Thanks to Timbuk2 – a local company! – we have a sweet bag to give away to someone who emailed pictures to our live feed at www.altride.org. We also have some delicious CLIF Bars and gift cards for burritos at Chipotle Mexican Grill to go in the bag. It’s going to be good.

Have you see the live feed at www.altride.org? It’s fun to scroll through and see the Alt. Ride through many different eyes. My favorites are how some riders felt about the heat. I digress….

We have a winner picked by random number generator to share with you. An enthusiastic drumroll please…

California Ranger Derek Shelly please stand up! You have won this bag from Timbuk2 (see above with our Alt. Ride model and some random legs to his right) and some deliciousness from CLIF Bar and Chipotle. Thanks for sending in pictures from the top of a very HOT Mt. Tam! We’ll be in touch.

Thanks to everyone who contributed pictures of the day! And tweets, too. Don’t forget the tweets and retweets and modified tweets. They were great, too!

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The 2012 Alt. Ride took place on June, 16 and it was a bike ride party up Mt Hamilton, Mt Tamalpais and Mt Diablo in one day using public transit to get between the three peaks. More information can be found by scrolling down or hopping over to altride.org. The Alt. Ride is coordinated by the Bay Area Open Space Council and Transit and Trails.

10:17pm:

YES!

18 riders rode to the tops of Mt. Hamilton, an unusually hot Mt. Tamalpais, and an oppressively hot Mt. Diablo in one day using Caltrain, Golden Gate Ferry and BART to get between the base of each mountain. Another 9 people rode to the top of Mt. Tamalpais and Mt Diablo which on a day like today is not an easy feat (for some of us, regardless of weather, it’s harder than hard). With a hot dog cart and food from Taheri’s in Walnut Creek, the riders and family and friends held a Closing Ceremony in the plaza across from the Pleasant Hill BART station. Ron Brown from Save Mount Diablo and Gail Murray, a member of the BART Board of Directors, spoke to the crowd about the value of parks and our transit systems. And medals were awarded to those that braved the heat and accomplished the day’s goal.

You can get a sense of the event on the event’s website – www.altride.org – from a variety of perspectives. Those pictures do way more than I can in words on this blog.

Everyone is on their way home now. Riders hailed from around the Bay Area: Mill Valley, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Oakland, Walnut Creek, San Jose, Fremont, Berkeley, and more. I’m reminded, again, about how Bay Area this event is. I love the Bay Area!

We are so grateful for sponsorship from CLIF Bar, Coastal Conservancy and Peninsula Open Space Trust. Thank you!

A great group of partners provided permits, volunteers, gear, food, drinks, encouragement, and more. We want to thank our Lead Partners: East Bay Regional Park District, REI, Save Mount Diablo, and Trust for Public Land. And also thanks to our Partners: Alameda Natural Grocery, California State Parks, Caltrain, Chipotle Mexican Grill, MTC / Clipper, San Francisco Parks Alliance, Santa Clara County Parks, Skratch Labs and TransForm.

We want to thank the John McNeil Studio for their creativity and for their belief in disruption. Lech Naumovich is a photography hero and we can’t wait to see his pictures. Our volunteers lugged heavy bags of trailmix, made sure riders had enough water, and took pictures and to all of them we are grateful. And since it’s me here at the keyboard and not him, I want to thank Ryan Branciforte for his ideas, for his passion, and for being a really great person to share an office with.

1:19pm:

The riders are almost to the top of Mt Tam by now. 21 riders safely made it to the top of Mt Hamilton this morning about 6:30am. They zoomed down to San Jose Caltrain station and devoured breakfast (or is it lunch since they’ve been up since 4am?). They boarded a 9am train northbound for San Francisco and arrived at 10:36am. From there they rode over to the Ferry Building where another 15 riders were waiting. These 15 will do Tam and Diablo, or at least that’s the plan. It’s hot!

The next critical time is the 3:50pm ferry from Sausalito to San Francisco. They miss that ferry and it’s really hard to finish all three peaks.

There’s a whole lot happening over at www.altride.org. Check it out and contribute! Remember, email pictures of you outside and moving today and enter to win a sweet bag from Timbuk2, burritos from Chipotle Mexican Grill and yummy bars from CLIF Bar. All ya gotta do is email pictures to submit [ at ] altride [ dot ] org  SO simple!

6:50am:

The day started early for the Alt. riders attempting Mt Hamilton, Mt Tam and Mt Diablo. This is Annie Burke reporting to you live from Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose. I’m en route to San Jose Caltrain station and making a stop for coffee for the riders. I don’t drink coffee and so I don’t get it, but I guess I’m in the minority. I’ll be posting here on this blog as I can throughout the day, but more frequently over at www.altride.org

It’s a Spare the Air day in the Bay Area which means it’s a perfect day to take Caltrain, Golden Gate Ferry and BART. Which is what we plan to do!

More later….

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Today is the Alt. Ride: a bike ride party up Mt Hamilton, Mt Tamalpais and Mt Diablo in one day using public transit to get between the three peaks. More information can be found by scrolling down or hopping over to altride.org. The Alt. Ride is coordinated by the Bay Area Open Space Council and Transit and Trails.

