Leaving Chico for a month of riding

Due to the fires and smoke that are consuming our area of northern California, Claire and I have decided to stay in Marin County for a month or two. Our home is fine, just smoked in. The way I see it, this stay in Marin will be a nice break from the smoke and heat, a chance to catch up with a lot of bay area friends, and a chance ride my bike every day in the wonderful coastal California weather. And, we'll still come home from time to time.

Butte county is currently down to five "active" fires, one of which is over 53,000 acres. CalFire is saying that the big one should be contained by the end of July. Contained doesn't mean out though. Best of luck to everyone in Chico, and all the brave people that have been risking their lives to fight the fires. Thank you.

My company has a San Francisco office, and I plan to make as much use of it as possible during our stay. I have my trusty Saluki, and will ride it over the Golden Gate most mornings to downtown SF. Sometimes I'll ride to the CalTrain station in SF, and shoot down to Mountain View to work HQ. The weekends will hopefully be spent riding with Claire, as well as some of the super swell San Francisco Randonneurs. I kicked it off by riding with JimG, Carlos and Greg this past weekend on a challenging mixed terrain ride in southern/west Marin. I'll have to ride the entire route next time...

The end of July will be broken up by a 420 mile tour from Brookings, Oregon to San Francisco with my good buddy Jeff, and that will put us into August.

Then, hopefully the air quality in Chico will be back to suitable for healthy life, and we can head home. If not, well, I could get used to this Marin County thing. I lived here almost 10 years ago, and had forgotten how nice it is, if you simply ignore all the foofy goofy people.