My girlfriend and I had a simple plan for Valentine’s Day: head out to the Sacramento River for a light bike ride and a picnic.

The original plan was to drive in along California 160 past Ryde to the Hogback Island Recreation Facility on Grand Island.  There, we’d park the truck then ride up to the ferry crossing to Ryer Island and then the 20 mile road all the way around the island, stopping at some point for a nice picnic and rest.  Ryer Island only has one bridge on the north side and ferries across to the east and west – the Real McCoy on the east, connecting Ryer Island with Ryde and Isleton, and the J-Mack on the west, connecting Ryer with Rio Vista.

Unfortunately, the Real McCoy was out for repairs when we showed up, so we had to circle around and pop onto Ryer Island from Rio Vista, which added another half hour or so of driving time.  On the plus side, this made the traffic on the island even lighter; only a couple of cars passed us on the hour or so we were out.

Overall, it was a wonderful day for a bike ride.  Sunny but not too warm, only light breezes to contend with, and air clear enough that we could see Mount Diablo 30 miles to the southwest.

We rode counter-clockwise around the island for about 10 miles before stopping and eating lunch on the levee side of Cache Slough – sandwiches and chips from the Corti Brothers deli.  Then back on the road, taking a shortcut across the island rather than completing the loop so we could get off the levee roads before twilight.  All in all, quite an enjoyable day and a wonderful ride!

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Time/miles/elevation this trip:         1:00 /   15 /   1,000 ft
Total training time/miles/elevation:   13:55 /  191 /   1,000 ft