Distance: c. 11 miles, two out-and-back forks
Elevation gain: 1049 ft

This is probably the shortest ride in Bestrides. It’s yet another out and back climb up from the Wine Country valley floor, and the climb itself is a whopping 2 miles, so why should you bother, when Bestrides has about 10 other longer similar Wine Country climbs? For a couple of reasons: 1) it’s off the radar—so far off that my treasured Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition cycling map, which has everything, doesn’t know it exists—there’s something sweet in that; and 2) it’s beautifully landscaped and has a delightful climbing contour. It’s just a little gem. So do it three times, or do it as an add-on to one of the longer climbs nearby (see Adding Miles), but I encourage you to do it.

Start at the intersection of Nuns Canyon Rd. and Hwy 12, just north of Trinity Grade. There’s a perfect tiny one-car dirt pull-out just made for you a stone’s throw up Nuns. Ride up Nuns and take the L onto Nelligan Rd. Ride to the “summit” at 2.5 miles in. Enjoy your surroundings—it will be over all too soon. You’ve got a pretty riparian creek’s woods on one side of you and vineyards on the other, but some genius preserved the thin row of woods shielding you from the vines, so you’re in lovely oak forest on both sides. The road is a generous one-lane, which adds to the coziness. At the summit the road does a three-way fork and each fork immediately dead-ends in someone’s yard. Turn around and enjoy the descent back to the Nelligan/Nuns intersection. If you aren’t exhausted from your climb, go L onto NCR and ride it as far as you’d like.

Nuns Canyon Rd. is the mirror opposite of Nelligan. It’s essentially flat, with redwood forest in place of Nelligan’s oak canopies. It soon turns to very rideable dirt. I don’t know how far it goes—I did a couple of miles and turned around. Feel free to explore further. There seems to be nothing in there but driveways to invisible vacation houses, often with gates. I passed at least two gates on the main road—whether they’re ever closed, I don’t know. But it’s nice, easy riding through pretty forest. If you ride it to the end, let me know what it’s like.

Shortening the ride: You’re kidding.

Adding miles: As I mentioned, there are several climbs that take off from Hwy 12 nearby: Adobe Canyon Rd., Los Alamos Canyon Rd., Trinity Grade, Cavedale Rd., Sonoma Mountain Rd. (all in Bestrides—use the search window for some of them), so you could do any one of them, throw the bike in the car, and drive to Nelligan as a cool-down.

Distance: 10.8 miles one way
Elevation gain: 1372 ft

This is a backcountry road that is well-known as an alternative route from Hwy 1 to Occidental (the other two options being Bohemian Highway and Coleman Valley Rd., both in Bestrides). Almost half of it is dirt, and almost half is gated off to cars, so we’re talking some serious solitude here. You’ll probably see some birders at the southwest end and some hikers on the dirt side of both of the gates. Otherwise you should be alone. And that’s the ride’s selling point. The scenery is excellent, but no better than other coastal forest rides. I loved the tranquility of the first 5 miles. After that the climbing started and the ride turned into work—still rewarding, but not peaceful. All the elevation gain (1372 ft) is in one unrelenting 4-mi. climb in the middle. And remember, rocky dirt makes climbing twice as hard as the numbers suggest.

Normally with routes that traverse a single road I plot them as out and backs, and you can certainly do Willow Creek Rd. that way, but because this dirt isn’t an “Ooh I want to do that again” sort of thing and because our ride leaves you just outside Occidental, which is both the top of the lovely Bohemian Highway descent and the beginning of the Coleman Valley Rd. ride, both praised elsewhere in Bestrides, I fully expect you to ride this as part of a loop, Willow Creek > Bohemian Highway > Hwy 116 or Willow Creek > Hwy 1 > Coleman Valley Rd.

With any route with substantial dirt, two questions arise: 1. can you do it on a road bike, and 2. which way should you go, up or down? My answers: 1. I wouldn’t. The first mile of dirt (as I’ve mapped it) is smooth and flat, but the next 4 miles are a constant and substantial climb, and, because weather wears down pitches much more than it does flats, that climb is often rocky, eroded, and jarring. 2. I don’t like rough rocky descents. They kill my hands, my neck, and my spine. I always prefer to climb them at 5 mph instead of bounce down them at 10 mph clutching my brakes with cramping fingers. So I’ve mapped it uphill. Also, riding this way gives you Bohemian Highway as a descent if you’re looping it that way, which is the (vastly) preferable direction. Whichever way you go, as with all dirt, after rain I‘d wait until the trail had dried out before riding.

As with most roads through back country, mapping sites like RWGPS make the area look like a warren of roads, so you might worry that navigation is treacherous. Not so—there is only one noticeable road and it’s impossible to get lost.

Park at the intersection of Willow Creek Rd. (totally unsigned) and Hwy 1 just a few feet south of the Russian River Bridge, right by Jilly’s Real Food Roadhouse (which is quite good, I’m told). You will immediately see a formidable sign reading “Road closed 4 miles ahead—no through traffic to Occidental.” This is great news, because it means you won’t see cars.

The first 4 miles of the route are flat, good-quality pavement oddly interspersed with short stretches of rideable dirt—look carefully at the RWGPS map and you’ll see they got it exactly right. Early in the ride you pass a gigantic, magnificent stand of alders. One can only assume that the name “Alder Creek Road” was already taken. Appreciate these trees—you won’t see alders again on the ride. As you ride among the alders you should see serious people in tweeds and bucket hats staring up into the sky. Those are the birders, who come for the birds, who come for the alders. One birder told me she had seen 49 species of birds by 11 AM—that’s impressive.

Four miles in there’s a large gate preventing car traffic from continuing, so the traffic drops to zero. The next mile is smooth dirt, doable on 25mm tires. Once the climbing starts, it continues for 4 miles. It’s mostly moderate in pitch (I did see a memorable bit of 12-15%, but it’s more like 4-6%), but because it’s rocky and often deeply rivened it’s work. A lot of the scenery is redwood-and-poison-oak—very pretty.

Near the end of the climb you meet a gate like the one earlier. The pavement returns, and after a bit more climbing you do a patchwork-surfaced descent to the T at Coleman Valley Rd. and you decide if and how you want to loop the ride.

Shortening the ride: Ride the first 4 miles and turn around at the gate, or continue for one more mile of easy dirt and turn around at the start of the climb.

Adding miles: See possibilities for loops above.

