Playing Hooky

A couple Fridays ago the wife and I took to the hills of Mt. Tam for a day of solitary riding. It's been a long time since I played hooky to ride Tam. I grew up not too far from the mountain but as a kid it seemed so far away. It was a place my dad would take my brother and me fishing after school and by car took 40 minutes to get there. As a teenager I discovered that I could ride my bike there quicker than I could drive and exploring the mountain by bike consumed most of my free time. I don't get a chance to ride there as much now but when I do, I'm reminded how lucky I was, and am, to be able to ride in such a beautiful place. Marin gets a bad rap for its trail user conflicts but I can honestly say I've never had a bad day riding up there. Sure, you get a ticket every now and then for speeding or riding an illegal trail, but I just consider it a "user fee". It's just too nice a place to let crap like that ruin the experience. Anyway, there's no one up there on Fridays so you kinda have the place to yourself.