Washington DC

I'm in Washington for a few days for the starting meeting of a new committee to which I've been appointed.  It's a challenging assignment.  In brief: how do environmental chemicals interact with the human microbiome to influence health?  This work is sponsored by the USEPA and National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.  It's being conducted under the auspices of the National Academies.  Their building is just north of the Capital Mall.  On Saturday, I had some walking time in the afternoon and strolled along a large portion of the Mall.  The new museum of African American History and Culture had just opened and there was a large crowd to visit.

 

Cycling to Sacramento

We rode to Sacramento yesterday.  Departure from home at 9:40 AM (later than intended).  BART to Pittsburg/Bay Point.  Ride east to Antioch and cross the bridge over the delta on CA 160.  Meander mostly following the Sacramento River.  Final ten miles mainly on city streets.  Arrive at our hotel (Embassy Suites adjacent to Old Sacramento) at 5:45 PM.  Total distance (including a few wrong turns): 72.3 miles.  Seat time of 5:43.

Not shown in the photos are the long stretches of riding under challenging conditions: shoulder almost unrideable; shoulder nonexistent; and when we found blissfully quiet roads, they had bad surfaces.  Some of the scenery was quite pleasant.  (I especially liked the bridges.)  Weather was excellent.

We had a nice evening in Old Sacramento.  We decided to take the train back.  (Great to have that option!)  We spent Monday morning walking to the Capital and along the Sacramento River waterfront before checking out in time to catch a noon Amtrak train back to Emeryville for the 4-mile ride back home.

Delta de Anza trail heads east from Pittsburg BART station

Antioch bridge was intimidating (steep look and loud traffic)

Three Mile Slough Bridge — no shoulder, so we walked

Blissfully quiet W Twitchell Island Road

Bucolic vegetation along the Delta waterways

At Locke, remnants of the century-old Chinese immigrant town.

Paintersville Bridge crossing the Sacramento River

No traffic on Rd 145 along Elk Slough (but bad road surface).

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Freeport Bridge, our last crossing.

Tower Bridge, Old Sacramento

Capitol Dome, Sacramento

Golden Spike Trail

We discovered an almost new hike today, in Redwood Regional Park.  Amazingly, the trailhead is only 4 miles from our house — literally a 10 minute drive.  We had been on a part of this trail once before with Daniela.  This time, we did a bigger loop, starting on Golden Spike Trail, then Toyon, then West Ridge, and finally Dunn.  Altogether, it was about a 6.5 mile hike and took just a bit over two hours.  The weather was pleasantly cool (surprising for early September).  Very nice!