Why are we doing this 12,000-feet-elevation-gain, 128-mile, 19-hour ride on Saturday?

In a nutshell: because we believe that the Bay Area is beautiful and accessible. We have over a million acres of parks and trails in our nine counties. And we have a public transit system that can connect us to urban and rural and wide open places. We love being outside and feeling the wind on our face. And we love a challenge.

Partnering with CLIF Bar on the Alt. Ride is a natural fit. One, their bars are tasty. But also, they’re a company based on values. Check this out:

Join us. Strap on your helmet or put on a comfortable pair of walking shoes and getting outside this Saturday. Need some ideas for what to do? Plan to intersect the Alt. riders on one of their routes:

• Mt Hamilton
• Mt Tamalpais
• Mt Diablo

Or:

• Wake up with Alt! Come have breakfast with the riders at the San Jose Caltrain station from 8:15-9:00am.
• Join us along the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building in San Francisco from 10am-11am. Riders will whiz by around 10:45am on their way north to Tam and we’ll make some  noise.
• Be with us as the 35 riders finish 128 miles at the Pleasant Hill BART station from 8:00-9:30pm. We’ll be at the corner of Coggins and Sunne.
• Take your own trip, however long or short, into nature! Go to your favorite spot or try something new. Put your starting point on Transit and Trails and see what pops up.

Whatever you do, tell us about it. Email your pictures to submit [at] altride [dot] org and enter to win:

• 25 delicious CLIF Bars delivered to your door
• A new and beautiful Timbuk2 messenger bag
• Free burritos from Chipotle Mexican Grill
• Our never-ending love

Winner will be drawn on June 20 from all pictures submitted using a random number generator. We’ll contact the winner by email and announce it here on this blog and on Facebook.

We’ll be live-blogging starting Friday afternoon and so check back in every once in a while to see what’s happening. Be sure to hit ‘refresh’ to see the latest and greatest.

Thanks to CLIF Bar, Coastal Conservancy and Peninsula Open Space Trust for sponsoring Alt. And thanks to many partners around the Bay Area who make this thing happen. A list of who they are can be found at altride.org

Have a great weekend everyone! Hope to see you outside.

Not everyone can ride a bike for 128 miles. Including yours truly. But we can all go outside. We can all go for a walk, find a new trail, or return to that favorite beach. We can all get on a bus, hop on a train, or feel the wind while riding a ferry across the Bay.

Between now and June 16, take yourself outside, take a bus or ferry or train to get there, and take pictures! You can do that, right?

Email your pictures to submit [at] altride [dot] org and enter to win a new and beautiful Timbuk2 messenger bag. Winner will be drawn on June 20 from all pictures submitted using a random number generator. We’ll contact the winner by email and announce it here on this blog and on Facebook.

Need some ideas for what to do on June 16?

1. Wake up with Alt! Come have breakfast with the riders at the San Jose Caltrain station from 8:15-9:00am. Or watch them zoom down the mountain (here is their route).
2. Join us along the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building in San Francisco from 10am-11am. Riders will whiz by around 10:45am on their way north to Tam and we’ll make some  noise.
3. Be with us as the 35 riders finish 128 miles at the Pleasant Hill BART station from 8:00-9:30pm. We’ll be at the corner of Coggins and Sunne in the plaza.
4. Take your own trip, however long or short, into nature! Go to your favorite spot or try something new. Put your starting point on Transit and Trails and see what pops up.

Thanks to Timbuk2 for a sweet bag and for being a Bay Area native. Thanks to CLIF Bar, Coastal Conservancy and Peninsula Open Space Trust for sponsoring Alt. And thanks to many partners around the Bay Area who make this thing happen. A list of who they are can be found at altride.org

There are lots of ways of participating in the Alt. ride on June 16. Only so many people can ride 128 miles, but anyone can wear a t-shirt.

Hop on over here to get your own. There are even some for kids.

But where to wear these fine new duds? How about:

• Explore the lands that the Peninsula Open Space Trust has protected.
• See what Weekend Sherpa is recommending this week.
• Get some ideas for getting outside over on offMetro

Sign up here if you plan to get out, get moving or get involved on June 16 and join the movement. However you choose to celebrate, tweet the hashtag #altride and send pictures to submit@altride.org to be a part of the collective online journal at altride.org.

Thanks to all of our sponsors and partners:

Three years ago, Ryan Branciforte had an idea. Would it be possible to ride to the tops of three Bay Area peaks in one day by using public transit to get between the base of each mountain? Rosy Chu of KTVU’s Bay Area People sat down with Ryan to get the full story.

Click here to see the video

What are you going to do on June 16 to celebrate Alt.?

• Take the 3:40pm Golden Gate Ferry from Sausalito to San Francisco and hob nob with the 35 Alt. riders
• Enjoy a ride or walk on the Iron Horse Trail near the Pleasant Hill BART station and join us from 6-9pm as we celebrate the end of this 128-mile bike ride party.
• Jump on a train, ferry, or bus to a park near you and use Transit & Trails to plan your trip.

Sign up here if you plan to get out, get moving or get involved on June 16 and join the movement. However you choose to celebrate, tweet the hashtag #altride and send pictures to submit@altride.org to be a part of the collective online journal at altride.org.

Thanks to all of our sponsors and partners: