Circle the Bay: Day 6: Larkspur Ferry to Marin County Civic Center

Day 6: Larkspur Ferry to Marin County Civic Center

(Larkspur to San Rafael)

Circle The Bay Part 3

May 1st 2018

17.0 miles in 3 hrs 21 mins

(Total: 111.8 miles in 23 hrs 29 mins)

I'm using an incredible number of different means of public transit to get to and from Marin County in the stretch of the trip, and I feel incredibly lucky to have invented this excuse for doing this, a job that requires investing in getting there over rather smooth rail and water.

First I take Caltrain to 4th and Townsend in the city, then I ride up the well marked clean green bike lane along the Embarcadero sea wall. Little traffic from the remaining piers means very few reasons to halt. And the local custom is to use Idaho rules on the stoplights, bolstered by the fact there is no cross-traffic at most of the lights. Just the view of the bay.

Then quick grab a coffee at Peet's at the Ferry Building at the end of Market and board the sleek two-story catamaran ferry that takes only 30 minutes to cross to Larkspur, a distance of 13 miles.

Today the ride begins at the ferry, but other days I'll be using the ferry to get to Larkspur, then biking to the new Marin County Smart Train station in downtown San Rafael, the current southern terminus of the line. To get there you bike through the train tunnel that used to bring freight down to the Larkspur and Corte Madera harbors. Right now that tunnel is a construction site to bring the Smart Train to within a pedestrian bridge of the Larkspur Ferry. The bike tunnel built within the railroad tunnel is already open. But I did get lost a few times trying to make it from Larkspur to San Rafael avoiding the construction and trying to follow tracks that have long been in disuse.

The Lift Bridge That Took Tracks to Corte Madera

And from San Rafael I biked out to and through China Camp State Park, a place where 19th century Chinese railroad workers switched to shrimping as a way of making a living. They had to be this far away from San Francisco because of racist laws. But the beauty of the place must have been some comfort. Until faced with the impact of the ongoing seesaw of plant and animal life in the stew of the bay (counting humans as animal).

China Camp State Park

Finally back to the Marin County Civic Center in northern San Rafael, which is a triumph of fitting a building to the terrain, that makes it obvious why Madison Wisconsin had no choice but to build Frank Lloyd Wright's unfinished work for the Monona Terrace. The building just makes you optimistic about the future, that there will be a place and time where this is common, where government's erect buildings that make people feel good about the future.

Marin County Civic Center

It's shape evokes the terrain, either as an extension of a ridge that is there, or as a literal bridge over an erosion in that ridge. And its other design features make you feel out of this world, or at least in the Jetsons.