Favorite places to ride in No Cal

Hi all-
Glad to find another biker forum for women!
My hubby and I do several great rides in our area on a regular basis.
A group ride goes along the 17 Mile Drive through Pebble Beach and up through the neighborhoods there with a nice climb. Total ride is about 32 miles.
We also take the Monterey Bike Path out to Castroville and back for about a 40 mile, pretty flat ride.
And in Santa Cruz, after work, we manage to get in 22 miles along Larkin Valley and San Andreas Roads. Beautiful!
E-mail me if you'd like details.

A great ride, that can be done on your own or as an organized ride is the ride around Lake Tahoe. It's 73 miles with some hills. There isn't much of a shoulder to the road on the east shore. But the scenery is spectacular the whole way. The organized ride is called "The Country's Most Beautiful Ride" (or close to that) and is usually in June, depending on the snow situation.

Another fun organized ride is the Sierra Century, in the Amador County wine country. Just beautiful! This is a wonderfully supported century. One caveat: there is about 8500 feet of climbing during the ride. A lot of it comes in 2 big hills. But it is worth it. This one also takes place in early June.

Yreka, California. September 8, 2001. A very beautiful ride, about 4500 feet of climbing, mostly in 2 big climbs with great downhills too. Extremely scenic. The first part of the ride in is Shasta Valley with magnificent view of Mount Shasta, then climb up to Gazelle Summit and drop down into Scott Valley. Final climb back to Yreka over Forest Mountain Summit.
www.siskiyoucentury.com

There are also 65 mile and 31 mile options with much less climbing.

This year's Siskiyou Century is September 6, 2003.

Another great ride in Siskiyou County is the Mount Shasta Summit Century, which includes a ride up to the end of the pavement on Mount Shasta (!), among other great climbs. I love this ride! This year it is August 3.

http://www.shastahome.com/summit-century/