CA Coast & Wine Country Tour

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11-04-2011, 08:02 AM
SLash

CA Coast & Wine Country Tour

We recently did a 6 day supported bike tour that took us from Petaluma to Healdsburg, then a loop around Healdsburg including Armstrong Woods, from there to Occidental, from Occidental to Sea Ranch (including King Ridge), from Sea Ranch to Bodega Bay and from Bodega Bay back to Petaluma. Six days, 245 miles and 16,753 feet of ascent. More climbing than this flatlander has ever done. :)

It was a great tour - riding and scenery, if you're interested you can read about it starting here http://www.loveofbikes.com/?p=2002 then just follow the link at the end to the next post - there are 5 posts now, soon to be 6.

Tons of pictures too, consider yourself warned. ;)

Susan
11-05-2011, 07:14 AM
Trek420

I was raised in Sonoma county. For all I've seen of the world I still feel it's the most beautiful place on earth and some of the nicest people.

I'm glad you like it too.

Nice photos and description of the tour. Thanks for taking me on a tour of home.
11-05-2011, 07:36 AM
maillotpois

Great photos and write up!

It's fun to see someone else's perspective on roads we ride all the time. Makes me realize again how lucky I am to be able to ride here. :) Glad you had a good time!
11-05-2011, 09:27 AM
SLash

Thanks to you both for reading the posts and for your nice words.

Trek420, Growing up there must have been wonderful! I actually said while we were riding at one point - why couldn't I have grown up here - thinking if I had I would still be there. I just couldn't get over the beauty and the variety of beauty - every day was different but it was all gorgeous. And the people were friendly. I was surprised that every time we passed another cyclist - they always waved or spoke - doesn't happen where I live. As you could probably tell I loved it there. :)

Sarah, I'm glad reading the posts made you feel lucky to live there because you are!!! Seriously lucky and I'm seriously jealous! :D

Susan
11-05-2011, 10:31 AM
Trek420

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLash

Trek420, Growing up there must have been wonderful! I actually said while we were riding at one point - why couldn't I have grown up here - thinking if I had I would still be there.

It actually was a good place to grow up. Still is I think.

Guess I'm lucky that after the war my parents dream was to be chicken farmers :cool: ;) And while they looked in Napa and Marin they found an affordable farm in Sonoma county.

I'm nearby now, greater urban Bay area and planning a move to the PNW. But Sonoma county will always be home to me. I love my brown hills and rugged coastline.

Sure, once you see it you'll want to live there.

But to keep Sonoma county rural and beautiful we need you to do what you just did: come here, see and hike and ride our brown hills and redwoods and staggeringly beautiful coastline, eat delicious local foods and wine (Napa wine country who??), leave lots and lots of your discretionary income because we neeeeeed your money, go back home and entice everyone else to do the same. ;)

Alternatively if you want to move here; my condo's up for rent in the East Bay where the jobs are. You're an easy hour away from all of this with great rides right here too. You'd be near the Bay Trail, Alameda Creek Trail, the East Bay parks and more or could be in Sonoma in a little over an hour any time.
11-05-2011, 01:33 PM
jobob

What a great report!

DH and I rode the Asti Tour de Vine last month. which started in Cloverdale and went around Healdsburg; we saw a few tour groups when we were down around Healdsburg and I'm pretty sure Undiscovered Country was among them.

I wonder if we crossed paths that day? This was on Sat Oct 15; although it looks like that might have been the day you arrived in Petaluma.

You picked an excellent time to come out here, nowadays it seems summer in our region is Sept & Oct. :cool:
11-05-2011, 08:46 PM
SLash

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trek420

It actually was a good place to grow up. Still is I think.

Guess I'm lucky that after the war my parents dream was to be chicken farmers :cool: ;) And while they looked in Napa and Marin they found an affordable farm in Sonoma county.

I'm nearby now, greater urban Bay area and planning a move to the PNW. But Sonoma county will always be home to me. I love my brown hills and rugged coastline.

Sure, once you see it you'll want to live there.

But to keep Sonoma county rural and beautiful we need you to do what you just did: come here, see and hike and ride our brown hills and redwoods and staggeringly beautiful coastline, eat delicious local foods and wine (Napa wine country who??), leave lots and lots of your discretionary income because we neeeeeed your money, go back home and entice everyone else to do the same. ;)

Alternatively if you want to move here; my condo's up for rent in the East Bay where the jobs are. You're an easy hour away from all of this with great rides right here too. You'd be near the Bay Trail, Alameda Creek Trail, the East Bay parks and more or could be in Sonoma in a little over an hour any time.

Will just have to continue to visit and support the state of California through tourism not property taxes... ;)

I'd love to move to a rural area of Sonoma County but can't for two reasons: Ethan and Isabel.

We are being held hostage, happily held, by an 11 year old and 8 year old - grandchildren. Until they're a little older we can't bring ourselves to leave. Every time we travel some place that we love and could see ourselves living in we go back to considering it... then we visit E & I (1 hour away from us) and decide - again - to wait a few more years. :)
11-05-2011, 08:54 PM
SLash

Quote:

Originally Posted by jobob

What a great report!

