Ten years ago I’d go on a 70 or 80 mile ride to Santa Rosa for a beer at Russian River Brewing… but I’m not feeling anywhere near that strong these days.
But I’d been musing for a while about some sort of Russian River area ride on some bike paths I’d wanted to scope out, assisted by the newer Marin/Sonoma SMART train.
One transit-heavy way to do this could be to take BART to El Cerrito del Norte, change to Golden Gate Transit bus #40 from that station to the San Rafael Transit Center, and hop on the SMART train there… but there are some timing logistics to make work:
Eventually I decided to just make a day of it, with another friend who had a weekday free. Despite some trepidations, the transit parts all went smoothly (note that the #40 bus only has room for 3 bikes, so this wouldn’t work for a larger group). And the SMART train was a comfortable, spacious, and smooth ride I’d happily take any day…
Once up in Santa Rosa, we went for a lovely ride along a range of paved off-road trails and separated bike paths, through Sebastapol Graton, and Forestville:
Where paths emerged from the woods and crossed larger roads, the wayfinding was excellent:
We stopped for blackberries and to pet a trail cat:
And for some great fish tacos at Handline:
Before hopping back on the train, we stopped for a beer on the patio at Russian River Brewing (the newer Windsor location):
I’d happily ride this 27-mile, relatively flat route again…
Or maybe a longer 38-mile version that includes a visit to Healdsburg?
Or do this ride with a larger group, which would involve adding the 12-miles-each-way Richmond BART <–> San Rafael bridge ride to it since Golden Gate Transit can’t handle more bikes?
Or explore doing this starting from SF instead– for example ferry SF->Larkspur, bike the short distance to San Rafael, and hop on the SMART to Santa Rosa…