Tag: Wine

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: ...

I declared (to myself) a 2014 bikeit motto “The Year of Dirt”. Not extreme mountain biking or log-jumping, but riding to the sort of places only accessible by a fire road or dirt trail. For example, a break in a day of wine tasting to explore dirt paths to an abandoned winery being reclaimed by vines… That was just one part of a great day– a casual, scenic ride through Livermore, for the fourth year in a row (a small group of 5 this time, not the rolling party of 31 from last time). ...

A casual day of bike riding, picnicking, and wine tasting around the Livermore area. The initial interest in this many-times-rescheduled ride and the good weather made me think 15 people might show up… but it was a group of 31, word of mouth through three degrees of separation. Thanks for being great, everyone. Riding a few miles through Sycamore Grove Park– interesting trees on either side, bridges to ride over, and almost no cross-streets or signs of other people: ...

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(San Francisco rides are on hiatus for June, but here are photos and a map from a ride from two years ago, which I’d never got around to writing up) After a week in France for work (lucky me, I know), I impulsively bought some detailed road/topo maps at the Espace IGN in Paris, a map-lover’s dream. Then I took a train to Épernay (a famous champagne town and region) and rented a bike for €15/day at the Bulleo swimming pool / sports center at the edge of town (map), which had strict rules about appropriate swimwear: ...

Took a risk, transported a case of wine with the custom pannier and backpack pannier.

In Bothe-Napa, after a day of riding and some wine tasting

I’m planning on going self-supported bike camping for the first time the weekend of 9/11. I’ve had about 5 people say they might be interested, so probably at least a few of us will end up doing it. The rough plan is to take the ferry from SF to Vallejo Saturday morning, go on a 40ish mile ride through Napa Valley (Napa / Yountville / St Helena / Calistoga) at a steady but non-racing, no-one-left-behind pace (we’ll be carrying all our gear), stop periodically for wine tasting, and then camp in Bothe-Napa State Park. ...

Photos from the east bay vineyard ride. The weather was pretty much perfect, and we saw jackrabbits, a wild turkey, other strange birds, and several groups of spandex-clad bicyclists. ...

Meet at 11AM at Dublin/Pleasanton BART (a ways out there: about a 50-minute BART ride from 16th & Mission, for example). Hitting up Ruby Hill Winery in Livermore first for a picnic (they sell bread and cheese) and tasting, about an 8 mile ride: http://www.rubyhillwinery.net/tastingroom.html Next stops TBD.