasn't as cold because I dressed for what I thought could be a cold day. I think we were just past the airport for sunrise. The city was nice and quiet as we rolled through. No one at Fisherman's Wharf getting clam chowder for breakfast. We stopped for a restroom break just before Crissy Field and sadly it was before the Dynamo Donut Kiosk was open. Golden Gate Bridge was nice and quiet but with the grey skies and fog, not as epic as I'd hoped. I was on my map page navigating the whole time so I don't have much of reference for what time we hit each mileage but Natalie was saying we were making good time. Before the ride, we weren't sure where we'd have breakfast as it depended on where we got when places finally opened. It was either going to be before or after the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. We made the decision to stop before at Rustic Bakery. I actually expected to be there earlier but maybe the headwind didn't help. Crossing our second major bridge, we encounter heavy headwind. This was supposed to be a tailwind section. I was really over Epic Ride Weather by now. We caught up to a solo rider just before getting on to the bridge. He was kind of riding this in between speed. Not quite slow enough to pass but also not fast enough to not pass. I could see Kira was itchy and wanting to go by and Natalie gave the okay so I led us past him. The climb up the bridge, isn't that steep but it feels really long. I wasn't sure how long they wanted me to go at the higher pace. At one point, I looked back to see Natalie had dropped back and the guy was right on her wheel so I backed it off. He joined us the whole way into Point Richmond. We chatted. He was only doing 50 miles today. The ride through Richmond, and up the coast to Carquinez Bridge, through Vallejo and Benicia, was all new for me until getting back on to Benicia-Martinez Bridge. It was interesting to see a new part of the Bay Area but with the exception of Benicia, it was a bit run down and some of the areas we went through felt post-apocalyptic, like we were in Fallout. It was like we were in an alternative universe of the Bay Area. And then, as mentioned early, there was the trail closure that caused us to hop a metal fence - twice. We got to the trail entrance to find chain link fencing and that the trail was closed. Some Googling showed what looked like an alternative trail entrance nearby but turned out to be the gate/fence. It was locked but Natalie and I being jungle bar monkeys climbed right over it. Kira struggled with it a little bit but made it over safely. Once on the trail, around the corner we saw a parks truck parked along the side of the trail and I immediately wondered if the wash out was still ahead of us instead of back where the closure was. We didn't have to wait long to find out as short time after that we encountered some guys that told us the trail was closed and that we had to turn around. Damn it! Climbing back over the fence was easier as there was a smaller fence next to it that we could climb onto first. The whole point of using the Bay Trail was to avoid San Pablo Ave. I think we actually avoided the worst parts earlier and what we had to ride wasn't terrible. Of course, once we were on the Bay Trail, it was very nice. Beautiful views, views of the bay that we haven't seen before, and tailwind. Glorious tailwind. One the running activities we started in Richmond because of all the times we'd already yelled out, "Pole!" from all the various bridges and trailhead entrances, was to take a poll. Each person took turns after every pole passed to ask a question. The section after Carquinez Bridge wasn't how I thought it would be. Like I'd said before, a little more run down. Speaking of, that's when I noticed Kira and Natalie starting to lag a bit. It had started to get hot on the way to the bridge and I think it was starting to have an affect. Kira's knee was bothering her and Natalie's wrist was starting to hurt. We stopped at a gas station for some snacks and water and it was looking a little dire not even 100 mi. in. Kira had already planned to only do a century and now Natalie was starting to think she might have to bail if her wrist got worse. She asked us about realistic contingency expectations. I was first to respond, and I don't remember how I worded it exactly, with "I expect us to finish the whole thing" or maybe "I expect us to not stop.", jokingly. After the food and water people perked up a bit and we did our first little dirt detour through Glen Cove Waterfront Park to Benicia State Recreation Area. Some nice road bikeable dirt that Natalie commented is my signature route move - to add some dirt on a road ride. Yeah baby! Benicia was surprisingly nice and quaint. We'd totally go back. We almost stopped there for lunch instead of our plan to stop in Martinez. We had done a pretty good job of eating along the way and we wanted to minimize stop time since it was looking like we weren't going to finish when we thought we would. We looked for some quick places and settled on either the Greek place or a sandwich place. I was leaning more towards Greek. Kira more towards sandwiches, and Natalie had no preference so Kira and I Rock, Paper, Scissor'd to decide. I won - TWICE! The first time and the second time for the video and picked Greek but we still ended up a totally different choice that we passed on the way to Greek. It was banh mis and they were really banh MEH! Dry bread, and just generally not tasty. Natalie and Kira's rolls weren't great either. After lunch, Natalie looked like she was ready to call it. Her wrist, the heat, being in her head about our pace, I think it was all leading her to thinking about what's the best way to