Rides in Northern California

[Jim Braley]

I am planing on doing a 6-7 day ride in Sonoma and Napa areas of California and will do it on my own and would like to plan the route so that I can visit as many of the breweries in the area along the way. For you Californians out there is mid-February to mid-March a good time to ride in the area from a weather standpoint. I am pretty flexible in terms of time of year but that peiod would work best for me overall. Would apprecaite any advice on weather, best time of year and any suggested routes that may not be on Map My Ride and that are reasonablhy safe.

[eddief]

are often still our wintery ones, although March can be nice going into Spring. and the area does average around 25 inches of rain per year. 6" in Feb and around 5" in March. come a little later in Spring as things warm up or late late for the usual Indian Summer. regardless, Bear Republic Brewery in Healdsburg and Lagunitas (IPA) in Petaluma both make excellent beer..and both are surrounded by great cycling...although Sonoma County is chock full of crappy road surfaces...and good ones too.

don't miss Marin if you can help it. my two favorite cycling mecca stops are the Rancho Nicasio in Nicasio and the Bovine Bakery in Point Reyes Station. Not that special, just great cycling vibes all around. Actually, the tiny hamlet of Nicasio is quint-essential Bay Area gorgeous.

[benitosan1972]

I lived in Napa/Sonoma for a few months many, many years ago.
Great riding out in wine country, lots of quiet long stretches of roads.
While the population has definitely grown since I've been out there, I'm sure
that the scenery hasn't changed too much, you'll love it out there.

I can't help with the routing or actual destinations, but I can say that
February-April is the typical window for California's mild rainy season.
Temps won't drop much below 50F, so just be prepared with possible
fenders or rain gear. As for road quality & topography, bring whatever
bike you want, they're pretty good. PS, they have year-round bike tours
for travelers, so you can also rent stuff like Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, etc.

You'll have fun whenever you come out here. Also, check out Yountville,
St Helena, etc. If you're feeling adventurous, check out the coast: Mendicino,
Fort Bragg, etc for the Scary/Hairy Monster Centuries (lots of good climbing),
Point Reyes/Petaluma/Santa Rosa/Cotati/Sebastopol/Healdsburg/Bodega Bay,
or go east towards Vacaville/Davis/Sacramento for long, flat stretches. Also,
you won't be too far away from Arnold/Angels Camp/Bear Valley for mountains
but there might be some snow that time of year. Good luck, have fun!

[tiretrax]

Check with the chambers of commerce. Levi's Gran Fondo is run out of Santa Rosa.

[Uncle Jam's Army]

If you're going to stay only in Sonoma and Napa, I'd do the following:

1. Cavedale Road from the 12, drop down to Trinity Road, down to Mount Veeder Road, loop it around back to Sonoma. 50 miles or so. Note* Do not under any circumstances reverse this loop, as the descent down Cavedale is pot hole-ridden. If you feel you want to bail from this loop, come down Trinity Road back to the 12, as that road is in much better condition (still some rough patches, but nothing like Cavedale).

2. Various awesome steep climbs from the 12. Up Trinity Road and back down,
up Los Alamos (17% grades at some points) and back down.

3. Sonoma Mountain Road.

You can get a queue sheet for the Cavedale/Mt. Veeder loop above from the Santa Rosa Cycling Club. There are more excellent options such as Geyser Road, King Ridge, Meyers Grade, if you are willing to drive a few miles or are looking for epic 100+ mile days.

Here's a link to some more Sonoma climbs: http://www.sonomasport.com/climbs.php?pageNum_climbs=2&totalRows_climbs=61

And yes, the roads in Sonoma are in poor condition. Amazing the difference when you cross over into Napa. Glass-smooth roads.

Have fun

[572cv]

.. To stay with brother in law. I think in Woodside. So, any recommendations by the California Cogniscenti for day trips from there would be most appreciated. Thanks!

[Ken Robb]

.. To stay with brother in law. I think in Woodside. So, any recommendations by the California Cogniscenti for day trips from there would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Fly to San Diego. :-) :beer:

[Uncle Jam's Army]

Woodside, awesome.

Ride up Old La Honda (approx. 5 miles) to Skyline, cross Skyline and head down Old La Honda and make left at bottom (hwy 84, I think). Make left on Pescadero Road and take that to the town of Pescadero. Make right on Stage Road and take that to the coast Highway. Make right and take that for a short distance and just after you pass a bridge, turn right on Tunitas Creek Road and take that for 9 miles to Skyline. Cross Skyline carefully and take King Mountain Road back down to Woodside. Total miles are about 50 and 8K feet of climbing. Old La Honda and Tunitas Creek Road are breathtaking. A lot of climbing through narrow roads with little traffic under a canopy of trees. Pescadero Road is nice, too and has a shoulder, if I recall. Truly one of the best, most scenic rides I've ever done.