DH and I rode the Asti Tour de Vine last month. which started in Cloverdale and went around Healdsburg; we saw a few tour groups when we were down around Healdsburg and I'm pretty sure Undiscovered Country was among them.

I wonder if we crossed paths that day? This was on Sat Oct 15; although it looks like that might have been the day you arrived in Petaluma.

You picked an excellent time to come out here, nowadays it seems summer in our region is Sept & Oct. :cool:

You were there one day before us, but UDC tours does rides there weekly in October so you probably did see them. If you had of seen me I was the person with the ear to ear grin riding or taking pictures... :D We took over 1100 pictures for the trip including our 3 days in SF.

We had heard September and October were closer to summer there than fall - the weather couldn't have been better. We originally were scheduled to go in June but had to cancel, then August and had to cancel and reschedule - turned out for the best going when we did.

Thanks for reading the posts and the nice words. :)
11-05-2011, 09:48 PM
Don Deitz

I should try that route someday. Probably in the spring. There is a nice bike tour of the Livermore wine country. It's not a long ride but fun and with a guide. The fun part is stopping at 4-5 wineries. It's arranged before the ride so the wineries expect the crowd. I have done it with about 20 other people. Very nice and not as busy as Sonoma/Napa.

--Don Deitz
11-06-2011, 07:36 PM
SLash

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Deitz

I should try that route someday. Probably in the spring. There is a nice bike tour of the Livermore wine country. It's not a long ride but fun and with a guide. The fun part is stopping at 4-5 wineries. It's arranged before the ride so the wineries expect the crowd. I have done it with about 20 other people. Very nice and not as busy as Sonoma/Napa.

--Don Deitz

The focus of this tour was on riding not tasting or visiting wineries (really stress that point on their website) although we visited a couple. We had to do our wine tasting in the afternoons/evenings after riding. ;)

It was a great route, once we were out of Petaluma there was never much in the way of traffic on any of the roads we were on - except for highway 1, but even then not bad.
11-07-2011, 06:38 AM
maillotpois

I love cycling and I love drinking wine, but I keep the two activities separate as a rule. I think combining them (tasting while riding) diminishes each activity. I save the wine (or beer) for after the ride.
11-07-2011, 08:50 AM
indysteel

I'm afraid to read your trip report. Last time I did, I almost immediately signed DH and I up for a similar tour (the Katy Trail)! :p

Just kidding: I was out of town this weekend and didn't have time to read this, but I'm eager to read it tonight.
11-07-2011, 06:30 PM
SLash

Quote:

Originally Posted by indysteel

I'm afraid to read your trip report. Last time I did, I almost immediately signed DH and I up for a similar tour (the Katy Trail)! :p

Just kidding: I was out of town this weekend and didn't have time to read this, but I'm eager to read it tonight.

Start working on your husband now... it's a GREAT trip!
11-09-2011, 07:58 AM
Sky King

OHHHH, we are going to be at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Sacramento in early March so if weather permits, perhaps we can drive a ways and ride a bit of your route. Thanks so much for letting us live vicariously through your blog posts.
11-09-2011, 05:39 PM
SLash

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sky King

OHHHH, we are going to be at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Sacramento in early March so if weather permits, perhaps we can drive a ways and ride a bit of your route. Thanks so much for letting us live vicariously through your blog posts.

Thanks for reading!

Here's a link that will give you detailed routes and info for the same area (Sonoma County) we biked: http://srcc.memberlodge.com/TGR
11-12-2011, 08:20 AM
jobob

hijack

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sky King

OHHHH, we are going to be at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Sacramento in early March

I'll be there too! I've been to most of the NAHBSs on the west coast, and it's back in my neck of the woods, so it's a no-miss for me. :cool:

At the very least you might want to take a spin on the American River Bike Trail.

Maybe a TE get together ride?

/hijack
11-12-2011, 06:28 PM
Tri Girl

now a trip like this is on my bucket list. So pretty and such a great read. Congrats on your trip! :)
11-13-2011, 05:53 PM
Dog

Wow...nice trip for sure. I'm curious about the riding conditions of the roads. DH and I did some bike riding around the Calistoga area and we were disappointed with the amount of traffic and lack of bike lanes (or shoulder). We never felt safe. Has that improved? We've talked about giving it another try, but don't want to be disappointed.
11-26-2011, 10:08 AM
SLash

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dog

Wow...nice trip for sure. I'm curious about the riding conditions of the roads. DH and I did some bike riding around the Calistoga area and we were disappointed with the amount of traffic and lack of bike lanes (or shoulder). We never felt safe. Has that improved? We've talked about giving it another try, but don't want to be disappointed.

The conditions of the road on day 1 (Petaluma to Healdsburg) were rough but other than that most surfaces were fair to very good. Traffic was rarely an issue, the tour company rides focus on the road less traveled so except for a few exceptions (highway 1 for one :), Bohemian highway another) traffic was light. Of course I can only speak to where we rode... not sure about the area as a whole.