May 22 - A Twist on the Tour of Napa Valley

[SadieKate]

Due to popular demand, the route has been chosen and a date set.

Time: 9 am (but stay tuned based on weather)
Parking: Adams St east of Main St in St. Helena. This is a dead end street and recommended by both the Police Dept traffic person and the St. Helena Cyclery. The Bank of America on the same street is also open on Sundays.
Estimated length: A tad less than 60 miles

We’ll start in St Helena, go south down the Silverado Trail, up Sage Canyon (around Lake Hennessey) to Chiles & Pope Valley Rd. Climb up to the junction of Pope Valley Rd (where we took the pic of all the girls) and then up to the charming market in Pope Valley for a brief stop. Then, we’ll climb up the beautiful Ink Grade and down White Cottage and Crystal Springs to the Silverado Trail. Here is the twist: we’ll go up to Calistoga for a food break at the truly charming gourmet market by the glider port. Then, we’ll just cruise the Silverado Trail back to St. Helena. We’ll find some lousy chow and cheap booze to consume after and as close to parking as possible to keep the whine factor low .

Let me know if you’re coming along!

Map of St. Helena
http://city.ci.st-helena.ca.us/page.cfm?name=map

Website for the nice folks at St. Helena Cyclery
http://sthelenacyclery.com/site/intro.cfm

[SadieKate]

Yellow, I hope this isn't too early but I'm afraid it will turn hot otherwise.

Bus should probably leave by 7:30 am. I'll reserve all the seats for Pville monsters until you give me a better headcount. Bubba will put the rack back on before he leaves town so I'll have space for 4 passengers if you don't mind the back seat squish.

[Bike Goddess]

Seems to me that Yountville isn't that far down the road from St Helena. I suggest we go to the RED HEN cantina- yummy food, not expensive, good drinks, too!

Gotta get this food thing straight, right?!

[SadieKate]

Thanks for the suggestion, Nancy, but I (and others) want to eat immediately after for blood sugar reasons and sp the day doesn't drag on forever for folks who need to drive back to the Sierras. Plus, I want to put our tourist dollar in the town that hosts our parking. I like walking the streets of St. Helena, the wonderful olive oil at Olivier, the nice St. Helena Cyclery, etc.

We can eat at the Red Hen when you organize a ride, deal???

[Bike Goddess]

SK- sounds fine to me. I understand that you want to give back to the community. I only suggested the Red Hen because I figured it would be easy to get in and it wasn't too far away.

[SadieKate]

SK- sounds fine to me. I understand that you want to give back to the community. I only suggested the Red Hen because I figured it would be easy to get in and it wasn't too far away.

Yes, I know. A ride from Yountville some day would be good.

[yellow]

Re: the food discussion on the Slug Gulch thread, you'd have to get one of these to keep me from eating the upholstery if food was too long in coming.

y

[SadieKate]

I'm staying calm, trying not to be mopey, keeping an eye on the forecast for Sunday. Warm and sunny, warm and sunny, warm and sunny . . . keep on chanting, everyone!

[Veronica]

Looks like it will be nice again. We'll be there.

V.

[SadieKate]

These are the noses I think I'm supposed to count before we start:

Thom and V
Kim
Yellow and Brian
Nancy

Any one else? Yellow, you bringing any of the Pville gang?

[Veronica]

Please bring Rod, Yellow.

V.

[SadieKate]

You know, even LL Bean sells lycra bike shorts. PI has jerseys now that look like western/camp shirts.

[yellow]

I'll try to confirm other HV folks at tonight's ride. Yeah, we're riding in the rain. Or at least some are. I may go to the starting point and cheer everyone on. The ride has a bunch of steep downhill, which I'll not wild about in the rain.

As for Rod (his "forum persona" in case you haven't tracked that is "Hotrod", for how fast he rides , though I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what his forum persona is, much like Kim's "The Pilot"), I believe he has other plans (plus he's doing the Davis Double Sat, but that doesn't mean anything for an individual of his conditioning).

He wants to do Diablo again, and Hamilton. So do I, and Brian REALLY wants to do Diablo. I was waxing poetic again about Diablo yesterday to another HV friend...now he wants to go do it too!

Much happier today, even though it's raining. Must have been that tequila-induced good night's sleep I got.

[Veronica]

We'll need to do Diablo Memorial Day weekend to get a 2nd trip in. Do you fancy riding it on Saurday and then do the San Jose ride on Monday?

We'll be doing it in June too of course.

V.

[SadieKate]

You can blame the hordes on Yellow this time. She sent me this tentative list this moring.

Sue & Brian
Cara & her husband Chris
Bea