All this is from memory on my iPhone as i wait for a flight at the airport, so some details may be wrong. PPM me and I'll send you my Garmin file for the ride or, if you don't use Garmin, a map Brent Steelman made me of the loop.

[benitosan1972]

I'm very close to Woodside.
It's a very lovely (and rich) town, haha.

From there, you can access some magnificent climbing.
Towns like Portola Valley, La Honda, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Saratoga,
Los Gatos, Redwood City, Pescadero, Half Moon Bay, Los Altos, San Mateo, etc

Roads like Old La Honda, Page Mill, Montebello, Kings Mtn,
Skyline, Hwy 9, Big Basin, Tunitas Creek, Bonny Doon, Hwy 84, etc.

Santa Cruz is not far away. Neither is Mt Hamilton. And San Francisco,
Marin, Berkeley, San Jose, etc. This is why the area is so great for riding,
everything is so close by: mountains, forests, beach, ocean, city, country, coast.

[foo_fighter]

Definitely go ride OLH. It's probably the most famous climb in the area. It's actually only just over 3 miles. Time yourself and then wonder how the record from bottom to top could be ~14min.(supposedly Eric Heiden did it in 14:10 back before they repaved it.)
Tunitas was in a couple editions of the Tour of California.

Woodside, awesome.

Ride up Old La Honda (approx. 5 miles) to Skyline, cross Skyline and head down Old La Honda and make left at bottom (hwy 84, I think). Make left on Pescadero Road and take that to the town of Pescadero. Make right on Stage Road and take that to the coast Highway. Make right and take that for a short distance and just after you pass a bridge, turn right on Tunitas Creek Road and take that for 9 miles to Skyline. Cross Skyline carefully and take King Mountain Road back down to Woodside. Total miles are about 50 and 8K feet of climbing. Old La Honda and Tunitas Creek Road are breathtaking. A lot of climbing through narrow roads with little traffic under a canopy of trees. Pescadero Road is nice, too and has a shoulder, if I recall. Truly one of the best, most scenic rides I've ever done.

All this is from memory on my iPhone as i wait for a flight at the airport, so some details may be wrong. PPM me and I'll send you my Garmin file for the ride or, if you don't use Garmin, a map Brent Steelman made me of the loop.

[benitosan1972]

Eric Heiden lived on that road, so he prolly rode up/down 6x a day for 10yrs to get that record ;)

Current record is 15:00 by Ryan Sherlock of Ireland. He flies into the Bay Area every year to demolish us locals in the Low-Key Hillclimb Series that goes on every September-November.

Damn you Strava! Haha :crap:

[SamIAm]

I am planing on doing a 6-7 day ride in Sonoma and Napa areas of California and will do it on my own and would like to plan the route so that I can visit as many of the breweries in the area along the way. For you Californians out there is mid-February to mid-March a good time to ride in the area from a weather standpoint. I am pretty flexible in terms of time of year but that peiod would work best for me overall. Would apprecaite any advice on weather, best time of year and any suggested routes that may not be on Map My Ride and that are reasonablhy safe.

You are going to Napa and Sonoma for breweries?? I don't think the weather is optimal that time of the year, but that is THE time for visiting the wineries as it is the slow season and you usually get a a more in depth tasting experience.

I saw that you are from Big Canoe, Ga. I bought a vacation home up there last year. We go up there most weekends, are there any good group rides that we should know about?

[don compton]

I am planing on doing a 6-7 day ride in Sonoma and Napa areas of California and will do it on my own and would like to plan the route so that I can visit as many of the breweries in the area along the way. For you Californians out there is mid-February to mid-March a good time to ride in the area from a weather standpoint. I am pretty flexible in terms of time of year but that peiod would work best for me overall. Would apprecaite any advice on weather, best time of year and any suggested routes that may not be on Map My Ride and that are reasonablhy safe.
Contact Norcal Bikesport in Santa Rosa, Ca. The shop has a great map showing all the popular roads in Marin and Sonoma Cos. Once in awhile Levi Leipheimer starts rides from Norcal.
Don

[572cv]

Fly to San Diego. :-) :beer:

Gee, that's more than a day's ride from Silicon Valley, eh? :rolleyes:

[572cv]

your taking the time to share the ride advice is really appreciated. There's time to plan the trip, and these help take full advantage of our coupled Serottas. I'll be in touch about the Garmin maps- garmins were in the stocking for wife and me... very nice, but new and a learning curve.

