Pulgas Water Temple
Route Review
I biked from South San Jose to the Pulgas Water Temple riding wherever Apple Maps told me to go. I biked through San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Melo Park, Atherton, and Redwood City—then all the way back.
Almost all the streets had a bike lane or were neighborhood streets and I generally felt safe throughout the entire ride. No car sped past me within 5 feet of me and no car doors were opened unexpectedly for the cars that were parallel parked on the street.
There were a few hills to climb around the water temple, but the rest of the ride was on pretty flat terrain, which made the ride a chill one.
What I Learned
The bike performed almost flawlessly and am still in love with my microSHIFT Advent X drive system.
For longer non-bike-pack rides, I would always leave the rear panniers at home because I was worried about the wind resistance, but I ditched that philosophy for the past two rides and it’s just so nice to have extra space to stuff my clothes, extra water bottle and everything I need for a comfortable ride. I barely feel any difference anyway.
I tried mounting the rear mirror on top of the helmet and that didn’t work at all. I’m not sure if I’ll like it on my sunglasses, but that’s what I’m going to try next. If that doesn’t work, I’m not sure if this type of rearview mirror will work for me.
I think I figured out my layering system for biking in the winter in California. I have a regular t-shirt, a lightweight sweater, and my insulated windbreaker as my top layers. For my bottom, I just wear jeans and wool socks. My biking gloves and an optional biking earmuff complete the ensemble.
For food, I think I should have eaten a bit more calories while I was biking—especially in the morning. I fueled myself in the morning with one fried egg and a choco pie. At the Stanford Mall, I ate a 200-calorie peanut butter wafer. At the water temple, I ate one Fishnacks. I then ate lunch around 2pm in Palo Alto, which was two onigiris and tofu noodle soup. I didn’t feel truly hungry at any point, but my energy level could have been higher on the bike up to the water temple.
Media Consumed
We Were Liars—completed!
Friends
I stopped by the Stanford Mall and biked the rest of the way with Dave. It was fun to have him along and it made the ride much more fun. We chatted about his bike (that he fixed up after finding it in the discard pile), the obnoxious mansions in Atherton, GoPros, and various other topics. I don’t remember all of them to be honest, but I do remember laughing a lot. After we made it back to Palo Alto, we met up in the downtown area where we ate some delicious onigiri.
What Happened?
71.2 miles, 9 hrs 23 mins, 1231 ft of ascent
I had wanted to bike to the Pulgas Water Temple for a few years now, but instead of driving up to Palo Alto and starting from there, I thought it’d be more interesting for me to start from South San Jose and just bike the whole way. I had been noodling on this new plan for a bit, but the perfect opportunity came when my previously scheduled rock climb fell through due to rain. On top of that, I was able to successfully convince my friend Dave to join me since he lives in Palo Alto and hasn’t explored long-distance biking yet.
When I started from San Jose in the morning, it was 39 degrees and cold. But my clothes kept me warm enough until things warmed up. It was very peaceful at the start with there being not much car traffic on a Sunday morning. The various cities came and went, and I just kept up a steady pace until I got to the Stanford Mall.
I met Dave there and after he inflated his tires with a fancy electric pump, we made our way through bougie neighborhoods until we went to the one hill that stood in our way to the water temple. We tackled it at a slow and steady pace (with one rest stop and one incident where I accidentally ran myself off the road for a hot second) and when we got to the highway underpass, we enjoyed the downhill ride where I clocked myself reaching 30 mph. It’s pretty crazy how when I restarted biking a couple of years ago, I was terrified of reaching 20 mph—today, I was totally comfortable at 30 mph.
At the water temple, we found it closed (the entire road after Filoli was closed only to cyclists!), but open to pedestrians and cyclists as someone had left the pedestrian door open. We enjoyed water temple by ourselves (there was nary another soul there), relaxed, and when we had our fill—figuratively and literally, as we rested there and refilled our water bottles—we biked back.
The bike ride back to Palo Alto wasn’t as fun as earlier as there was just far more car traffic, which meant there were only short stretches where we could ride side by side and chat. We then parted and met up in downtown Palo Alto for lunch. It was Dave’s first time eating onigiri and we both enjoyed the filling meal before parting again.
I then biked home in the dying light and barely made it home before I really needed to use a headlamp to see. I came within 3 miles of my personal record for mileage, but unlike the bike rides with lots of elevation gain, I found the bike ride to be leisurely and when I got home, my legs felt like I could still go for a few more hours at least. Someone is now totally ready for a century attempt...