Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station

Esmeralda climbing the 300+ steps

What an incredible ride! I had vistas, hills, valleys, rivers, oceans, etc. Once again I was looking for a one-way trip that would provide me with the above, and give my wife and daughter something cool to see when they picked me up - the ride from Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station is perfect. Not only do you get all the above but you also get a great bakery at the Station as well as the chance to tour Pt. Reyes National Seashore and the 1870 lighthouse situated way out on the point.

The Lighthouse

The ride is a good 58 miles (93 km) long and has challenging climbs and high speed descents. You get to ride through the towns of Santa Rosa and Petaluma , which may not be the high point of your ride, depends on how you like the towns. Hitting all the stop lights in Santa Rosa was kind of a pain but I did like riding through the old town. I had never been to Petaluma before so I did enjoy the trip through town and the right turn onto D street to start the long ride to the South West and eventually the town of Pt. Reyes Station. As usual, you can get all the information, including route directions and elevations from MapMyRide and the download from my Garmin.

Once in Pt. Reyes Station I found a public restroom right next to a small playground that was perfect for changing out of my bike clothes and putting the bike on my wife's car. Then a short walk to a bakery you can't miss - just look for the line coming out the door. The bakery is called Bovine Bakery and I've included a link from a fellow blogger who did a great posting on this wonderful place.

A trip to Pt. Reyes wouldn't be complete without a side trip to the lighthouse constructed in 1870. This is a must see for all lighthouse buffs out there. Here's a link for information on this neat place.

Jade with the 300 steps

The ride took me 3 hours and 18 minutes. I ended up crashing the Marin Century ride as literally hundreds of roadies were on the same road as myself. There also seemed to be some kind of ride coming out of Pt. Reyes Station too. Another huge group of roadies with different kind of numbers on their backs and yet another group with green wrist bands on. I enjoyed all the company on the ride down and was not bothered by any of the traffic that was relatively light. Check out my ride below and enjoy:


Oh, if you have a better way to get there or other variations of this ride, please comment below. I really like to get a locals take on routes. See my trip to Bodega Bay; Mat, of Bodega Bay Cycles commented on a much better route to get me to Bodega Bay from Calistoga.

Photo by Jade

Calistoga to Bodega Bay

I shot this pic of Bodega Head at the end of my ride...

The variety of the type of rides available to Napa Valley roadies is amazing. On this ride I decided to leave the warm valley behind and head for the cool coast, which is much closer than you think. This Sunday morning I headed both North and West to finish my ride in Bodega Bay, roughly 44 miles (70km) away. I made it a one-way trip as my wife and Jade would meet me at the bay for lunch and a sight seeing trip. Then with the bike safely on the bike rack we would drive North and work our way back home by driving next to the Russian River.

You have a couple of choices on getting over the hills that separate Calistoga with Santa Rosa but I don't recommend most of them. The most direct way is via the Petrified Forest Road all the way down to Calistoga Road as it enters Santa Rosa - this was the route used by stage one in the '09 Tour of California. But the pros had the advantage of a closed route; you don't. The Petrified Forest Road is narrow, steep, and has a lot of traffic that does not want to give up an inch of space, especially to a bicycle rider. With this said, I decided on taking Franz Valley School road to leave the Napa Valley. This road is right off of the Petrified Forest Road as you are leaving Calistoga. You're only on this road for less than a mile and you make a right turn onto Franz Valley School road. You can check out the route, as usual, below via MapMyRide and the data provided by my Garmin Forerunner 305 unit.

Franz Valley School road is the first major climb of two climbs you will face on this trip. I could also do a Napa Valley Hills post on this road. It is a sustained climb of around 2 miles with a grade higher than 7% at times. At just over 9 miles you come to a T-intersection with Franz Valley road, make a left turn and you immediately start the 2nd major climb of the route. You crest this climb at around mile 11 and face a 8%, technical descent for around 1.5 miles - be careful here. I locked up my rear wheel on a nasty right hair-pin turn and almost got myself in trouble. Thank goodness that no car was coming up the road as I needed the whole road to save myself.

You now descend into Santa Rosa and here I took Fulton road to travel South to Highway 12 and the trip West. The 12 has a lot of traffic and you can avoid it by taking a bike path just south of 12. I did take the path after riding the 12 for a short time. I'm not sure I would do it again as the bike path is loaded with recreational riders and people walking their dogs. The path is limited to 15mph and going any faster would be hazardous due to the above mentioned traffic. In the future I would probably stay on 12, where the bike lane is wide and you can keep your speed up all the way into the town of Sebastopol. You now have several miles of light climbing as you leave Sebastopol. The climbing actually surprised me as I figured I would have a gradual descent all the way down to the coast. The grades are light but you will certainly notice them. Your other problem as you get close to the coast is the traffic, so watch out for the huge motor homes that will pass you a foot away!

Eventually you'll see a restaurant with picnic tables on the left side of the road just before you enter the actual town of Bodega Bay. I swung left here and patiently waited for the wife and kid - lunch of fish & chips tasted great and we had an enjoyable trip back home via the Russian River - enjoy.

Napa Valley Hills - Mt. Veeder (Dry Creek Side)

Looking down Dry Creek Road
Photo Credit: http://srcc.memberlodge.com

With my next race still 4 weeks away in August (San Ardo RR) it's time for more travelogues from my weekend long rides. Each day I put in about 21 miles around my town of Calistoga, Ca but the weekends are for the long rides, and I usually want this ride to be hilly.

This ride actually encompasses two climbs listed on Bruce DeBell's web page, "The Hills of Napa Valley" where he lists 17 climbs in the Napa Valley, from the most difficult to the easiest. Mt Veeder, Dry Creek side is #10 on his list and at the top of Dry Creek you do a short climb, Oakville Grade which is #16. This post is the second in my series called Napa Valley Hills - see my first hill, Mt. Howell Road here. And as usual, I've included a MapMyRide map at the bottom of this post; MapMyRide will give you all kinds of data, from Satellite views to full elevation, profile data.

To start this climb, I have to ride almost 25 miles to the town of Napa, located to the South of Calistoga. A long way to go perhaps for a single hill or two but 25 miles on the Silverado Trail is a great ride in itself. After I enter the town of Napa, I've got about 3 miles or so of traversing the town from East to West, and then I turn North onto Dry Creek Road for the start of the climb that will peak out 10 miles closer to Calistoga for my return trip on Ca-29, the road that links all the towns in the Napa Valley.

The climb itself is not that tough. About 4 miles long with over 700' of elevation gain. The road is very scenic however, and under a lot of shade - in short, it's a beautiful ride. The toughest pitch in my book was not even on this road but rather at the top of the road where you make a right turn onto Oakville Grade. This is my 2nd hill of the ride, and though short, a little over a mile, is relatively steep. MapMyRide shows an average of around 4% but I remember pitches of up to 8 - 10% during the short climb. Hang onto your bars when you crest this hill - the downhill is steep and somewhat technical but not too bad. I hit a speed of over 43 mph on the downhill and that's while I was sitting up and feathering the brakes as it was my first time on this road. This descent is Bruce's #1 toughest climb in the Napa Valley going the other way - I've got to check this hill out soon.

That's it for this training ride, around 54.5 miles. Check out the map link below:

Napa Valley Hills - Howell Mt. Road

A view from Howell Mt. Road
Photo Credit: http://wine.appellationamerica.com/images/appellations/features/Craig%20Howell%20web1.jpg

I did a great hill workout today climbing Howell Mt. Road right off the Silverado Trail. There are a lot of great hill workouts in the Napa Valley so I thought I would start a series describing the climbs after I've ridden them. A very good web resource is a page called "Hills of Napa Valley" where author Bruce DeBell lays out his 17 hill rides in the Napa Valley. Howell Mt. Road is #14 on Bruce's list. Bruce does give a very brief description of the ride but not a lot of location information, which could make the ride tough to find for an out of town roadie. I've provided a MapMyRide map that should get you the hill in no time.

You can find the start of this 4.2 mile climb right at the junction of the Silverado Trail just North of the town of St. Helena. St. Helena is located just South of Calistoga. Look for Howell Mt. Road 1.7 miles South of Deer Park Road. The climb is moderate but very scenic (see pic above.) My Garmin showed several pitches above 7% with a total elevation climb of over 1100 feet. I completed the climb, without working too hard, in exactly 23 minutes. This will be my baseline, and I'll now work on lowering that time in future rides. The road is narrow but traffic is very light. The road surface is fair to good. The descent down Deer Park Road is a lot of fun and was also used in stage 1 of the 2009 Tour of California.

Here's my MapMyRide map of the route:

Castello di Amorosa - Calistoga, Ca

Just a quick post to show the cool "12th Century Tuscan castle" on the South side of the valley floor. I took this shot on an early morning ride on the North side of the valley. The castle is a winery, one of many, in the Napa Valley.

Napa Valley - Bicycling Paradise

I'm pretty recovered from my bike race injuries but continued headaches made me drop my April lineup of races - the headaches are now over and I'm looking forward to May. Something new has popped up though. My wife is the new school superintendent of the Calistoga Joint Union School District in the beautiful Napa Valley of Northern California. She officially starts July 1st but we recently spent 5 days in Calistoga, and yours truly got a chance to do a couple of rides there. So I thought I would dedicate this post as a travelogue of sorts on the two rides of hundreds that exist in this cool place. Hell, Levi Leipheimer left Montana to look for the best place to train as a pro-rider and found Santa Rosa (right next door to Calistoga)and never left. He's been there 12 years and I believe he has been quoted as saying it is one of the best places to ride in the U.S. I have to agree. In one hour you can ride through redwoods, hit the Pacific Ocean, ride great hills and valleys. So here's a couple of rides that I mapped on MapMyRide.com.

Photo Credit to: Travel4California.Com

The Silverado Trail from Calistoga to Yountville:

Around 40 miles total in this out and back route right down the center of the Napa Valley. It's a fairly flat ride through the vineyards with pretty vistas on all sides of the road. The traffic is fairly heavy but there are wide bike lanes on both sides of the Silverado Trail. I was not alone on this Sunday morning ride as many, many, other roadies were out and about. Here's the link via MayMyride:



You've got options in this ride. You can continue past Yountville and travel down to the city of Napa and come back. You can make it a loop ride by using highway 29, etc. All in all, a 5 star ride.

Photo Credit: © 2007 Solage Hotels & Resorts

Pope Valley Loop:

The 2nd ride, which I did on a Monday morning was perfect. I decided to check out the climbs and ride a big part of the 2009 Tour of California, Stage 1 route (by the way, the Silverado Trail route is also a part of the TOC.) Stage 1 brought the riders from California's Central Valley (the town of Winters) over the mountains and down into the Napa Valley. I rode it backwards, leaving Calistoga, riding up over the hills to the Pope Valley and then deviated from the TOC route because of lack of time, and made it a great loop. Check it out in MapMyRide:



This ride, another 5 star, had almost zero traffic once I cleared off of the Silverado Trail. The climb up to the town of Angwin was tough but harder yet, was the descent down to the Pope Valley. Definitely a technical descent. Later, talking to locals, I was told to use Ink Grade Road which has a better descent. It looks good on the map and I can't wait to get back to Calistoga to give it a try.

I should have a race in May, though the coming move to NorCal may make racing problamatic in the short term. I for sure will have races in late summer, as NorCal has a lot more road races than SoCal. I'm going to write off crits, as I don't want my daughters to see me lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm again.

When you come to the Napa Valley for the wine, make sure you look me up and I'll hook you up with all the rides the Valley has to offer!