[Ken Robb]

I can do it-------------on my Ducati. :) But seriously, I have visited NorCal many times in the Winter to teach driving schools at Sears Point (Infineon) and Laguna Seca Raceways and we have often had cold wet weather. If a person has other reasons to be in the area then there are lots of neat rides as others have suggested but I wouldn't travel a great distance hoping for good riding weather.

That's San Diego's "wet" season too but the odds of good weather is better down here.

[572cv]

I can do it-------------on my Ducati. :) But seriously, I have visited NorCal many times in the Winter to teach driving schools at Sears Point (Infineon) and Laguna Seca Raceways and we have often had cold wet weather. If a person has other reasons to be in the area then there are lots of neat rides as others have suggested but I wouldn't travel a great distance hoping for good riding weather.

That's San Diego's "wet" season too but the odds of good weather is better down here.

Ah, all true. And the driving schools sound fun! Around here, at the first few snowfalls, I take the S40T5 or the old 405 mi16 out to a large snow covered parking lot, or on the ice if it is thick enough, and push it up to break traction and steer out of skids. good practice, and fun. But as to the trip, there is this part about visiting family and seeing niece and nephew and all that. So, NorCal it is, and we'll just hope the weather is relatively warmer than Vermont at that point- at least a good chance of that, I think.

[MadRocketSci]

Woodside, awesome.

Ride up Old La Honda (approx. 5 miles) to Skyline, cross Skyline and head down Old La Honda and make left at bottom (hwy 84, I think). Make left on Pescadero Road and take that to the town of Pescadero. Make right on Stage Road and take that to the coast Highway. Make right and take that for a short distance and just after you pass a bridge, turn right on Tunitas Creek Road and take that for 9 miles to Skyline. Cross Skyline carefully and take King Mountain Road back down to Woodside. Total miles are about 50 and 8K feet of climbing. Old La Honda and Tunitas Creek Road are breathtaking. A lot of climbing through narrow roads with little traffic under a canopy of trees. Pescadero Road is nice, too and has a shoulder, if I recall. Truly one of the best, most scenic rides I've ever done.

All this is from memory on my iPhone as i wait for a flight at the airport, so some details may be wrong. PPM me and I'll send you my Garmin file for the ride or, if you don't use Garmin, a map Brent Steelman made me of the loop.

OLH is nice, but for a better challenge and more "out there" ride, start instead on page mill, climb, cross skyline and head down alpine, just be a bit careful, as it gets narrow in a few spots, and avoid any green pickup trucks you see (years ago there was some a$$hat running cyclists off alpine). Admire the redwoods along lower Alpine. Take a left onto Pescadero Creek road, then continue on to Pesadero and proceed as above....

another diversion is to continue on north hwy 1 past tunitas, make a right at arata's pumpkin farm or verde rd, and do Purisma Creek to Higgins Canyon, and drop into Half Moon Bay for a snack/lunch. Retrace (and add Lobitos Creek) or come back down hwy 1 to tunitas....

[benitosan1972]

OLH isn't the toughest climb, it isn't the most scenic, it isn't really anything.
What it is is a 3-mile gentle climb away from major traffic, and it takes you up
to Skyline Blvd where the real fun begins. Locals use OLH as a benchmark/measuring climb to see where the fast/medium/slow all stack up against each other. Anyone can climb it, but everybody's obsessed with their PR's: are you sub-15mins (Cat 1/2/Pro), are you 16-24mins (very respectable), or are you 25+mins (rec rider/Clydesdale/beginner)?

The real challenges are all in or connected to this area. OLH is the starting line, so to speak.

[smead]

For sonoma county, if you like to climb, and want to get away from traffic and see a very diverse mix of beautiful CA landscapes, I'd start a 100 mile loop in healdsburg. Hit dry creek road through the wine county flats to lake sonoma dam. From there, skaggs springs is 35 miles of beauty and painful climbs, but in those 35 miles you'll see rolling oaks, then some pines, then into giant redwoods, then the magificent coastline at stewarts point all within 35 miles. Then go 15 miles south on 1 to ft ross road and climb that to cazadero road back to monte rio to river road back to dry creek and healdsburg. Beautiful low traffic 100 miles, plan on about 9000' climbing. This is the 2nd half of the Terrible Two double century.