Sonoma Coast Hills - April 28

[Deanna]

Hello!

This Saturday I'm planning on doing a ride from my house in Santa Rosa up to Fort Ross, down Hwy 1 and back in through Occidental via Coleman Valley. It's about 80 miles and about 8200' of climbing. If any of you want to make the trek up to Santa Rosa to join me, I'd love the company.

Pace will be steady, but not fast. Aiming for an average of 13-14 mph door to door, but more likely 11-12 as the hills and miles add up.

Thanks!
Deanna

[SadieKate]

I'd love to but I'm going to SLO. I'll do my best to find you and say hi (and thanks for volunteering) at the WCC.

[maillotpois]

I'd love to also, but have other plans. Sounds like a great route. How do you go to Ft. Ross? I am trying to envision the route. The only time I did Ft. Ross it was from Hwy 1 (after Skaggs) and it was BRUTAL. Toughest climb I have ever done, no exception.

[Deanna]

I'll be easy to find this year--registration on Friday night and the bike coalition table the next morning.

Enjoy the Wildflower. If it wasn't so close I might have taken Kim's ticket.

MP: I'll be taking Harrison Grade into Occidental, then Bohemian down to Monte Rio and up to Cazadero "HIghway"/Austin Creek Road. It's sort-of a lollipop route, with the stick being the out and back to Occi from my house, and the candy part being a loop out of Occidental.

[Deanna]

I'd love to also, but have other plans. Sounds like a great route. How do you go to Ft. Ross? I am trying to envision the route. The only time I did Ft. Ross it was from Hwy 1 (after Skaggs) and it was BRUTAL. Toughest climb I have ever done, no exception.

I won't go all the way down to the coast on Ft. Ross Rd, I'll actually cut down to 1 on Meyers Grade.

[Veronica]

Man if only it were Sunday. I'm working DMD Saturday. Have a great ride Deanna. Sounds kind of epic. :D

V.

[maillotpois]

Okay - I think I get it. Need to look at map.

I think your cut off back down to 1 from Ft. Ross is what we'll do for our DR route this year, but from 1 back to 1 on Meyers Grade.

Sounds like a great route. I hope the Freestone Bakery figures into your ride plan. :D

[jobob]

I'll be easy to find this year--registration on Friday night and the bike coalition table the next morning.
Great ! I'll look for you at the Friday night registration.

- Jo.

[maillotpois]

Hey! Deanna! Did you do this ride?? How was it???

The course sounded great, and I wanted to join you. I knew when you posted it, though, that I was going to be doing DMD, although I didn't really want to talk about it at that point.

[Deanna]

Yep. It was tough but gorgeous. It's what made me post about how pretty the Coleman section of the 200K is going to be. I hope the weather's as awesome for the WCC as it was for my ride.

[Deanna]

PS: I could probably be talked into doing it again if anybody wants to come up some time!

[Veronica]

MP gave me a link to a ride up there that I plan on doing over Memorial Day weekend. It's about 100 miles and I think it includes both Skaggs and Fort Ross. Of course it's on my home e mail.

V.

[maillotpois]

V - will you have SAG? There isn't any water that I am aware of on Skaggs, so be prepared. Once you hit Hwy 1 there is a campground before Ft. Ross that has facilities. There's also a store just before you turn off 1 to go on Ft. Ross Rd.

You can also make the ride a bit easier by omitting Ft. Ross and going down 1 to Jenner.

Also be careful on the Skaggs descent as there is a somewhat hidden in shadow cattle guard. (I don't know if I mentioned that in my email but it just occurred to me.)

[maillotpois]

Deanna - sounds like a great ride! YEah, I put 2 and 2 together after the fact and realized that must have been why you posted about Coleman.

[Veronica]

Thom probably won't ride it with me, so he'll be around to do water duty.
I want to keep it hard. :D

V.

[Deanna]

...There's also a store just before you turn off 1 to go on Ft. Ross Rd.
...

If you mean the Stewarts Point store, I wouldn't count on this store being open yet. It was closed for remodeling late last year and nobody has yet confirmed that it has reopened.

