The dead outnumber the living in Colma by a margin of more than a thousand to one. In the early twentieth century, San Francisco banned new burials within city limits and then evicted most of its existing cemeteries, and the graves were moved a few kilometres south, to this small town just over the county line. Today Colma is a quiet, green landscape of memorial parks and monument workshops, where Wyatt Earp lies in a Jewish cemetery and Joe DiMaggio in a Catholic one. Locals like the joke on the town's own slogan: it's great to be alive in Colma.
The start is close by, on the slope between Daly City, South San Francisco and the ridge of San Bruno Mountain, an island of wild coastal scrub surrounded by suburbs. Daly City's tightly packed hillside houses inspired Malvina Reynolds's satirical song Little Boxes in the early 1960s, and from certain angles you can see exactly why.
The rides that start and finish here go south along Skyline Boulevard, State Route 35, which follows the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains for many kilometres above the Bay Area, through redwood forests and open grasslands, with views over the Pacific on one side and the bay on the other. It is a classic Bay Area riding road, with a mixture of fast curves and tight bends, and at its heart, at the junction with Highway 84, Alice's Restaurant has been a gathering place for riders for decades. On weekend mornings the car park is a rolling motorcycle show.
The weather here is dominated by fog. On summer mornings it rolls in from the Pacific and wraps the ridge in grey mist, dropping the temperature and wetting the road, while a few kilometres inland the sun is shining. Ride with care in the fog, and with an extra layer. Skyline is also popular with cyclists and has a reputation for speed enforcement and accidents, so keep it sensible. There are plenty of fuel stations, taquerias and diners in Daly City and South San Francisco.