Yuko has finally figured out how to convince me to take vacation. Drive to places where we can bike. With that in mind we loaded up the car and
off we went.
We
headed up north from home up north to a city named San Raphael, California.
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Our Drive
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Alec
from XC09 worked in SF and he provided us with a great biked ride from that
area which took us through some beautiful areas north of SF, over the Golden
Gate Bridge and into the city.
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| Winding roads |
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| Nortth of Tiburon |
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At the north entrance of the bridge
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It was very windy on the Golden Gate Bridge and as I am also afraid of heights I did not feel comfortable biking the bridge.
Alec
was not in town to ride, but Karen from XC09 was kind enough to drive into the
city and meet with and it was good to see her.
After that we took a ferry from San Francisco back to
Larkspur and from there biked back to our hotel in San Rafael. A total of 53 miles biked.
The next day we were off to Ashland, Oregon. This was an a day of driving. We had a bit of good luck as the traffic on the freeway stopped completely and Yuko was able to spot another route which took us away from the parking lot on the freeway.
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| Our Drive |
The next day we drove to Crater's Lake.
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| View of the bike ride around the rim |
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| Crater Rim |
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| flowers |
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| Discovery |
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| A view of the mountain |
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| Resting with a view |
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| Our navigator |
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| Aqua Water |
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Pumice Castle
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Yuko climbing
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Still climbing
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almost there
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| Oh no, we still need to climb |
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| finally, downhill from here (although this is not what we climbed) |
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| The route |
It was around 3,800
feet of climbing and about 4 hours. As I bike alot I found it challenging but not that hard, but Yuko did really well as she did no training and regardless of the time it takes is an
extraordinary effort.
We had a long drive ahead of us from Medford, Oregon to Healdsburg, CA. We first drove fon the 101 South to explore the Redwoods.
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| Medford to Redwood |
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| Sun through the Tree |
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Ira and Tree
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We then headed up our friend's home in Healdsburg, CA.
We arrived at our friend, Glenn and his partner Mark’s house
early that evening. The last time I had
seen them was in an Indio restaurant outside Palm Springs during the XC09 bike
trip.
We rested the first day and went into the town of
Healdsburg.
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| Town Square |
The next day it was time to bike around the area. I decided
to take a circle route into Healdsburg which involved making a series of
rights. I ended up at Lake Sonoma. It is about a 2 mile climb up to the top of
Stewart Drive (I think that is the name)
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| Park Entrance |
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| 2 mile climb to the top |
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| View from the top |
As there was a heat wave during our entire trip (the temperature would
eventually be greater than 100 degrees today) I ended my ride. All told it was about 35 mile ride.
The weather was much cooler the next day and I stretched out
my ride. I started out in the same
direction as the day before.
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| Wine country |
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View of the Vineyards
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| Watering the Vineyards |
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| This way |
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| or maybe this way ? |
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| Westside Drive |
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| Forestville |
After reaching the bridge above I turned around and
proceeded down the same route (West Dry Creek Road). I passed by the following winery and yes it
is the same person in one of my favorite TV shows growing up.
A winery (I like the dog) signpost and an interesting sign I
found biking
A nice 62 mile bike ride.
We went out to dinner the last
night (the chocolate mousse was very good)
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