Priceless!

Our Day 6

By Rob Williams and Mick Boddy.

 

Per Rob:

The ride from Santa Cruz to Monterey was short, but sweet. Mick Boddy and yours truly rode out with my nephew Cole, who was a first time rider at the age of fourteen. The day began with a proclamation by the Mayor of Santa Cruz announcing the support of the people of that city for the Tour Des Trees “in perpetuity”.

 

The ride began with a long descent into the city with the whole group staying together. Our progress was hampered somewhat by the local constabulary who had obviously not been made aware of our status as environmental ambassadors and lifelong friends of the City! Having established our credentials we were given leave to pass through.

 

After some small stiff hills (which Cole took at a sprint) we settled in to a mostly flat ride though Eucalyptus and Cypress under a foggy sky. The Monterey trail lead us through Marina and Seaside, the dunes above us covered with succulent plants. There followed a brief moment of confusion when we lost our way along with twenty other riders. After a meeting of minds and some advice from a passing parasailer, we escaped and found our way to lunch with the seals and otters in Monterey Bay. Pelicans circled above.

 

A tree planting took place in Pacific Grove and once the tree was planted and blessed, some riders made their way to take the 17-Mile Drive route. We returned to Marina. After a shower, dinner and outrageous dancing was to be had in the Black Box Caberet within the surreal surroundings of the campus of Cal State Monterey.

 

Per Mick:

Today’s leisurely 79-mile ride (everything’s relative!) gave time for some reflection over the preceeding days of the tour. Having had a break of five years since my third tour in 2002, I had serious doubts about getting in  shape and raising the sponsorship for a further ride. However, these misgivings quickly evaporated once I arrived in Sacramento and met up with Andy Kittsley, Tim Womick and the others I had ridden with previously  and got acquainted with the other riders.

 

The first morning’s flat ride out to a 60-mile lunch break lulled us into a false sense of security. The afternoon ride into Clearlake involved three tough climbs in heat that the wet English summer hadn’t prepared me for, but this was more than compensated for by meeting up with my old friend and former tour co-ordinator Karl Parker, who generously hosted us not only for dinner, but also the next morning’s breakfast. The following days have been physically demanding, but immensely enjoyable and satisfying.

 

The scenery has been awe-inspiring and the humour and camaraderie of the riders has, as always, been incredible. I am sure that the long and tough final day tomorrow will test some of us with aching limbs to the limit, but at the end you would be hard pressed to find a rider who would have had it any other way.    

 

This is a great event, bringing out the best in people who give up their time and put in a serious amount of effort for a cause in which they share a common passion. Whilst I love the physical challenge and camaraderie of the tour, for me the enduring image will be the smiling faces of the children helping Tim Womick to plant a Frontier Elm in the park at Santa Rosa, this is our future – priceless!

“Unbelievable”!!!

Day 5

by John Leffingwell

 

So, where to start?  The first day was very tough, 100 miles from Sacramento to Clear Lake, where we were welcomed by Karl Parker (the former organizer of the tour) and his church.  They hosted us for dinner and a lovely breakfast on Saturday morning.  Karl introduced a quote by Gandhi that inspired me, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”  It was so inspirational that when I realized that it was painted on the road as we started the ascent up the 2.5 mile climb on a dirt road (and I mean washboard, gravel and STEEP), that I was still smiling about it when I reached the pinnacle.  Karl is a unique and genuine person, to whom the tour owes a great deal.  After that climb, the rest of the day was pretty much downhill, or at least flat.

 

Well, I thought that yesterday’s ride was the highlight of the trip. Sonoma State to the coast, through Tomales Bay (with a stop for oysters, of course!), lunch at Stinson Beach, across the Golden Gate and on to San Francisco State.  Yesterday was topped off with a brief history of the Tour des Trees by Jim Clark of HortScience, who rode on the first TdT and apparently coined the Tour’s name. 

