May 22-San Francisco to Napa

A necessarily short report on a long first day off the Sea to Shining Sea ride.

The ride group of 18 wounded warriors, able bodied riders from State Farm, our major sponsor and from S2SS arose at 4:30 AM to meet a 5AM baggage call at the hotel. We The next hour was taken up with arranging bikes and equipment before we set off for breakfast at a parking lot next to the Golden Gate Bridge. After scrounging a variety of riders’ breakfast food groups–granola bars, bread, various fruits, energy drinks,etc. , we were treated to a marvelous a capella rendition of the National Anthem by an Army Sgt., followed by a send off prayer by our riding army Chaplain, and a bit after 7AM we were off.

The weather was absolutely perfect–not a cloud in the sky, but rather ominously as it turned out, a heavy westerly wind. So while the ride across the bridge was spectacular, certainly one of the great sights anywhere in America, we were already battling a wind that would in the end plague us throughout the day.

As he had promised us at the farewell dinner the night before at the Presidio, Robin Williams joined the riders at the first water stop across the bridge, in Sausalito. He was full of the wise cracks and instant repartee for which he is famous and proved to be an experienced, courteous and engaging riding partner. (I learned only later from one of our experienced riders that the bike he was on sells for c. $50,000. On the other hand the most important part of a bike is the engine….)

We came across our first hills after Sausalito, minor ones compared to what we will face later in the ride, but enough to begin to challenge some of the riders, especially those who have not been able to train on hills. So began the second story of the day–large and growing gaps between riding groups. While this is understandable, and even preferable from a safety point of view, if the gaps get too big, the problem of monitoring all the riders becomes very difficult–at the same time that it becomes more important.

Williams left us it the next water stop, in Fairfax, which was at about our 20 mile point, reached at 10AM. He noted, as he headed off for a good cup of espresso, that the previous hills we had ridden were “nothing” compared to the one we would hit just north of Fairfax, and cheerfully added that that was why he was leaving us at this point.

I was delighted to find one of my sponsors, Thom Weisel, with his Saturday ride partners at our stop in Fairfax. Thanks Thom for your great support!

Williams was right. We heading up several long hills over the next 16 miles through beautiful farm country, on little traveled roads–but into a severe head wind that made even simply hills feel like mountains. I spent most of this portion “screening” one of the vets who rides a handbike. These are very low to the ground and thus difficult for cars to see should they come upon them suddenly, as can often happen on these winding hill roads. In this case, Seth is an excellent rider, but did not have a flag attached to the back of his bike, which is the usual way to signal a hand bike’s presence to drivers. To the safety measure consists of having an upright biker ride directly behind the hand bike on the assumption that drivers will at least see the upright bike. But it makes for enervating hill climbing, at a slow speed, staying close to the hand bike without hitting it.

Seth and I were both happy to arrive at the Marin County Fire Dept, our lunch stop, mile 36, at 12:15. Lunch there was provided by the wives of men and women from the area whose children are currently serving in the US military. One of them had a son flying Apache helicopters in Afghanistan and had read on the S2SS web page that one of our disabled vets, Stuart, had received his injury while flying an Apache there. She anxiously sought Stuart out, told him about her son and asked me to take a picture of the two of them that she immediately posted to her son.

I should say that at all of our stops today, and at the farewell dinner last night, riders had men and women come up to them over and over, not just to thank them for their service, but to add that they,too, had served or had children serving in the military. And I have been moved to find that a number of the disabled vets served in Iraq at the same time I did.

From the lunch stop on, the winds were brutal. Finally at about the 50 mile point, we reached the stunning Napa valley. The light by now was dramatic, as the sun was sinking to the west behind a curtain of rather ominous thunderclouds. The ride group was now becoming very spread out, as several bikers had the usual mechanical problems–flat tires, broken cables,etc, and as the hills and wind began to take their toll. The challenge now was to try to keep the group more or less together because we were due to arrive at the Yountville VA facility for a community sponsored barbeque at 4PM.

Well by 4PM , on a small group of riders had reached the last water stop, at the Sonoma fire station–still some 24 miles from the finish. it was clear that the good people of Yountville were in for a long wait.

After considerable communications up and down the line, the WTS CEO Jeff Messner decided to gather up the lagging riders and take them by van to our hotel in Napa, just short of the VA where all riders would “circle up” to ride into the facility, beaten but unbowed, together. God had other ideas because as we entered the town of Napa, a violent and frigid rain storm burst on us. At that point it was every one for themselves. We were all so cold that no one had any thought of waiting for the others. I was feeling fine physically (we were at the 75 mile point when the storm broke) but was very cold despite two extra layers of clothing and a rain jacket.

At this stage, after a long ride, your body is simply depleted of energy, your body is telling you to get warm again and is beginning to pull blood from your extremities to the core to preserve you vitals. There is a real danger if it goes on too long of hypothermia. So we all scrambled in a rather effective display of ride indiscipline to get to the hotel ASAP. There we were met by hotel and S2SS staff with large towels, told to rack our bikes, mount up into the vans as we were for a ride to the VA facility. By now it was almost 7 PM and we had been riding for 12 hours. (Note my actual “riding time” was about 6 hrs 45 mins, the rest of the time being consumed by waits at various rest stops while we reassembled the group. Clearly we will need a better plan going forward).

The folks at the VA were very understanding, gave everyone a warm ovation, fed us many necessary carbohydrates and accepted our apologies and thanks. We got back to our hotel at about 9PM, cold but inwardly exhilarated that the ride has begun and that despite some difficult conditions, we had made it through the first day of what promises to be a great trip.

Thank you all again for your support for this wonderful cause.