good places to ride a road bike in rural mendocino county?

[moonfroggy]

right now we are pondering ukiah or willits which i guess is not so rural. we are also pondering the coast. we will have to drive to marin county at least every three months and stay a week but would like to be able to make it to marin once a month and stay a couple days and don't want the drive to be more than 3 hours each way which limits how far north we are looking. also won't be moving until fall at the soonest so we have time to make some trips out there and explore a bit.

[maillotpois]

That's all pretty south, so your cycling could easily also include SOnoma/Napa as well. I can say that Hwy 128 from the coast all the way to Lake Berryessa is just about one of my favorite cycling roads ever. The Mendocino part from Boonville to the coast is beautiful.

I'm doing a 200k this weekend that will take me on new roads I haven't ridden around Ukiah - I am really looking forward to it. I don't think you can go wrong in the areas you're looking.

[moonfroggy]

oh thank you! that is very good to hear! we want to stay in the southern parts of Mendocino county because we still need to do some stuff in marin and my husband needs to d stuff once in a while in mountain view. but mendocino county has some really nice owner builder permits for building cob houses so if we are going to buy a house then houses in mendocino county are a lot cheaper than marin and if there is enough land we maybe can make our dream come true and build a cob house eventually or maybe just a cob office space or something.

[maillotpois]

We did our 200 k on Saturday and it was gorgeous. I forgot I was going to come back and comment on this thread again. Now I am headed out for a ride so will be back

[moonfroggy]

went for a drive up the coast yesterday. seems like up until a bit past jenner the roads are amazing. then it gets very windy and hilly. i tend to be anxious on that sort of road where you can't see around the turns. mostly what worries me is at least around bolinas on roads like that cars sometimes will pass me when they can't see a car coming towards them. feels like one of these days i will witness a terrible accident because a car passed me when it shouldn't have. but wow up until the roads got really windy it seemed like ideal bicycling! i have never ridden up that way and now i really want to.

[maillotpois]

Yeah it is definitely going to be windy and hilly throughout. I think the mellowest road will be 128. Also some of the roads in te foothills east on 101 would be pretty mellow also. I love windy and hilly - maybe it will grow on you as well.

We did the 10 mile climb between Boonville and Ukiah on our 200k. That's a pretty mild climb - though the other direction would be really tough.

[moonfroggy]

i think pregnancy has just made me a bit more anxious than normal because i used to love twisty turny up and down. probably once this baby is old enough for me to feel ok going on a longish ride and i have got back my muscles i will enjoy them again