 

Then today came along and I had to change my mind.  Today we started at SF State in the fog (and I mean grey and dark with rain dripping from the trees fog), rode the scariest section of the ride (Highway 35 into Woodside, where the trail we were supposed to take was closed) and the sun broke through and all was well in the world.  Up to La Honda, with a stop in the redwoods for lunch – WOW!!!  Then on to the coast, where the tail wind took us into Santa Cruz with the speed of the gods (top speed for me was 48.8 mph, but Super Grover topped out at 55 mph!!!).  Oh yeah, and the stop for fresh Ollalaberry pie, talk about power food!!! Now we are enjoying a lovely meal at the Seymour Marine Center, organized by James Allen and Maureen Hamb.  Two kegs of Sierra Nevada and several bottles of wine are open and flowing freely.  So, I have to say that today has been unbelievable!!! What will tomorrow hold?

 

The tour has brought me close to people form across the country, both arborist and non-arborists. I have made friends and connections that I expect will endure for a lifetime.  I have ridden more miles than I have ever ridden and enjoyed the sights, smells, colors and textures of this state that I have only seen by car.  It has been a true challenge and a real blessing.  I believe it has gotten into my blood.  So, for those of you who are on the fence about joining the tour, or are wondering what kind of an experience it is, let me tell you, it is the best mix of physical activity and camaraderie.  I would encourage you to train, raise the money and join the tour next year into St. Louis, you will not be disappointed.  And if you don’t ride every mile, you can still enjoy all the benefits that the tour has to offer – and there are benefits upon benefits upon benefits (did I mention the fresh squeezed juice care of the Crow entourage and massages, thanks to West Coast Arborists?).

 

Can’t wait to see you next year!

John Leffingwell

A Day of “Extremes”

Day 5 TdT Blog

by Dick Rideout

 

Day 5 was a day of extremes, but nevertheless it was typical of the Tour des Trees. It began in a fog, literally, in San Francisco, on the way to Santa Cruz. The fog provided a surreal experience to the city and of course the trees, which to a Midwestern boy like me, are surreal to begin with.

 

Riding with fellow hammerheads Andy Kittsley and Phil Baker means we leave early – we want to ride. This also means we often over-ride our support – blazing the trail, so to speak. This time it had a more literal meaning. I was very nearly involved in an accident when a truck didn’t see the car stopped at a traffic light, slammed into it, pushing it into my path. In a hyper-speed, yet slow motion view of the situation, my experience told me to stop and back up so the car passed harmlessly in front of me. I found out that later  groups witnessed a major accident that fortunately didn’t involve any riders. You’d think that San Franciscans never experienced fog….

 

After that experience, everything was gravy. Again being in front, we found that unexpectedly one of the bike trails was closed for repairs, and typical of the Tour, strangers stepped up and helped. A passing city worker helped us find a route around the construction and we relayed it to the tour director. A little while later we got lost again, (hmm, see a hammerhead pattern here?), but ran into some cyclists who pointed us in the right direction. They also noticed our Tour des Trees jerseys and asked if we knew one of our Texan riders – small world – they were from New Zealand, by the way.

 

The New Zealand riders’ directions led us to one of the sweetest climbs we had for the day. A 1,500’, 3.4 mile ride into redwood cloud forests. The descent took us back through more forests and back to the dry Mediterranean and then back again to redwood forests. The transitions were staggeringly beautiful. And this wasn’t the end. After lunch, we headed down to the ocean, and then through the beautiful, winding valley roads, where we saw farms growing flowers, mint, rosemary, and other unidentifiable crops that smelled wonderful.

 

When we hit ocean-side Route 1 we discovered a tailwind that allowed us to cruise into Santa Cruz at 33 mph. For us this was super sonic. We then realized that this would be an average day for Lance, but no matter, it was spectacular for us.

 

And that is the essence of the Tour for me. Despite the adversity, there are always good friends, good people, good roads and good trees.

