I ride my bike to work every day, rain or shine. There are a handful of exceptions – Sara’s given me a lift a few times, and I took a bus home once – but you get the point: I’m no longer a stranger to commuting by bike.

It’s about 3 miles from my apartment to the office, with one uphill bit that prevents me from ever making it home without sweating through my shirt. In the morning, it’s sunny and cool. In the evening, it’s windy as all hell.

There was an impressive buzz surrounding B2WD here in San Francisco, but I felt left out. With everyone else biking down to their employer’s Silicon Valley headquarters, I decided to celebrate B2WD my own way: by adding some extra miles onto the normal, three-mile cruise.

Forty-seven miles, that is.

I got up earlier than usual and set out over the bridge. The San Francisco Bike Coalition had set up tents all over the city, where friendly volunteers cheerily handed out Clif bars, topped off water bottles and enjoyed a beautiful morning. I noticed an exorbitant number of cyclists on the road out of Sausalito – a good sign! – though my route took me in the opposite direction.

I turned off the Sausalito bike path and began to climb. And climb. And climb. And I didn’t stop ’til I hit the top – of Mt. Tam, that is.

There may have been a lot of riders on the road out of Sausalito, but there wasn’t a soul on the side of that mountain. No cars, hikers, no cyclists… it was just me, the road and that Pacific wind rustling through the trees. I reached the summit just as the clock struck eight, took a minute to catch my breath, snapped a few pictures and turned right around.

The view. See those buildings? That's San Fran.

The descent was long and windy, but passed quickly. Before I knew it, I had left the peaceful confines of Mt. Tamalpais State Park for the hustle and bustle of city living, only this was city living with a lot more people on their bikes!

Sure, I did a bit of backtracking when I added those extra miles on – but I wanted to see if I could cram Tam in before work. I did. I also wanted to see how quickly I could do Tam (or if I could even do Tam) without stopping on the way up. I did it in 3 hours, five minutes – counting the break at the top. Success!

Total B2WD mileage? 53.51 miles, 4,121 feet of climbing.