January 2020 Backroads Bay Area Run Recap

Your Hosts For This Event: Anita Weemaes & Christoph Fritsch


The first NorCal Minis run of 2020 was a great success! Due to popular demand, we started an hour later than usual, meeting in Woodside at 9:30am on a sunny Sunday. Despite having communicated this time change in all of the media outlets, there were still almost 10 cars there before 9am, they were so eager to get started! We had 23 cars including some new members on their first run and 2 Facebook members who joined on a day pass (we hope they had such a great time they will join the paid membership with full benefits for 2020). We also had 3 dogs join us - hope they didn’t get car sick on the twisties!

We started the run with a slow jaunt through the town of Woodside, avoiding most of the car clubs and big groups of bicyclists with our late-morning start. The climb up Kings Mountain Road was scenic, and the few bicyclists we encountered were courteous and waved us on to pass when it was safe. When we reached Skyline, the lot across the road was NOT a mudpit, so we gathered there and waited to regroup. It turns out we had too many cars to fit, so we had to move out. We were fortunate to keep the group together with not many non-Minis in the mix.

As we turned on Highway 84 and passed Alice’s restaurant, we gawked at all the motorbikes and other fancy sports cars, and I’m sure we turned a few heads too! The drive down to Pescadero was twisty and fun, except for when we were slowed down by an SUV or Prius (yes, really).

We spent about an hour in the sleepy town of Pescadero, and it ALMOST felt like a mini version of MINI TAKES THE STATES 2016 when we swarmed into a small town, wandered their shops buying local crafts, and freshly-baked pastries (and garlic artichoke sourdough bread).

Instead of heading straight out to Hwy 1 from there, we took the long way around on Stage road, which was a beautiful drive through the hills, albeit with some loose gravel to keep the speed reasonable to avoid rock chips.

We arrived at Moss Beach Distillery, which has its own ghost (too bad we didn’t see her though) https://mossbeachdistillery.com/history-ghost/.

The parties with dogs went out to the patio, which got quite crowded until it started raining, and then they braved the cold and the rain to move into the GOOD seats by the fire when everyone else moved inside.

Our big group of 35 were seated after a short wait, and the service was excellent for such a large group. We even celebrated Vanessa’s 14th birthday!

Thanks to everyone who came out to kick off the new year, and we look forward to seeing you on the next run!