SUN, Sep. 14th - Group Ride inland to Middletown/Pope Valley/Napa

[Desmostro]

I've got a map of a few vineyards in St. Helena - We'll hit a couple on the way home. (taste and spit - traditional ! )

If my alarm goes off early enough and I can drag myself out of bed I will see you guys at Strawberry Village by eight am.   Might even get there early and try to wake up the rest of the way.   

I did a 406 mile day a few weeks ago with some Barfers so this one being close to 500 doesn't scary me.......too much.  I'm a glutton for punishment. 

500 miles?  Where are you coming from?
I figure round trip from SF is about 140 miles. (give take a few.)

See you guys in the morning!    [moto]

[Reddymon]

500 miles?  Where are you coming from?
I figure round trip from SF is about 140 miles. (give take a few.)

I'm in the Santa Cruz mountains half way between Los Gatos and SantaCruz.  An hour and a half drive just to S.F.   But you are right.  I put together the complete loop (not just guessing) and it is only 382 miles. 

[Labbedds]

you guys starting off in S.F.? or going to first stop @ 815?  Sorry, I'm kinda out of it.

[countzero]

Desmostro and I have been talking with Hypurone and his buddy, Rich, about organizing a ride through Napa.  Both Hypurone and Rich are from the Sonoma/Napa area so thanks in advance for guiding us through some of these beautiful roads!   

Date: SUNDAY, September 14th
Meeting Place 1:   Starbuck's at Strawberry Village at 8:00 am. Kickstands up at 8:15 am
Meeting Place 2:   8:45 am - Union 76 station at the 4 corners instersection (116, 121, 12, Bonness). We will have a 20 min run to meet Rich in Rincon Valley (at a Chevron so we can gas up there) and start the fun stuff!
Route Info:   see below route suggestion from Hypurone

Who's In:
Desmostro
CharliesAngel
GreyDuc
Jammen
Alex D.
Mert (Desmostro's neighbor)
Countzero

Who's In @ Meeting Place 2:
Hypurone
Rich

Weather is going to be foggy by the coast, so we're doing the inland route finishing at 1 pm, with plenty of time for lunch and a wine tasting/spitting in the afternoon for those who want to join 

Here is the inland route I was talking about with the short hop over thru Angwin would get you guys back in plenty of time for wine tasting:

Please reply to this thread if you think you can make it on the 14th.  I'll start posting up who is in.  Thanks!  Very much looking forward to it!

Ciao-
- Desmostro
- Charlie
- Hypurone

[Desmostro]

you guys starting off in S.F.? or going to first stop @ 815?  Sorry, I'm kinda out of it.

we're meeting at starbucks in Strawberry in Mill valley. west side of freeway.
leaving from the city - but just saw this. we're taking off now. See you guys there!

[guf]

hope its ok but i'm up, and i  i have  dog walked, i wanna jump in last minute.

[CharliesAngel]

Went to bed at a decent time, all excited about this morning's ride, got up at 6:30 am so that I could be in Mill Valley by 8 am.  Got onto my bike.  It didn't start...I have to get a new battery.  I am so bummed!   

You guys have fun!!! [moto]

[Desmostro]

O  M G  what an epic day.

Sorry we missed everyone we missed. It was a bit of a confusing start. Having arrived to the start point without our main contacts we ended up inventing a ride adhoc.
It was amazing and just kept getting better. We ripped, we swooped  [moto] , we zoomed all the way to Healdsburg the long way. It was a mixture of very tight technical through deep forest on glassy smooth new roads, and bumpy high speed sweepers through endless ranches.

In Healdsburg, we ate like pigs including a pile of  truffle oil cooked french fries with shaved parmigiana. Ya, we kind of thought wtf - fries? But they were the best fries ever.
Then we went wine tasting in the cool dank stores of a nearby vineyard - saving our cooked butts from the heat of our ride.

Great little vineyard - mom/pop style. They treated us well, showed us around and let us check out their process.

Perfect day. 7 hours of riding. That ride is going on the definitely 'do again' list. 

[DucSteve]

was up in that area today as well.  did 121/128, whatever else you take up to calistoga, then headed to skaggs, few laps up there, then to some town 10 miles away for some BBQ.  Then back down 128.  fun stuff, im tired as hell

[hypurone]

Yeah, bummed about the missed hookups. We ran with Jay, Jason & John(Reddymon) and had a killer ride. John said there was a fourth with them that bailed?? Oh well, ya missed out. John gets the iron-butt award for his marathon from San Jose-ish!! Weather was awesome once over into the Napa Valley, we had an awesome cup-of-joe at our fav stop in Calistoga, then blasted over the hill into Middletown and out 175 to Bottle Rock and around to Lower Lake. Quick break for gas & a pitt stop and the best road of all loomed ahead.... Goldmine Rd!! Let's just say it wasn't even close to being legal.  Even worse on the way back when i was leading  . We humped it back into Middletown and had some grub at Perry's. Jay split off there. We ate and blasted down the canyon and over thru Angwin. Here is the only pic of the day as my camera's batteries took a dump, of course!  Well hey, it's better than my bikes' battery taking a dump! Sorry for that Stephanie...

[CharliesAngel]

I was moping for way too long yesterday because I missed this awesome ride (that we spent 2+ weeks planning)!  And then I ended up going to Cycle Gear way too many times yesterday (first because they sold me the wrong battery and then because I had them charge it for me).  But the SS is up and running again!    Met up with Jason for a drink after your ride and got the details - really sorry that I missed meeting Hypurone and Rich and seeing Reddymon again!  Heard you guys had a FAST ride   

[Jammen]

Sorry for the last minute Bail on my part!

Got the heads in for the 620 Saturday night so Sunday became a wrench day by default.   

Getting closer to being back on the road.   

[Desmostro]

Yeah, bummed about the missed hookups. We ran with Jay, Jason & John(Reddymon) and had a killer ride. John said there was a fourth with them that bailed?? Oh well, ya missed out. John gets the iron-butt award for his marathon from...

That sounds really cool. We got to try to hook up again. We had a blast too, but I can' t imagine what we missed. We were too busy riding to photograph much. Here's us - we got to crush some grapes with our feet. Not really,    but we got to feel the hot grapes fermenting. Then we had a flight of 15 wines. That was great.

They flew the Jolly Roger proudly.
They said AAAAArrrrrrggh a lot, and there were peace signs on the grape crushers. They were self described as pirate-hippie winemakers.




 

[DarkStaR]

That food looks good!   

[Desmostro]

That food looks good!   

That food WAS good. Healdsburg Bar and Grill - down the street from Bear Rebublic Brewery. (We got to go there next.  )
There wasn't a lot of talking after the food came. 

I dig that little town. LOTS to do around there. Forests, vineyards, breweries, and endless twisties. A little slice 'O heaven.