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

[moonfroggy]

we are looking to move and since the husband works from home and since we have dreamed of building a cob house for a few decades and since we can afford to do that if we move to Mendocino county that is what we are looking at. i am wondering though what roads are like for bicycles?
riding my bike is pretty important for me and right now we are in west marin which is expensive but a dream place for bike rides. anyone here care to tell me what it is like riding in Mendocino county? what is the best areas for riding? preferably rural areas, we need to buy in an unincorporated area to get the permits if we are eventually going to build a cob house with a gray water system.

[moonfroggy]

70 views and no one lives in mendocino county?

i used to go there often but was in high school when i did not have a bike. planning to visit in march guess i can post an answer then if no one posts a reply sooner...

[maillotpois]

I haven't gotten north of fort bragg on a bicycle. I have ridden the moto through there several times. Very rural roads and lots of dirt/badly paved roads that take you through beautiful countryside. What part specifically are you thinking of moving to ?

[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

[jobob]

Heh, I was going to ask "what the heck is a cob house?", envisioning a house made of discarded corn cobs.

(Come on, I can't be the only one ... can I? OK, so I'm dim! )

But a side trip to Wikipedia tells me

Cob or cobb or clom (in Wales) is a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe. Cob is fireproof, resistant to seismic activity, and inexpensive. It can be used to create artistic, sculptural forms and has been revived in recent years by the natural building and sustainability movements.

Neat!

DH and I took a drive up around that area yesterday. Even in the rain, its lovely.

[moonfroggy]

i have a habit of talking about cob houses and just assuming people know what i mean

a bunch of things happened all at once and so we decided we needed to move sooner and are not ready to move to mendocino county yet. so we are staying in west marin but will be less west and i am excited. we will be in a better place for me to ride my bike than we currently are and in a much better house and we can take more time to prepare for the eventual big move further north.

[maillotpois]

West Marin is great! Congrats on the move.