Distance: 11.4 mile out and back
Elevation gain: 2070 ft

This is another nice climb out of a Wine Country valley, of which Bestrides has several, this time taking off from the eastern edge of Santa Rosa. Since Bestrides has a lot of these rides, I try to think in terms of what’s special about each. This one is shorter than most (5.7 mi. one way), a good bit steeper than most (way over the 100 ft/mile benchmark), and blessed with a pristine road surface (a feature it shares with Ida Clayton and Cavedale). The scenery is pretty standard Wine Country climb: open hillside with a sprinkling of oaks and houses. The traffic, as with most Wine Country dead-end climbs, is minimal. The road size begins as a wide, double yellow-lined two-lane, shrinks to a wide one-lane without centerline, then shrinks further to a true one-lane in its last mile. Vistas are minimal—brief views of Santa Rosa in the valley below and of the mountains surrounding.

All of which raises the question of why you would pick this ride over Bestride’s other Wine Valley Climbs. I can think of three reasons: 1) you want some steep. 13-15% pitch is pretty rare in this area—Los Alamos has a couple of stretches. 2: You’re in the area, and the narrowness of Cavedale and the roughness of Sonoma Mountain Rd., the other two nearby Bestrides rides, put you off. 3: You like an adventure (see the last mile of the ride description below).

Los Alamos Rd. (“the poplars” in Spanish—I didn’t notice any) takes off from Hwy 12 just south of Santa Rosa, and at first it looks like nothing but standard Greater Bay Area suburbia. Park on a side street. Soon the houses begin to thin out (though they continue to dot the hillsides). Climb on pretty, smooth, big two-lane full of sweeping curves to a major fork in the road, at which point the double-yellow stops and there’s a sign reading “Winding one-lane road” (the usual Highway Department overstatement—two cars can pass easily), and the pitch moderates. This is my favorite leg of the ride, with no houses, a nice rollercoaster road contour, and no one else on the road.

Shortly you see a prominent ranch house on the R, there’s a gate for closing off the road, a sign reads “15% grade,” and the road goes to true one-lane. The rest of the ride is only 1 mile, and it’s a trip. If you like adventure it might be the reason you’re doing the ride. You cross a small ridge top with some excellent views of the hills ahead of you to the south, then plummet down the promised 15% pitch to the end of the road at the Hood Mountain Regional Park trailhead, which is nothing more than a dirt parking lot and a parking ticket vending machine. This road is on a steep sidehill, with a wall on one side and a drop-off on the other, and you can occupy your mind with musing on just what two cars would do if they met going in opposite directions. I have no idea. I met one vehicle during my descent, and I barely had room to squeeze my bike between them and the wall. The driver graciously moved to his R about 3 inches.

Curiously, Streetview doesn’t map this last mile—it stops at the gate, which it shows as closed. Someone’s in denial.

Depending on who you are, that mile may be the highlight of the ride or something you definitely want to skip. The climb back out is tough, and there’s absolutely nothing worth seeing at the bottom. I liked it, but I like edgy.

The ride back is predictable. The first mile is a true slog, then the ride back to the double-yellow is sweet, then the descent on the double-yellow, like most Wine Country descents, varies from ripping to (for me) too-steep-to-be-much-fun. YMMV.

Shortening the ride: Turn around at the gate. You’ll only be saving 2 miles, but you’ll save a lot of effort.

Adding miles: Adobe Canyon Rd., a short, pleasant little climb, is just to the south of you on Hwy 12. A bit further down 12 are the Cavedale Rd. and Sonoma Mountain Rd. rides. Just north of you, off Calistoga Rd., is St. Helena Rd., a ride I like because I like wooly outback rides but whose road surface is too poor to make it into Bestrides. In 13 miles it will take you to the town of St. Helena, but it’s a very steep climb coming back.

Distance: 26.4-mile lollipop
Elevation gain: 2790 ft

Another climb out of a Wine Country valley, this ride takes off from Glen Ellen, one of the area’s most charming and unspoiled little villages, goes up and over a summit, does a loop around the valley to the west, and returns via the same hill.

Its advantages over the other Wine Country climbs are two: it’s more lushly wooded than they are (the terrain is primarily pretty oak forest, with a touch of redwood grove thrown in), and it’s a lollipop, not an out-and-back. Its drawbacks are two: one stretch of bad pavement and one stretch of bad traffic. In the Shortening the Ride section I’ll show you how to avoid both.

Begin in Glen Ellen. Before or after the ride, be sure to partake of the sweets at Les Pascals (literally “those born on Easter”) Patisserie on the main drag. I park at the intersection of Warm Springs Rd. and Henno Rd., a stone’s throw from downtown, where there’s a large informal dirt parking lot. Ride a mile on pretty, busy, up-and-down Warm Springs Rd. and turn L (clearly signed) onto Sonoma Mountain Rd.

Immediately begin a demanding 3-mile climb (lots of 10+%) to the summit. The road is super narrow, a true one-lane, which is fun, but the pavement is consistently poor, with patches on the patches. It’s a real bother. The foliage is at first scruffy but turns into very pretty oak woodland. Traffic is minimal, though there is a sprinkling of houses belonging to hardy souls who want to bounce up and down that hill every day.

At the summit you pass the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center and the pavement soon improves dramatically—it’s glass until you return to the Zen Center on the return ride. Enjoy the next few miles—from the start of the good pavement to Petaluma Hill Rd. is the best riding on the route.

The pitch on the west side of the mountain is milder than what you’ve just done, so the descent is a peach. Descend to clearly marked Pressley Rd. and go L on Pressley, a wide, smooth thoroughfare that is surprisingly free of traffic. After a moderate climb, do 2.5 mi. of delicious sweeping high-speed descent—a real treat. Bail out onto flat, pretty valley grape and ranch land. At the intersection with Lichee Rd. the road changes its name to Roberts Ranch Rd. (or Roberts Rd.). Continue to the dead-end at Petaluma Hill Rd. Go R onto PHR.

PHR sounds small and hilly, but it’s dead straight, dead flat and heavily trafficked. It’s no huckleberry, but it’s over in 2.5 mi. and there’s a roomy shoulder all the way.

Turn R onto Crane Valley Rd., which becomes Grange Rd. somewhere. CVR is a large, sanitary two-lane, and you think it’s going to be more flat, but it includes a 1-mile climb that is unexpectedly steep (some 9-11%). It’s all shoulder riding, with considerable traffic. Not particularly fun.

