So, as I’ve intimated before, the traffic here really annoys and frustrates me. I can think of few things that are as soul-draining as sitting in my car, waiting at a red light. Nothing good comes of it. So I’ve started biking in (so now I am sitting on my bicycle, waiting at red lights). I’ve even worked out a route that’s moderately safe, with a bike lane and everything. However, there’s one development which has me quite embarrassed – I am really slow. Like, slow enough that I wonder if something is wrong with the bike. Slow enough that ten-year olds are passing me on their way to school. The way I see it, I can blame it on the double-edged sword of being out of shape and fat. I mean, since I’m out of shape, I just can’t pedal very fast for very long. And because I’m fat, it just means I’ve got more mass to move. It’s really a loseWeight Exercise-lose. But, thanks to lots of hippies and recreationists around, there’s quite a lot of bike paths around. In fact, there’s an initiative to create new paths and connect up exiting ones so that there is a continuous path around the entire bay.

Pretty cool. Anyway, the Steven’s Creek Trail runs right by my apartment, so I thought I’d try and get on it and take it to the bay, which is quite close, even though it doesn’t really feel like it. The bay north of Mountain View isn’t really anything to shake a stick at – it’s mostly wild marsh, dirty water, and salt ponds. But, it’s good enough to bike through, I guess. The bike paths/trails wander through a lot of rather unpicturesque areas. In fact, some of the trails east of Mountain View along the Bay are little more than access roads to the salt pond areas. But west of Mountain View, as the trail gets into Palo Alto, it becomes…slightly better. It goes north of some country club, nice area, but then gets right back into stinky marsh.
The strangest thing is that there were a lot of couples there, walking around, holding hands. I can just imagine the conversation earlier in the day:

Woman : Honey, I think I’m in the mood tonight.
Man : Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Together : Let’s sit by a pool of decaying vegetation!

I really hope everyone I saw there had really exhausted all other options.

I knew that I could keep going for a while, so I just decided I would stop at a bench, consume some fluids, and head back the way I came. But where to stop?

Hmm…

A rat head? That’s a good start.

A ridiculous inscription on a bench? [Name redacted], I applaud your strangely sentimental friends for that inscription. I don’t mean to crap on your tribute, but for your sake, I really really hope you loved pelicans. Anyways, the combination of rathead and dedication made this a solid place to stop.

I felt this was a good start. I could see the Dumbarton bridge in the distance. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to ride out to the bridge and cross it….but I’ll leave that to a time in the future.

So, at this point, you may ask, did Ranjeet just make this post so as to show his picture of a giant rat head? Yes, reader, I did. In retrospect, I probably should have taken more pictures. There’s always next time!