Mountain bike enthusiasts might feel the urge to make a pilgrimage to Fairfax, just west of San Anselmo on Francis Drake Boulevard. An uninteresting community, it is nonetheless where the rugged all-terrain bike evolved during the mid-1970s when a group of locals began customizing regular bikes for races on the local slopes.

The popularity of the mountain bike, and the several hundred miles of bike routes which now lace the Fairfax area, have led to tight controls on cyclists’ speed (15mph is the limit) and on-the-spot fines – imposed by patrolling park rangers – for deviating from designated cycle routes. Should you want to join the two-wheel crowd, mountain bikes can be hired in Fairfax from the Sunshine Bicycle Centre, 737 Centre Boulevard (https://www.sunshinebicycle.com).