[TonyG]

I use to ride this route a lot from San Francisco to a small town near Santa Rosa where I live part-time now. My route was about 65 miles and it took about four hours. Santa Rosa would be easier because you wouldn't have to do one of the big climbs over Sonoma Mtn.

Generally if I was going to ride to SF I'd make my way to Petaluma and then head west towards Pt Reyes. When I get to the Nicasio Reservoir I take a left and head to Fairfax. From there you have 20 miles to go and just need to pick your way through the suburbs to the city. There's one significant climb out of Petaluma and just some short easy hills after that. There may be faster ways to go or more scenic but faster gets ugly and scenic can get hard. Good luck and enjoy!