  

Monday, Monday…

Day 4 – July 23, 2007

By Tim Sullivan

 

Monday morning means it’s time to start another week…go to work….go to school…go to camp…for me it’s going to be riding from Santa Rosa to San Francisco on my bike. I’ve been biking for three days now, covering almost 300 miles, hoping that this morning would mean my legs have recovered from the shock of slam bike touring for the past three days.

I was the last bag packed with a group of eager riders waiting for me in the parking lot. It turned out that it would be the story of my day and the unique view that I came to find as I pedaled along during this day. I started out as the caboose on the tour freight train and I was very close to the last one to pull into San Francisco State after a quick coffee with friends new and old at “The Cliff House” restaurant on the beach in San Fran.

 

 

As I cycled toward the coast highway, up and down the hills, to and from the coast, I got a big picture. I got the same views and the same feelings that a fellow sixty-one year biker had when he said to me in the hallway at San Francisco State: “That’s the best day of biking I’ve had in my life”. This guy’s sixty-one and he’s a biker, as in cyclist. He was blown away. I was blown away. For a boy living in Central Texas, a mountain view is always nice; but, when you throw in an ocean with sun and fluctuating temperatures between warm and cool, you have gotten your money’s worth, you’ve actually got something that money can’t buy…..you’ve had the ride of your life.

 

 

What else did I get while I traversed those one lane words with Mustang convertibles, Honda Elements, Toyota Prius, and all sorts of motorcycles?  I got the picture. I got the picture you couldn’t get walking; I got the picture you couldn’t get on the finest motorcycle, the sexiest convertible or the most politically correct motor vehicle. I got to see the movie at the right speed. Five to eight miles up the hill, maybe as high as 35 miles going down the hill. The velocity was right. The take was satisfying, leaving me to want more; knowing that I got a ton of it.

 Everybody gets to have their experience, none are better than another; but, the velocity of life is important. We all like our internet connections to be faster rather than slower, in the case of touring the California coast the speed on a bicycle is right, the load is right, the nature shows better between five to twenty miles an hour than thirty to sixty miles an hour on a motorized vehicle. Just as a tree has its own speed to do its thing, the speed and the location of this Monday’s bicycle tour were awfully good. I felt lucky and I felt honored to have shared this day with all my fellow cyclists and especially the sixty-one-year old fellow cyclist who said it all; it was the ride of his life. Monday.

 

California Dreamin’

Day Four – July 23, 2007

By Hallie Dozier

 

This Tour des Trees has been an exceptionally important event for me – IT’S IN CALIFORNIA! I am a former resident of California and have had precious little time to return to visit this incredibly beautiful state in this beautiful country I call home. And in the years my husband and I lived here in San Francisco, I was not involved in distance cycling – at that time, it was a dream I had yet to realize.

So, for me, this Tour des Trees combines so many things that make up my personal dreams – the beauty of the Pacific Coast (at a rate well under 20 mph), the smells of the native grasses on the hot summer breeze and the beauty of the towering redwoods and imported eucalyptus, the feel of the fog rolling in off the ocean, the energy that one can only find along a coastline such as California’s, and the joy of getting there under my own power, and in the company and fellowship of many, many wonderful cycling companions.

 

Now, other writers have told you about the sweat, the heat, the headwinds, the pulls up hillsides and the feeling of  Zoom-Zoom as you speed almost silently downhill – so I won’t tell you just how hard some of the hills I climbed today were. What I will tell you is that the first glimpse of that beautiful Pacific Ocean thrilled me, and my heart skipped a beat when I first spied the San Francisco skyline, and I was exhilarated, smiling and speechless as I pedaled across the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. And I have to tell you that I was so happy that from the GG, our route took us past the neighborhood that was my home from 1989-1992 – the Outer Richmond. We even pulled up next to my very favorite restaurant in this beautiful city, the Pacific Café, at 34^th and Geary. Then we passed the Cliff House at Point Lobos, Ocean Beach, the windmill at Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Zoo – all my old stomping grounds. I tell you all – this tour is a really, really special thing for me, and thus far, this has been the best.

