To the dismay of cats and bike curmudgeons alike, a pack of about two dozen dog-owning cyclists and their furry companions wheeled along the Sunset Dunes on Saturday morning, on a three mile circuit newly dubbed the Dogon’ Bike Ride.
The event was the casual invention of comedian and semi-frequent alt-transit event host Sarah Catz-Hyman.
“I have a dog and ride my bike down Ocean Beach all the time,” Catz-Hyman said, “and while doing that I’ve often thought, ‘I’m living the dream.’”
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So why not invite others to dream along with them?
Catz-Hyman has previously hosted Prom on the Prom, to celebrate the banning of cars on the JFK Promenade, and Hanukkah on the Promukkah, a 2022 collaboration between the now-defunct San Francisco Parks Alliance and the city’s Recreation and Park Department.
The event included dog judging by the self-anointed, non-professional and highly generous “Westcoastminster Kennel Club,” which awarded nearly every human and animal that passed by with a “Best in Show” or “Best in Basket” ribbon.
Melissa Hoo and her five year-old Great Pyrenees, Lumos, tabled for the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Hoo often accompanies the unflappable Lumos in his volunteer work for the SPCA as a therapy dog.
It was difficult to distinguish between which pairs of dogs and owners had shown up specifically for the Dogon’ Bike Ride and which ones just happened to be ambling by the Sunset Dunes on a late Saturday morning.
Humberto Gonzalez was relishing his cigarette and walking his three year old chihuahua Ally along the coast when the two stumbled upon the rather odd sight of dozens of cyclists, their baskets canine-laden, cruising along Ocean Beach.
Ally climbed atop Gonzalez’s shoulder.
“If she were a parrot she’d be saying, ‘fuck you, fuck you,’” Gonzalez said, with a chuckle. But Ally was more than happy to pose for the camera, and make friends among the Dogon’ doggos.