CVR dead-ends at Bennett Valley Rd. Go R onto BVR. Shortly you see Sonoma Valley Rd. going off to the R—take it back to Pressley. This leg is slightly up on a pleasant, cultivated two-lane with houses and little traffic. At Pressley, retrace your steps back to your car. The climb up from there to the summit is shallower and the pavement is worlds better than the one you did coming out, so it’s quite nice.

At the intersection of Bennett Valley Rd. and Sonoma Mountain Rd. you have options. If you’re done with climbing, want to shave some miles, or want to avoid a steep descent on crappy pavement, continue on Bennett Valley Rd. back to Warm Springs Rd., and take WSR back to your car. BVR, as the name implies, runs straight through Bennet Valley, which is renowned for its cultivated beauty. It’s a steady dose of picturesque horse farms, oak canopies, mild ups and downs…pretty ideal riding, were it not for the traffic, which is fairly constant. The shoulder varies from generous to non-existent. There often isn’t much room, but the drivers seem tolerant and straight passing stretches are frequent. I didn’t feel threatened. Warm Springs Rd. is more of the same: flattish, very pretty, trafficky.

Shortening the ride: since the best riding is the west side of Sonoma Mountain and Pressley Rd./Roberts Ranch Rd., you can do them both as an out-and-back: start at the Roberts Ranch Rd./Petaluma Hill Rd. intersection, ride Roberts Ranch > Pressley > the summit of Sonoma Mountain Rd. and return. I promise you, you won’t be missing anything wonderful by skipping the rest of the route.

Adding Miles: Glen Ellen sits on the Trinity Grade loop version of our Cavedale ride, so you can easily add on Cavedale, which would make for a hefty day’s climbing. For a less demanding addition, ride the 5.5 miles of Hwy 12 up to Adobe Canyon Rd. and ride its 4 pretty miles (one way) up to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and the observatory (1 mile of serious climbing). An unexpected treasure is Lawndale Rd. + Schultz Rd., all 3.5 miles of it, just 1.5 pleasant miles down Warm Springs Rd. from the intersection of WSR and Bennet Valley Rd. See details in the Adding Miles section of the Cavedale Rd. post.

Distance: 18.2 out and back
Elevation gain: 2350 ft

This is yet another sweet climb out of a Wine Country valley, this time out of the city of Napa. It’s a dead end, and it absolutely can’t be looped. It’s much like our other Wine Country climbs, but its road surface is better than some (about 60% of it is glass), and the landscape is manicured…that is to say, it looks as if a professional gardener was maintaining it. So it’s very attractive and very clean. For much of its length it’s got a sparkling clean center line and sparkling clean fog lines—even a bike lane in the beginning—and the pretty oaks that line much of it look meticulously pruned. Fairly elaborate homes and vineyards dot the landscape. There is no sense of being in the outback or escaping civilization. So it’s prettier than our other area rides, but also more domesticated.

This isn’t a great ride for vistas—at the very top you can see north and east for some distance over barren, rolling hills, but until then, not much.

The workload is roughly the same as our other Wine Valley climbs, with all the hard stuff in the first and last thirds, the middle third being close to flat. There are some short 10-12% swells.

Though the area is more built-up than our other area rides, I still found next to no traffic—4 vehicles in 9 miles on the ride in. The route has many signs asking drivers to share the road, which usually is a sign of traffic, so maybe I just got lucky.

The first mile of so of Atlas Peak Rd. is big and busy and thoroughly uninviting. I skip it and park in one of the shoulder turn-outs by the Silverado Resort or the golf course, where parking is surprisingly easy. As you ascend, the road gets slowly narrower, less populated, and wilder, until finally you’re on a true one-lane road (I met a Fed Ex truck and it filled the road—I had to pull off) surrounded by open spaces and little home-spun vineyards. Halfway up the road surface, which has been glass, begins to break up, and it gets worse over the next 2.5 miles, then thankfully returns to glass for the remainder of the climb.

The road ends at a turn-around and a large gate that reads “Atlas Peak Ranch.” In case you’re in any doubt there is a sign reading simply “END.”

The descent varies from good to excellent, with the exception of the near-flat rough patch in the middle, which I just waited out.

Most of the estates along the route are set well back from the road, and many of them are reached by long, meandering side roads that are little more than paved trails. It looked like they would be fun to explore on a bike, but I didn’t try it.

Shortening the ride: There is no need, and I think the riding gets better the further you climb.

Adding miles: Our Mt. Veeder Rd. ride is on the other side of town.

Distance: 15.6 out and back
Elevation gain: 2490 ft

(A Best of the Best descent)

This is another of those pure climbs out of the Wine Country valley floor. Bestrides has four of them: Pine Flat Road, Geysers Road, Cavedale Road, and this one. They are all peachy, they all climb through similar, moderately pretty scrub much of the time, and they’re all fairly long, hard climbs without being brutal (7-10%). Obviously I like them all. How to know which one to ride first? Here are some distinguishing features:

Geysers is the only loop among the four (though Cavedale and Ida Clayton can be made into one). Geysers and the loop version of Cavedale are the only two to include sweet flat valley riding. Geysers has a more varied contour than the others. Much of its road surface is rough, but readers tell me it’s been partially improved recently. It’s by far the longest, so it has by far the shallowest (easiest) climbing.

Pine Flat has the steepest pitches and has a nice flat break in the middle of the climb (the eponymous Pine Flat). It can’t be looped.

Cavedale and Ida Clayton have both been repaved recently and have glassy surfaces.

Cavedale goes up to a summit and down the back side, so you get a super-sweet roller coaster between the summit and the turn-around that is one of my favorite legs in the Wine Country.

Ida Clayton climbs steadily for 4 mi., then rolls and climbs mildly for another 4 mi. through beautiful woods on a road surface that ranges from OK to terrible. I think Ida Clayton’s descent is the best of the four.

Which one is the hardest? Here’s a quick look at the stats (very approximate) on the climbing segments only for the four rides:

Geysers: 22 miles, c. 180 ft/mile
Pine Flat Road: 10.6 miles, c. 340 ft/mile
Cavedale: 5.1 miles, c. 530 ft/mile
Ida Clayton: 4 mi, c. 620 ft/mile

As you can see, the shorter the ride the steeper the gradient. And sometimes averages lie—Pine Flat Rd. has some genuinely frightful pitches the others lack.