[maillotpois]

no - I meant the store right in Ft. Ross.

[Deanna]

That's right. I haven't been up there in a while.

[tprevost]

I'd love to see a route slip and stats on this... does anyone have those? Or Veronica, would you be willing to share what you've got? I'm sure its still way over my head but I might make completing it a goal for the summer~ :D

[maillotpois]

PM me with your email and I can send you the map we made up for our training.

[tprevost]

PM me with your email and I can send you the map we made up for our training.

you're awesome Sarah... Thank you, PM on its way!

[maillotpois]

I just remembered I did a ride report on the Skaggs 100 miler:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=7059

[Deanna]

Skagg's Spring just came up on my clubs chat list and advice on water sources was given:

"You will want to fill your bottles at the Lake Sonoma Visitor's Center... it's a long ride to the next water stop (more in time than miles). The next water is at the YMCA Camp... you'll know it when you get there. There is water on the deck of the main building. When you get to Stewarts Point there is a brown building on the left just before you get to Hwy 1 with a water spigot on the left side of the building. Traveling south on 1 there are some campgrounds and a couple of convenience stores before the Ft Ross turnoff."

Anybody considering this ride should probably note this on the map now that were heading for summer.

[maillotpois]

Holy COW!! Deanna, do you know anything about this ride, the "Fearsome FIve"?? IT is put on (informally I am sure) by SRCC. Look at this profile:

http://forums.bicycling.com/groupee_files/attachments/8/7/2/8721025272/8721025272_ff_profile.jpg?ts=463B6A8F&key=E6F47E5856929CD25BBFC82D89CBFFDC&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.bicycling.com%2Feve%2Fforums%2Fa%2Fga%2Ful%2F9721025272%2Fff_profile.jpg

OMG. I cannot even imagine how crazy this ride is. It is like a low altitude Death RIde - with steeper grades and more climbing over all. Pine Flat at the END. All the way up!! Crazy!!!

[Deanna]

This was a new ride to our schedule. It was listed with our other club rides. Put on by a fellow clubster, Marc Moons. I had no inclination to even attempt this. Of the 20 that showed up at the start, only 4 completed the entire route. They started up Pine Flat at 5:30 and had to finish in the dark (at least they had a full moon). Just plain nuts if you ask me. It will probably be on the calendar next year if you want to join the insanity!

You'll probably see Marcs name in the Triple Crown riders lists. He finished last year and is doing it again this year. I think he recently came in first on one of the doubles.

[maillotpois]

You know what, I think he came in first on DMD (only like 8 hours ahead of me! :D Maybe more, don't depress me, I don't want to do the math...)

That ride is insane. What's Ida Clayton like? Never been up that. Nor have I been up Pine Mtn. On the other hand, Pine Flat and I go way back....

[Deanna]

I haven't been up Ida Clayton yet either. I've ridden by it and I intend to do it sometime. Levi trains on it. It turns to dirt at some point and drops into Lake County. Becaues of the dirt sections, you don't get a lot of car traffic, so that makes up for the pain of doing the climb. You have to travel on some unpleasant roads to get to it though--Mark West and/or 128.

Pine Mountain shoots off the north end of Geysers Road. Haven't done that one yet either. Of those five, I've only done Pine Flat and Geysers in the first direction they took it.

[maillotpois]

Yeah, I've seen Pine Mountain when I do Geysers. Looks like a ocuple of little summits up there according to the profile.

That bit of 128 getting to Ida Clayton is really nice, actually - pretty. We did that on the SRCC 200 and I did it again on the 400k. I am sure summer/weekend traffic would get bad on it, though.

I think your Marc Moons should have his head examined.

ETA: He was "only" third in DMD: http://www.quackcyclists.com/Dmd07/Dmd2007Results.htm

:rolleyes:

[Deanna]

Yeah, I think he's crazy. We call him the Flying Belgian, and I think he said his Belgian blood helped him for the DMD. I was wrong about a first place, he "only" got 2nd in the Mulholland Double.

[maillotpois]

What-ever!

Freak. :rolleyes: