NOPA VELO Does the Monster Mash Halloween Ride

Image: Rick Helf www.helf.com

NOPA VELO riders will wend their way through the candy corn for a Halloween spin like no other on Sunday, October 31st. Riders will spook the early-morning Mojo Bicycle Cafe crowd and power-up on breakfast and coffee before rolling through the streets to the Panhandle. With sleek and smooth or flapping and ominous costumes, cyclists will continue bravely on their scary mission: spot the forlorn Ghost of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park.

For those unfamiliar with this spooky tale, the version we like best goes like this. In the late 1800s when the park was still in its early period of development, a young woman took her toddler on a boating excursion on Stow Lake. Somehow the little one fell overboard, the mother jumped in to save her child, and both drowned. Ever since, the distraught mother has been sighted by San Franciscans who all describe the same apparition: a young woman of forlorn expression in a wet and muddy white dress walking along the edge of the lake. For more than 100 years the Ghost of Stow Lake has searched for her lost child, often while wailing in despair. Our own NOPA Lore has it that the Ghost usually appears on Halloween mornings . . .

Following the very possible ghost sighting, riders will descend on JFK Drive to make the car-free zone really scary before entering the Panhandle and circling NOPA blocks -- all the while doing the Monster Mash and sporting their Ghostbusters cred. Spooks and ghosts and mashes really work up a Halloween appetite. Riders will repair to the Duboce Park Cafe and raise a toast to the Ninth NOPA VELO ride of 2010.

NOPA VELO Monster Mash Ride Halloween Ride
Sunday, October 31
Meet: 9:30 at Mojo Bicycle Cafe, 639 Divisadero, between Hayes & Grove
Start: 10 am sharp
(If you're running late, join the group in the Panhandle or call Lenore for location)
End: about noon with drinks and lunch at Duboce Park Cafe, corner of Duboce & Sanchez

Easy to moderate 8 mile ride
All level riders welcome; kids on own bike OK if with guardian
Pets too if on leash or in bike basket
Costumes of any sort really encouraged! It's Halloween!
More info: Lenore @415-300-6744, lmcjunker@gmail.com

For previous rides and to see the cool posters, check the NOPA VELO Series.