All four rides share the virtue of isolation: there’s really little reason for a car to be on any of them. Because Ida Clayton goes from Hwy 128 to Middletown, as does the much more car-friendly Hwy 29, you can expect exceptionally car-free riding. When I rode it, on the 8-mile ride in I met 0 vehicles. On the ride out I met two.

Ida Clayton Rd. heads straight up from Kellogg, an invisible community on Hwy 128, the highway that runs through St. Helena and Calistoga—think of it as a few miles north of Calistoga. This being flat agricultural land, there is roadside parking everywhere. The road climbs robustly and steadily, but never ferociously (nothing prolonged over 10%), for 4 miles, at first through pretty woods and then through typical Wine Country hillside scrub—not gorgeous but handsome in its way. The road is posted as “one-lane,” and it’s without shoulder, fog line, or center line, but it’s wide enough for two cars to pass, cautiously, and wide enough that the descent on the return is a pleasure. The road surface, recently redone, is flawless for the first 4 miles, then not so. The pitch is fairly constant but the road is rarely straight and there is a lot of variety in the curves. As you ascend, you start to get those grand vistas of Calistoga’s valley below.

Four miles in you hit a mini-summit and the ride changes completely. From now on you’re in pretty deciduous trees, the road contour wanders up and down easily, mostly up (there’s a noticeable pitch in the last 0.8 miles), and that glassy road surface soon turns into old, broken pavement that is at times really wretched. It’s more like mountain biking. Go for the scenery, or turn around at the mini-summit.

Eight miles in the road turns to dirt. If you continue, in 2.2 miles the pavement returns and in 3 total miles you emerge onto Hwy 29 at the southern outskirts of Middletown, from whence you can easily bop over to Harbin Hot Springs for a soak, then return to Kellogg via major connector Hwy 29. Hwy 29 is a steep, very trafficky, curvy deathtrap for bikes (despite the bicycle icons painted on the road surface and the “share the road” signs). I wouldn’t dream of riding it, but obviously some cyclists do. For other loop options see Adding Miles below. But if you loop the ride you’ll miss the Ida Clayton descent.

The climbs on Cavedale and Ida Clayton are almost indistinguishable, and the descent on Cavedale is iffy, so the descent on Ida Clayton should be equally iffy, but it isn’t. I guess the slight increase in road width makes all the difference, because this descent you can really carve. Hence the Best of the Best rating.

Shortening the ride: Ride to the mini-summit and turn around.

Adding miles: Our Pine Flat Rd. ride is 9 flat, rideable miles north on Hwy 128. The southern edge of our Geysers Rd. ride is a stone’s throw north of PFR.

If you want a loop route, are turned off by the traffic on Hwy 29, and are up for some miles, you can ride to the end of Ida Clayton, ride through Middletown, and take Butts Canyon Rd. to Pope Valley Rd. through Angwin, Deer Park, and Calistoga back to Kellogg (thanks, Brian). All very good riding, c. 56 miles.

If you want to ride alongside the vineyards on the valley floor, at the bottom of Ida Clayton you’re near the northern end of the Napa Valley Vine Trail, a bike trail that stretches (with gaps—it’s a work in progress) from Napa to Calistoga, usually within sight of the highway. The leg from St. Helena to Calistoga is brand new (as of 1/25) and particularly sweet.

Directly on the opposite side of Hwy 128 from the base of Ida Clayton is Franz Valley Rd., which introduces you to a delightful warren of pretty, largely flat roads—Franz Valley Rd., Franz Valley School Rd., Petrified Forest Rd., and all the others between Hwy 128 and Santa Rosa to the west. Feel free to wander. For more details, see the Adding Miles section of the Pine Flat Road post.

Distance: 23.5-mile loop
Elevation gain: 1980 ft

Occidental is an amazing cycling resource. Six roads head out of this little town, and each one of them is some degree of wonderful for riders. All 6 figure in a Bestrides route in one way or another. This route focuses on the roads to the northwest of town. It and Bittner Rd. (which is in our Coleman Valley Rd. ride) are the only ones with thrilling descents.

This ride comes with some caveats. The Bohemian Highway can be unpleasantly, dangerously trafficky. About a quarter of the miles on our loop have a bad case of Sonoma County Disease (i.e. have rough surfaces). And one leg of the loop is downright not fun to ride. But the other three quarters of the miles are glass, for all of those three quarters the scenery is as good as the area gets (which is, gorgeous), and if we deal with BH’s traffic issues it’s a descent to be remembered.

See the Occidental Loop ride notes for info on the town of Occidental itself.

The Bohemian Highway also goes the opposite direction, south, out of Occidental briefly and dead-ends at Freestone, and it’s a pleasant enough few miles, but we’re interested in the northern direction, from Occidental to Monte Rio, 6.3 mi of delicious descending to the Russian River. It’s never steep (2-5%), which sounds boring, but it isn’t—it serpentines sweetly, the pavement is glass, and you can really attack the hill, pedaling vigorously and carving the sweeping turns at 25+ mph. The scenery is the usual Occidental-area redwood gorgeousness. It’s really very nice.

But there’s the traffic. You want to carve those turns from the middle of the lane, and that’s hard to arrange. Bohemian Highway is a main route to the Russian River, which is a main access route to the coast, so it can get busy, and there’s really no room for you and cars at the same time—two small lanes, minimal shoulder, cars in a hurry to get to the beach. So you have to plan the ride for slack traffic. I did the ride on Sunday (terrible day), but waited until noon (good time), and had to deal with perhaps 6 cars passing me. I would think any weekday after 10 am and before 3 pm would be OK, and any weekend day between 11 am and 2 pm, and any day at 7 a.m.

Near the bottom of the descent the road forks, into Bohemian Highway on the R and the oddly named Main St. on the L (clearly signed). The two roads are within sight of each other on opposite banks of the creek. Take Main St.—the road surface is better, and it goes by Lightwave, a charming, unpretentious coffee/drinks/small-menu food shop run by a couple recently from Israel. Try to stop, at least for coffee or a drink—you’ll like it. There’s a bike rack in full view, so you can sit at an outside table and keep your eye on your bike.