bail. The thinking at the time was we still had to go forward and do the major climbing for the day before getting back to bail out points (which wasn't strictly true but true in terms of moving forward I guess). So we'd continue forward and assess. I hadn't been checking my phone all day and as we were getting ready to leave, I saw the BEST email from my health care provider introducing a new surgeon. This guy had such an awkward smile in his picture and all I could think of was how did that get approved. Then we thought, if that got approved, what did the other photos look like. I think Natalie named him Michael because I wouldn't tell them his real name after Kira threatened to make this photo her contact photo for me. I didn't want this guy's face showing up every time. I then counter-threatened to make his photo my contact photo for her. Later when I checked my phone again, I think at Tilden Park, his photo was the first thing to appear and I cracked up all over again. I left it that way pretty much the rest of the ride because he was such a good laugh and morale boost for all of us. I want to make "Michael" my mascot, to share his photo with you all so you can enjoy him too but... Kira. You know? (I guess and Natalie because she promised help her get a photo of him. She even composited a series of photos I sent screenshotting just parts of his face. It actually looks more normal/less awkward than his real photo) We could've taken Three Bears to get back but that would've been more climby, hotter and more exposed, and windier. Besides, I wanted to revisit the Lafayette-Moraga Trail that we did the first year and I was a nice as ever. Natalie had been lagging because of wrist struggles and at one point I said to Kira, "We dropped Natalie." Kira looked back and said nonchalantly, "She's there." That made me laugh both because that wasn't the response I was expecting and because of how far back Natalie was. Once we got to Wildcat Canyon, we found the road blocked off with concrete barriers. I didn't know there was a washout closing the road but it was open to cyclists. This was one of several car-free experiences we were fortunate to have. It was also around that time that the weather went from being hot to cold. Especially when we got to the top at Tilden Park. The wind had really picked up once again and it was chilly. Down below, it was looking grey and overcast again too. We threw on all our layers again and descended down to Berkeley. That descent was a lot of fun. The wind along the Bay was ripping. I was a little bit concerned about having strong crosswinds along the gravel section of the Bay Trail further south. This was the other point in the ride where it didn't feel like imagined it would. It seemed to take forever to get to Alameda but maybe it was that end of a double, miles start to count down slower, situation. On the way through West Oakland it was pretty much a ghost town except for one point not far after we left the Bay Bridge, we heard sirens approaching us from behind. All of sudden there was a white sedan, I think it was an Accord, flew passed us but on the wrong side of the road. At first I didn't even realize what was going on until around 5 police cars were chasing it, flying passed us, just slightly trailing it and it became obvious because there was an island median separating the two directions of traffic. And then right after this train of chaos passed us, directly ahead of us, I caught sight of a police helicopter, that would've been flying towards us, doing a crazy swoop up and hard banking U-turn from left to right to turn around and chase after the sedan. I was so stunned and everything happened so quickly, I didn't take any photos. We had decided before the ride to order food from Burma Superstar in Alameda and eat it in the park but the thought of eating out in the cold was unappealing so we looked for something else faster. We settled on Burger King and luckily we were able to sit inside out of the cold. I didn't see the time but one last look at Michael and we left BK around sunset. The rest of the ride was in the dark. Perhaps our slower pace was a blessing in disguise because the wind direction had changed and we were getting a tailwind most of the way back instead of a crosswind as was predicted. And the headwind sections were much milder than in the morning. Because it was already dark, I decided to cut the waterfront loop around Bay Farm. Riding next to waves splashing on the shore in the moonlight on the Bay Trail was magical. We also made the decision to cut riding on the levee at Coyote Hills because of Natalie's wrist. I dreaded riding Marshlands Dr. because the headwinds there are so bad usually and the road surface is terrible but there wasn't much wind. By the time we got there the road was closed too so we made it to Dumbarton fairly fast. On the home stretch and we were making mental calculations, realizing that we weren't going to hit 200 miles. So we escorted Natalie home but before that, she showed us a neighborhood house where the person that lives there has been called the Chalk Granny because she does chalk drawings on her front walk once a week. Natalie was the first to hit 200 miles, followed by me and then Kira on the way home. It felt good to help and to see them complete their doubles. Amazingly, no mechanicals, crashes, or negative interactions. Everyone was positive throughout the ride, even in the low moments, which going into, I was wondering if we should talk about it at the start of the ride since this is the longest amount of time we've spent together continuously. I don't know what happened with the moving time as it should be closer to 15h13m and the average speed should be ~13.24mph