Sweetwater Springs Sunday Scramble

Susan, Paul, Trudy, Wes, Firouzeh, and I celebrated this first day of autumn with a Sunday afternoon metric century. It was perfect fall day beginning with overcast skies and moderate temperatures. We departed Railroad Square via the Prince Memorial Greenway to the Santa Rosa Creek Trail exiting at Fulton Road. We made our way past Piner High School when Trudy caught a “goat head” resulting in the day’s only flat tire (not bad for this time of the year). We traveled on Olivet and Oakwild in the direction of the Sonoma County Airport. Our peloton of five embarked on the first climb up Trenton Healdsburg Road. We cycled in wicked pace line down Eastside (see photo) making our way to Wohler and turning right on Westside Road for another ascent. Due to time constraints, Trudy & Paul headed off on the Warm Springs Dam route while the rest of us continued to Sweetwater Springs Road. This 10 mile climb of 2,000+ feet was made more difficult due to several washed out gravel sections. Despite the road conditions, Wes and Firouzeh were climbing champs, outpacing the group, even through the 18% grade at Sweetwater’s summit. Susan and I stopped to admire the blue sky stunning views at the very top and to catch our collective breaths (see photos). The sun was now fully exposed and the warmth was reminiscent of summer. After some hydration and Gu, we carefully navigated down the winding descents, passing the old Sweetwater rock quarry. We hit the cool shaded microclimate (what a relief) of the redwoods before arriving at Armstrong Woods Road. We cycled through the festive town of Guerneville stopping at Coffee Bazaar for pastries, lattes, and water bottle refills. Following a short socializing respite, we continued our climbing ventures on Mays Canyon, Green Valley, and Harrison Grade. Absolutely exhausting! After arriving at Tanuda, we were rewarded with the exciting two-mile descent of Graton Road. Firouzeh led the furious downhill towards Occidental at speeds of 40+ mph (Susan and I followed at a much more “reserved” velocity). We made our final climb up Green Hill to Occidental and then Cherry Ridge Road into Sebastopol. Our route continued onto Sanford, Hall, and Fulton Roads passing the Golf & Country Club. We headed home via the Santa Rosa Creek Trail towards downtown. It was another picture perfect riding day in Sonoma County. We cycled 62 miles with an elevation gain of 5,925 feet. Wahoo!

Knights Valley Metric Century

It was a cool morning as Leslie and I departed Santa Rosa sporting arm warmers and extra bottled water tucked in the back of our jerseys. We cycled out towards Windsor via Mendocino, Old Redwood Highway, and Faught. The sun hid behind a crisp layer of white mist while the vineyards on Pleasant Hill were ripe with dark purple fruit; simply beautiful. With limited visibility, we turned on Chalk Hill, quickly making our up those climbs to Highway 128. There was virtually no traffic as we took the six mile ride through Knights Valley. The sun began to break through clouds as we arrived at Ida Clayton. We removed our arm warmers, hydrated, and took a quick nature break before beginning our climb. While the first 4 miles of the Ida Clayton climb are the toughest, Leslie and I stayed together the whole time talking, laughing, and enjoying the various microclimates. There was a beautiful freshwater stream trickling down the mountain (see top photo). As we approached the top, my rear tire went flat, but was quickly repaired with my new CO2 pump. Leslie has become such a strong climber, able to maintain a conversation, even during the toughest grades. According to the Garmin GPS, we averaged a killer 9.1 mph up that climb until arriving in Lake County at Western Mine Road (see photo). With the sun warming our backs, we began the exhilarating 8 mile Ida Clayton downhill. As we were picking up speed, we passed Scott Wing quickly (and strongly) climbing uphill; go, Scotty, go! On the final descent, we reached speeds of 34+ mph on the newly paved roadway before reaching the bottom vineyard. After a quick break, Leslie and I headed back on Highway 128. Despite the heavier traffic in this direction, we maintained a fast paceline towards Chalk Hill. With our water bottles nearly empty, we strongly climbed the backside of Chalk Hill. Finally, we took refuge at Shiloh Regional Park for water bottle refills before heading back on Faught towards Old Redwood Highway. We finished the ride via the reverse outbound route, arriving home with a big mutual "high-five". Our riding time on today’s Metric Century was a remarkable 4 hrs, 37 minutes with over 4,911 feet of climbing.

What a beautiful day, what a blast! Wahoo!