Cross the river on the unmissable bridge and say hello and goodbye to Monte Rio, a town named by someone who apparently didn’t know that “monte” means “mountain”. Go R (under the friendly “Monte Rio Awaits Your Return” sign) onto River Rd., the road that follows the banks of the Russian River upstream, and ride it for 4.3 mi. to Guerneville. It isn’t fun. The traffic is constant, so you’re confined to the (largely spacious but debris-strewn) shoulder, the pavement is poor, and the neighborhood is generally shabby. Gentrification has yet to reach Monte Rio, which may be a blessing but doesn’t aid the riding.

You can bypass about half of the River Rd. leg by taking Old Monte Rio Rd., which parallels River Rd. just to the north, but it’s an adventure—the “road” is little more than a paved footpath and fairly decrepit. Check it out on Streetview (incredibly, it’s covered) before committing yourself to it.

Happily, Guerneville is a pleasant community with a good energy. Midtown, turn R onto Hwy 116 (called by some maps and my GPS “Pocket Canyon Highway”). Very soon, turn R. onto Mays Canyon Rd. and ride MCR to its end back on Hwy 116.

Mays Canyon used to be one of my favorite little rides, a car-free, secret back road offering pristine redwoods and splendid isolation. It still has some of that, especially in the first mile or so, but it also has, smack in the middle of it, a large community of run-down thrown-together dwellings with lots of signs telling you how unwelcome you are. With all that comes some traffic. And the road surface is bad. So ride it if you wish, or just stay on Hwy 116, which lacks Mays Canyon’s vices and virtues.

If you do Mays, go R on Hwy 116 (at the intersection there is no sign or any indication of where you are except for a hand-routered sign reading “Mays Canyon Rd.”). Everything is really good for the rest of the ride—the scenery is lovely, the traffic is light to non-existent, and the road surface is pristine.

Ride to Green Valley Rd. and go R onto Green Valley, which looks at the intersection like an afterthought but is really a well-established road. GVR goes up and down a steep little hill which is the steepest thing you’ll see on the ride (max pitch 12% briefly). Turn R onto Harrison Grade Rd.—I know, it’s very hard to leave Green Valley Rd., because it’s so very sweet, but Harrison is just as good.

Harrison Grade, as its name implies, is a climb—never as steep as Green Valley at its worst but more of it—2 miles of serious climbing with some 9-10% stuff. HGR runs you into Graton Rd., which runs quickly back into Occidental and provides the perfect cherry on this sundae—a brisk little descending slalom through perfect redwoods.

Shortening the ride: I wouldn’t ride Bohemian Highway as an out and back—the traffic whizzing past you as you do 5 mph on the return climb would be dangerous at any hour. River Rd. isn’t worth riding, ever. So we’re left with riding Green Valley Rd. + Harrison Grade Rd. as an out-and-back, with as much of Hwy 116 as you like.

Adding miles: See the Adding Miles section of our Occidental Loop ride for a list of the possibilities, which are many.

Distance: 17-mile lollipop
Elevation gain: 1730 ft

Occidental is an amazing cycling resource. Six roads head out of this little town, and each one of them is some degree of wonderful for riders. All 6 figure in a Bestrides route in one way or another. This route focuses on the roads to the east of town.

The roads between the towns of Occidental and Sebastopol all run through grand redwood forests and have charming, undulating contours. So you could just go wandering and ride any of them. But there’s a downside: the road surfaces are often terrible (Sonoma county cyclists take an odd pride in this), the roads are dangerously narrow, usually there is no shoulder (not a small shoulder—none), and the main arteries are heavily enough trafficked so as to be a pain if not an actual danger.

So what we want are routes on untrafficked back roads with good road surfaces. I’ve found two: this one and our Bohemian Highway loop (well, half of that one). This loop is entirely glass, and it spends most of its time on roads that see next to no cars—of the 6 roads it covers, only one may be uncomfortably busy. And every inch is beautiful to the eye and charming to ride. You’re about 2/3 in the woods and 1/3 riding by small farms and meadows, the farms are all cute, and there’s a general absence of vineyards, for which I am grateful. It racks up over 100 ft of gain per mile, yet there are no extended climbs, so you know it’s constantly rolling up and down—check that sawtooth elevation profile.

Begin in the town of Occidental, where our Coleman Valley Rd. ride and our Bohemian Highway ride start. It’s a famously charming little town, not yet totally touristified (for instance it still has a hardware store), with a couple of old, funky Italian hotel restaurants that are remarkably good and some other eateries with good reputations. Howard’s Station is a nice, simple restaurant with a short, unpretentious, and tasty menu. You immediately feel welcomed by the town because one side of the main street is a big free parking area without time limits. It’s a weekend destination for Santa Rosa-area residents looking for a small outing in good weather, so if you can ride on a weekday so much the better.

Ride out of town on Graton Rd. You are immediately in the midst of the Occidental riding experience: looming, cathedral-like redwoods, narrow lanes, no shoulder, some cars. This is the connector between Graton and Occidental, so it sees some traffic. I intentionally started later in the morning, to miss the morning work rush, and got passed by perhaps 6 cars.

Go R onto Green Hill Rd., largely car-free, then R onto Occidental Rd. Occidental is our only real risk of serious traffic, but if you’re after the morning rush and heading south/west (as you are) it shouldn’t be bad. Go R onto Jonive (“ho NEEV”) and prepare to experience serious cycling joy.

Jonive is one of my favorite roads anywhere. It (and Barnet Valley Rd., which follows) are all up and down, but never tiresomely so—just roller-coaster whoop-de-doos that will have you shouting. It’s all so pretty and perfect I find myself wondering what it’s like to live in that kind of idyllic beauty, but I’m not about to find out since apparently the average house on Jonive goes for around $3-4 mil.

Jonive dead-ends at the Bodega Highway, the busiest road in the area. Go L on it for about 30 ft. and go R onto Barnett Valley Rd., which is exactly like Jonive only slightly less joyful. Ride to the intersection of BVR and Burnside Rd. and turn around. You could continue on, on either BVR or Burnside, but the good road surface ends at the intersection.

When you get back to the meeting of Barnett Valley Rd. and Bodega Highway, you have a choice. You can re-ride Jonive, as I’ve mapped it, and it’s wonderful both ways, but if you have an aversion to out-and-backs you can go L onto Bodega for a busy but brief downhill run to Bohemian Highway and take BH back to Occidental. BH is more open, busier, and blander of contour than our route, but it too is very pretty and it has the advantage of passing the locally-famous Wild Flour Bread bakery, where you can stand in line with the other cyclists to buy one of their scones. I find the scones OK but not spectacular, but it’s part of the local scene, like eating at the Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley.