 

 

For me this is Tour des Trees No. 3. I hope it is 3 of many.

Loopy Choices!

Daily TdT Blog one each by Andy Kittsley

Today was a day of mixed blessings, as the saying goes. What saying is that you ask? The one I was saying, I guess.

 

  Good Morning…at the juice bar!

 

Anyhow, we had a choice of a longer loop or a shorter loop. The longer loop took the riders who chose it on a collision course with the Pacific Ocean, some dunes north of Bodega Bay. The shorter loop, the one chosen by your erstwhile author, wound its way through magnificent redwood groves and past some of northern California’s finest backwoods collections of rusty trucks and old farm implements. Yup, even here in Wine Country, man’s ability to blight the land with his excess is evident.

But that’s a story for a different campfire.

 

  Lunch in the Redwoods   

 

Getting back to the Tour now; either choice resulted in riders well-exercised, hungry for supper, and full of chatter about the Wine Man Triathlon cyclists who were zinging past in the other direction. For a stretch of a few miles on one road, bicycles were king. All traffic in each direction was two-wheeled human-powered ultra-light high-tech machinery zipping along. It was transportation transcendence. It was a nirvana for alternative travelers, an absolute paradise of skinny-traffic, spandex-clad, bipedal hominids, all speeding along under their own power with no fear of getting squished … for a few miles.

Then it was over, our paths diverged from the triathletes’ and like the poet Frost, we took the one less traveled.

 

Too bad a large number of cars and trucks did, too. Like I said, it was a day of mixed blessings.

 

Day Two – Clearlake – Healdsburg – Santa Rosa

By Scott D. Baker

I am sitting at the back of the evening briefing at Sonoma State University at the end of a long day. We were up and rode over to Karl Parker’s church by 7:00 a.m. for a great friendly breakfast followed by a moving send off from our  previous ‘fearless leader’.

Our ride was very scenic and fantastic rolling terrain preceded our climb over Mt. St. Helena on Western Mines Road. The pavement quickly turned to dirt and though our current fearless leader Paul clearly conspired with Karl to send us up this crazy climb, we went for it. It was blistering hot, but

 there was plenty of great shade!  Only a few stalwarts and expert bike handlers made it over the 2.5 miles without walking.  The exact number appears to be five….all are expert mountain bikers. 

The spectacular 12-mile descent from the “Col de St. Helena” was over rough pavement with hairpin turns. For me, 22 mph felt like flying and my hands were tired enough to require a rest partway down.

I made my ride today with my son Carson. He rode/walked over the pass to Healdsburg on a rear wheel minus one spoke and wobbling. We got caught at the back of the group, after I flatted, and then an auto wreck closed the road due to a downed power line. We got rescued by Kathy in the van and Ned White in the truck and made it to Healdsburg park after the tree was planted and the peleton was long gone…luckily for us there was still plenty of delicious food left. We went to the local bike shop with a recommendation in hand and the owner fixed the wheel and only charged us $20, when I mentioned that he had a posted price that was about $40. He said I could consider it a donation.

We hit the hot pavement with Ned watching over us and made a strong effort riding into a stiff headwind over rolling terrain. Eventually, we rolled into the campus where the Tour was spread out in the dorm parking lot having happy hour and working on bikes. It had been a long day on our bikes for Carson and me. After walking on the climb, our average speed gradually inched up to only 13 mph.

 

It’s hard to describe exactly how it feels when you complete a long ride.  But I know that for me as an arbo/cyclist and as a father, it feels great!

 

Capitol Launch for TREE Fund 2007 Tour des Trees!