Assuming you stick to our mapped route, ride Jonive back to Occidental Rd. and take Occidental Rd. back to Occidental. Again, you may run into a bit of traffic, but it should be midday now and you’re going the less-busy direction. Of course it’s beautiful.

Shortening the ride: You could ride just the loop, and it’s all very pretty, but it’s also the most trafficked part of the ride. I’d go the other way: ride Jonive Rd.>Barnett Valley Rd. as an out-and-back.

Adding miles: Occidental is the starting point for our Coleman Valley Rd. ride, whose road surface was atrocious the last time I did it, and our Bohemian Highway loop, which can get trafficky. Bohemian Highway takes you to Monte Rio on the Russian River, which is near our Sweetwater Springs Rd. ride and our Kings Ridge Rd. ride. Heading south, if you can endure one more short stretch of the Bodega Highway you’ll get to Valley Ford Freestone Rd., which takes you to all the riding around Tamales Bay and our Chileno Valley loop.

If you’re set up for rough road surfaces, you can happily explore the warren of little roads to the east of Jonive and Barnett Valley Rds.

Distance: 15-mile out and back
Elevation gain: 2630 ft

(As of 12/1/25, Cavedale Rd. was closed due to construction near the south end. The work is done as of 3/26 and the road is clear.—JR.)

This is another of those pure climbs out of the Wine Country valley floor. Bestrides has four of them: Pine Flat Road, Geysers Road, Ida Clayton Road, and this one. They are all peachy, they all climb through similar, moderately pretty scrub much of the time, and they’re all fairly long, hard climbs without being brutal (7-10%). Obviously I like them all. How to know which one to ride first? Here are some distinguishing features:

Geysers is the only loop among the four (though Cavedale and Ida Clayton can be made into one). Geysers and the loop version of Cavedale are the only two to include sweet flat valley riding. Geysers has a more varied contour than the others. Much of its road surface is rough, but readers tell me it’s been partially improved recently. It’s by far the longest, so it has by far the shallowest (easiest) climbing.

Pine Flat has the steepest pitches and has a nice flat break in the middle of the climb (the eponymous Pine Flat). It can’t be looped.

Cavedale and Ida Clayton have both been repaved recently and have glassy surfaces. 

Cavedale goes up to a summit and down the back side, so you get a super-sweet 2.3-mile roller coaster between the summit and the turn-around that is one of my favorite legs in the Wine Country. Cavedale is the narrowest road of the four, which puts some riders off.

Ida Clayton climbs steadily for 4 mi., then rolls and climbs mildly for another 4 mi. through beautiful woods on a road surface that ranges from OK to terrible.

Which one is the hardest? Here’s a quick look at the stats (very approximate) on the climbing segments only for the four rides:

Geysers: 22 miles, c. 180 ft/mile
Pine Flat Road: 10.6 miles, c. 340 ft/mile
Cavedale: 5.1 miles, c. 530 ft/mile
Ida Clayton: 4 mi, c. 620 ft/mile

As you can see, the shorter the ride the steeper the gradient. And sometimes averages lie—Pine Flat Rd. has some genuinely frightful pitches the others lack.

All four rides share the virtue of isolation: there’s really little reason for a car to be on any of them. Of the four, Cavedale is the busiest—despite its extremely car-unfriendly profile (narrow, winding), I typically meet c. a vehicle/mile on it.

Cavedale Rd. has one great virtue and one great drawback. The virtue is its perfect road surface—along with Ida Clayton, it’s as ideal a riding surface as you’ll find, and a great rarity in Sonoma County. The drawback is its narrowness. It’s a classic “wide one-lane,” meaning no center line, no shoulder, and room for two vehicles to squeeze past each other with caution. I’ve had cars stop so I could pass safely. I’ve had three conversations with local non-riders in which I mentioned that I was going to ride Cavedale, and every one of them volunteered, “Be careful—that’s a dangerous road.” For that reason cyclists often choose to do the road as part of a loop, descending Trinity Rd. instead (see below for details).

Your mileage may vary, but I think it’s a very good descent and one where I feel completely safe. Would it be nicer if the road were a bit wider so you could cut corners? Sure. My main complaint is actually that its 8-11% pitches are a bit too steep for maximum fun—you’ll do a lot of braking. But in that regard Trinity Grade is worse.

Cavedale climbs up from a spot along Hwy 12, over a summit, then up and down to its dead end at the summit of Trinity Rd. In character the climb is almost indistinguishable from Ida Clayton Rd’s.: steady 7-11% gain through Wine Country scrub with big vistas of the valley below as you ascend. Both rides go up to summits followed by mellow riding through pretty woods. Cavedale is slightly longer, slightly steeper, and significantly narrower. Cavedale’s vistas are probably better—from near the summit you can easily see Mt. Tamalpais and San Pablo Bay, 30-50 miles to the south. In the spring much of Cavedale is lined with wonderful color—ceanothus, broom, irises, wallflowers, and more, so it’s more floral than Ida Clayton.

Cavedale starts climbing at a brisk pace immediately, and at the southern end of Cavedale there is no shoulder parking, so for these two reasons I suggest you drive north on Hwy 12 a half mile to wide, open, flat Madrone Rd. and park/warm up there. Ride back to Cavedale, thanking god you don’t have to be on busy and dangerous Hwy 12 any longer than this.

At the base of Cavedale there are two promising signs: “Winding one-lane road, RV’s and trailers not recommended” (always encouraging for cyclists), and a sign telling you that the recent repaving is partly paid for out of profits from Levi’s Grand Fondo, the enormous group ride out of Santa Rosa—thank you, Mr. Leipheimer! (Hey, some of that money is mine!)

Climb for 5.1 miles to an obvious summit. There is little to distract you—there are no forks or crossroads and no visible houses by the road until you near the top. Many people live in the area and use the road (hence the traffic), but they’re all down long driveways and nothing is visible from the road. There is some fire damage in the latter half of the climb, but the terrain is so barren you will hardly notice. Views of the valley below improve as you ascend.

Past the summit the road character changes into something wonderful. You leave the burn area, so the scenery gets lusher and prettier, and the road roller-coasters and serpentines deliciously to the turn-around. There’s only 2.2 miles of this, and you’ll wish there was more.

At the turn-around you have a big decision: descent Cavedale or descend Trinity? Here’s the Trinity loop route (thanks, MacKenzie):

I prefer descending Cavedale. Trinity is shorter (3.1 mi.), hence much steeper—too steep to be real fun for me (steepest in the first mile or so, 10-12%)—and it’s absurdly curvy, with some nasty switchbacks. Trinity is much more heavily trafficked (it’s a major connector between the valleys), but MacKenzie in the comment below argues that you can outrun the car traffic. I didn’t find that to be true, but you may descend more aggressively than I do. Trinity’s primary appeal is, it’s wider—it’s a small two-lane road with centerline and minimal shoulder—and therefore safer, at least theoretically.

One appeal of the Trinity route is that it gives you a flat connecting leg between the base of Trinity and Cavedale that’s charming valley riding. It takes you through the heart of Glen Ellen, one of those quiet Wine Country towns the wine tourists tend to miss (stop at the unmistakable Les Pascals patisserie for a treat), then past the Sonoma Development Center (the gigantic complex that looks like an abandoned military base) with its fascinating history. Our backyard route avoids all of the horrors of Hwy 12 (very busy, narrow, no shoulder) save for the .5 mi. from Madrone to Cavedale.

If you do the Trinity loop route, make sure when you reach the intersection of Trinity and Hwy 12 you turn around to read the sign at the base of Trinity: “This road will not accommodate buses, RV’s, or stretch limos—you will get stuck!”

Shortening the route: Ride to the summit and back (but you’ll miss my favorite miles). For a much easier ride, ride from the northwest end to the summit and back (4.4 miles RT).

Adding miles: Mt. Veeder and Cavedale are sorta parallel, so you can loop them both by riding one, then Trinity Grade to the other, then a rather lengthy connector through the greater Sonoma area. Locals do it, and if you plot a course that sticks to small roads you can spend very little time on the horrible Hwy 12. The leg through Napa proper is surprisingly benign.

If you do the Trinity loop route, when you’re in Glen Ellen you’re a stone’s throw from the route of our Sonoma Mountain Road loop. You’re also about 5 miles from the little miracle that is Lawndale Rd. It’s 3.5 miles of glassy road surface, zero traffic, and sweet climbing and descending on curves you can carve. Schultz Rd., which is a small detour off Lawndale, is even better. Put them on your bucket list.

See the Mt. Veeder Road Adding Miles section for options at the northwest end of Cavedale.

Distance: 25-mile dumbbell
Elevation gain: 3340 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

(A Best of the Best descent)

April 2025 note: sometimes road surface is everything. I’ve always liked this ride, but felt I had to apologize for the lousy tread of the descent down Howell Mountain Rd. to Pope Valley and the less obnoxious tread problems ascending Ink Grade. Happily I can now report that both roads have been gloriously resurfaced, are now glass, and are now both wonderful riding. That elevates the ride from good to great—hence the Best of the Best rating. Even better news: now that Ink Grade is glass, it’s become a top-tier descent—one of the best descents in Bestrides and one of the best I’ve ever done.

As with all the rides in the Wine Country and Marin County, try to do this ride in the spring, when the foliage is lush and green, the scotch broom is blooming, the vineyards are beginning to bud, and the temps are moderate. Of course it’s doable any time of the year, but in other seasons the scenery is merely pleasant, whereas in the spring it’s drop-dead gorgeous.

This ride is a bit of a grab bag.  It strings together three climbs and three descents, each with its own character.  Locals typically ride it as a one-way, from south to north, and continue on, as a part of pleasant longer routes we’ll discuss in Adding Miles.  But I’m not crazy about those longer routes, so I’ve mapped it as an out and back dumbbell.  The route includes Old Howell Mt. Rd., most of which is officially closed, to cars, bikes, and walkers, so if you like being naughty (as I do) this ride is for you. If you don’t crave wooly, off-piste riding, you might want to skip the entire western half of the route. There is also 1.6 miles of a nasty mix of heavy traffic and broken pavement which you must simply survive.

Because Old Howell Mt. Road is officially closed, many maps (including electronic ones) don’t acknowledge its existence.  Also, various maps have various opinions about what it’s called.  Just follow the route map and you’ll be fine.

Park just outside St. Helena at the intersection of Silverado Trail and Old Howell Mt. Road (which is also the intersection of ST and Pope St.). There’s a small dirt turn-out for parking at the end of Pope. At the intersection OHMR is signed simply Howell Mt. Road, but is signed Old Howell Mt. Rd. at its other end.  RidewithGPS calls it “Howell Mountain Road South.”  It climbs from the gun, so consider warming up on Silverado, the region’s primary recreational bicycle road, which is nearly flat and heavily trafficked but with an adequate-to-plentiful shoulder. It’s good, mellow riding in general and in the miles south of Pope is particularly sweet, so you may want to just keep riding ST, and I won’t think less of you for it, but we have bigger fish to fry.

A short leg up OHMR brings you to the intersection of OHMR and Conn Valley Rd.  CVR is serious vineyard country, as evinced by the 20 wineries whose names hang from the unmissable sign at the intersection.  It’s a pleasant road by itself, and it goes all the way to Lake Hennessey, so it’s worth riding some other day. Go L to stay on OHMR, and very soon you see a permanent sign that reads, “Road closed ahead: no vehicles, no bicyclists, no pedestrians.”  Indeed, shortly thereafter you reach a permanent and serious gate across the road and a sign that reads “road very closed.” Getting around the gate is easy, but immediately beyond it you’ll swear the signs are right because you’re looking at a giant mound of dirt and no road in sight. Fear not. The mound is about 40 ft up and 40 ft down the back side (ride it if you have a gravel bike, walk it if you don’t), and after the mound the road reappears and is in remarkably good shape—lots of small cracks, lots of weeds growing through the median, and a few fallen limbs to dodge, but absolutely no risk.

OHMR is a steady moderate climb through typical east Wine Country dry scrub.  Watch for a nice open vista to the southeast, with Lake Hennessey in the distance.  After 4 miles, OHMR dead-ends at a road that is Howell Mountain Rd. to the R and Deer Park Rd. to the L.

Here you have a choice.  As I’ve routed it, you go straight across onto White Cottage Rd. and ride it for 4 miles to its end.  White Cottage is a pleasant but not exciting steady climb through pretty, fairly developed terrain on a polished, wide two-lane road.  The eponymous Cottage is nowhere in sight.