Prologue, July 19

Welcome to the Tour des Trees blog, from Team Canada’s Phil Graham. Before I get into the first official day of riding, I thought I should talk about the day before the official Tour – the Prologue. Those of us who arrived early enough in Sacramento had the opportunity to ride the American River Trail. This 31 mile long trail along (you guessed it) the American River follows the scenic river valley, from Sacramento to the historic town of Folsom.  This trail deserves a “must ride” nomination, as it is a fantastic ride, made even better by great restaurants and by Bicycles Plus, a wonderful bike shop, both at the trail head in Folsom.

 

In the evening it was across the road from the hotel to the Rusty Duck for supper, the first official event.  Al West, president of the TREE Fund board of directors welcomed all riders, including a large contingent of returning veterans and a fantastic group of first time Tour riders.  We also met Lisa Randle from PG&E, one of our Tour partners.  Without our partners PG&E, Asplundh, and Stihl, and our platinum sponsor F.A. Bartlett Tree Expert Company, there wouldn’t be a tour.

 Sponsors with riders on Capitol steps 

After dinner it was back to the hotel to renew old friendships, forge new ones, and rest up for the big ride on Day 1.

 

Day 1, July 20, 2007

The fund raising is all done, it is too late to train any more, now it is all about the Tour. We rolled out at about 7 am past television cameras, following a police escort to the Capitol building where we had presentations from dignitaries and sponsors, and did a ceremonial planting of a tulip tree donated by Gabe Beeler for the Department of Government Services.  Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi welcomed us and wished us well, and our sponsors spoke of the value of urban trees, the importance of research in keeping the urban forest healthy and safe, the right tree in the right place, and the importance of the right tools for tree maintenance.  Ray Tretheway of the Sacramento Tree Trust spoke as well, and struck a chord with me with the statement that research provides the facts and figures to support the decisions of the budget makers.  Put simply, no research, no budget.  Sacramento Municipal Utility District also welcomed us, and in the background I saw SMUD’s Steve Hallmark, whose history with the Tour goes back to the very first ride from Seattle to Oakland.

 

Soon enough it was into the ride big time, a tough century ride, with three big climbs near the end.  We pushed hard all day, and everyone has a different story to tell.  My story has me heading for the front, and working the big hills with Dick Rideout, Bob Squibb, and Clem Desjardins. We had a riot, and rolled into Clearlake around 3 pm. We were there in time to welcome the rest of the tired riders as they rolled in.  Proudest of those tired riders was probably Team Canada’s Wanda Kowalski, who completed her first ever century, on what most of us called one of the toughest century courses we had ridden.

Logan Collier gives Wanda a boost! 

We topped the day off with a supper put on by none other than veteran tour coordinator Karl Parker, who welcomed the riders with open arms to his community. We reminisced, told tall tales of the days ride, and enjoyed the great food and music organized by Karl.

It has been a great couple of days, and looks to get even better as the week rolls on.  Go riders! Especially Team Canada!!

   Team Canada Rocks! 

“Welcome Tour des Trees”

Crystal clear skies and tree lined streets greeted us in Sacramento as many of us arrived today. I heard that a sign in the airport above the escalators said “Welcome Tour des Trees” and although I missed it, I can feel the friendliness in the air. Perhaps it’s all the old friends that I’m so glad to be seeing again, or maybe it’s all the new folks who have joined us this year, but there’s an undeniable warmth and joviality amongst this crowd — or was it the beverages?

Dinner at the Rusty Duck was fabulous tonight and we all (more than 80 of us!!) got a chance to briefly introduce ourselves. Pretty soon we’ll be pedaling and planting trees, both of which are excellent ways to get to know each other!

We had some extra special visitors greeting us — Al West, President of the TREE Fund Board, and Lisa Randle of Pacific Gas & Electric, a TREE Fund partner. The primary PG&E message for this tour is “right tree, right place” and Al’s message was that of sincere appreciation for the hard work and fundraising done by each rider. Okay, 5:00 a.m. will come sooner than you know it, so that’s all for now. Let’s ride, tomorrow.
Let’s sleep, tonight!

Kristin Wild
Involved with the Tour since 2000
TREE Fund Board member since 2004