The alternative is to go R and take Howell Mountain Road through Angwin to the juncture of Ink Grade, White Cottage Rd., and HMR.  The upside to HMR over White Cottage is, after Angwin the road contour is more interesting (curvier).  The downside is, at least through Angwin, the traffic is heavier.  Since you’re going to come back this way, I suggest you go up White Cottage and come down HMR.

Just before White Cottage dead-ends at Howell Mt. Rd., it crosses Ink Grade.  Now you have one of the toughest decisions you’ll ever have on a bike. Do you descent Ink Grade (which used to be a no-no due to rough road surface but is now a superb ride), or do you continue on White Cottage to the intersection with Howell Mt. Rd. and do the descent of HMR, which is also a wonderful ride? Here are some things to consider:

Both descents are on glassy, perfect surface.

Both go to roughly the same place—Pope Valley Road..

HMR is much steeper (9-12%, compared to Ink Grade’s 4-8%).

HMR is curvier.

HMR is less varied—all pretty much the same pitch, the same amount of twistiness. Ink Grade is much more varied—no two corners are alike, lots of changes of pitch.

Ink Grade is much narrower—it’s a true wide one-lane, with no centerline. I’m not sure two cars meeting could pass each other. HMR is an obvious main route—two substantial lanes with centerline.

Because IG is narrower, it’s much less trafficked—seeing any cars at all is news-worthy—and it’s prettier (at least in the spring), because you’re more snugly in the woods.

I prefer Ink Grade, but I ‘m not a big fan of brake-burning plummets. I’ve mapped the route down HMR, but that was before the repaving.

At the bottom of HMR, at the tiny community of Pope Valley (which consists of a market in case you need ice cream, a garage with a sign that reads “since 1915,” an old barn advertising “blacksmith and wagonmaker,” and a vast automobile graveyard with some amazing old car bodies), go L on Pope Valley Rd., ride to Ink Grade on your L and go right on past it for 1/10 mi. to gawk at the spectacle that is Hubcap Ranch.  Return to Ink Grade and ascent it. It’s a dream, as good as ascending gets—constantly reinventing itself, 4.1 miles of bliss through beautiful scenery, just hard enough to make you feel like you’re accomplishing something and with lots of changes in the pitch to vary the workload. With the new surface, I loved it so much I went back and did the climb the following day, something I never do. Don’t miss the tongue-in-cheek “Col de la Croix de Ink Grade” distance-and-elevation markers along the route.

At the top of Ink Grade, return to the White Cottage Rd./Howell Mt. Rd. intersection whichever way you didn’t ride up.

Now you are in for 1.7 miles of hell, the descent of Deer Park Rd. DPR is quite nice in places, but here it’s awful—lots of cars whizzing past you at 55 mph while you fight for control at 35 mph over steep, dangerously broken pavement and no shoulder.  None too soon, bail out to the R onto Sanitarium Rd. (you’ll feel like checking in), which is heaven in comparison to what you’ve just done. Sanitarium used to be the best road surface on the route, but no more. Still, it’s pretty good, and it’s a fairly straight, very fast descent (40 mph if you want). It used to be almost car-free, but Siri has decided it’s a better route than Deer Park Rd. and is sending through traffic down it. And it’s built up, so the scenery is without interest. When it returns to Deer Park Rd, it’s a stone’s throw down DPR to Silverado Trail, which you take L back to your car.

At the bottom of Sanitarium, there are a couple of little detours you can take to the R to add 3-4 miles to the route and avoid the little leg of Deer Park Road at the bottom of Sanitarium—first, Crystal Springs Rd., which seems to be a local favorite, and second, Glass Mountain Rd., which is shorter and I think a bit prettier.  Both go north and run into the Silverado Trail, which you take L back to your car.

Shortening the route: Do either loop by itself—I recommend the northern loop. Or ride Ink Grade as an out and back—8 total miles of perfect climbing and descending..

Adding miles: On Pope Valley Rd. you’re in the midst of eastern Wine Country cruising country.  The roads in every direction are popular riding routes.  Continuing W on Pope Valley Rd. from Ink Grade, the riding is easy and lovely until the road turns into Butts Canyon Rd., at which point the road surface deteriorates and the landscape turns into post-forest-fire dreary—rolling hills full of dead tree trunks emerging from a sea of scrub brush. Butts will take you all the way to Middletown (16.5 miles), but I wouldn’t do it.  Turning R on PVR from Ink Grade,, you soon reach Pope Canyon Rd and Chiles-Pope Canyon Rd., both staples of regional touring.  I like the ride from Pope Valley down Chiles-Pope Canyon to Hwy 128 a lot, especially the descent from Chiles to 128. Hwy 128 will return you to the Napa Valley (I wouldn’t go the other way on 128—the traffic can be deadly, though the road contour is good).

Pope Canyon connects with Berryessa Knoxville Rd., which runs for 37 miles all the way to Clear Lake (where it’s called Morgan Valley Rd.), and locals have told me they’re ridden it in previous years, but I drove (not rode) the miles from Berryessa to Knoxville and I’m here to tell you, do not ride this road. The road surface, as of 6/25, is beyond horrible—it’s life-threatening. Do not trust the Streetview images—the road has been torn to pieces since they were taken. Morgan Valley Rd. itself (Knoxville to Lower Lake) is totally rideable as an out and back from Lower Lake, and the contour is nicely varied, but the scenery is poor, thanks to major fire damage, and the sun exposure is intense in hot weather.

You’re 11.5 miles down Silverado Trail from the Old Lawley Toll Rd, a tiny gem of a climb I absolutely love but which stands in the midst of a cycling wasteland (since Hwy 29 is unrideably trafficky) and is only 4 miles long.   You don’t want to drive any distance to do 4 miles, so you should go bag it now while you’re in the neighborhood.

Just on the other side of St. Helena is Spring Mountain Rd./St. Helena Rd., a road which on paper looks like a perfect ride—small, relatively untrafficked, curvy.  It’s all up then all down across the ridge between the St. Helena valley and the Santa Rosa valley, and it’s a pretty good ride with a couple of drawbacks that keep me from recommending it: 1) the climb up from St. Helena is really steep, steeper than I find fun either going up or going down (like, lots of 12%+); and 2) the pavement on the Santa Rosa side is uniformly lousy, the kind of lousy I find really interferes with my pleasure.  If they would repave the west side of the summit, riding just it as an out and back would be a dream.  But this is Sonoma County after all.