San Jose CA
Mission Solano, Point Reyes and Muir Woods
Today is a big ride, relatively speaking. There is one mission and two park sites that are north of the Bay. Time is getting short now and I will be departing San Jose in the next few days. With today’s weather being excellent for the Bay area, and @KarolHarley available for a long ride, we’re gonna get them scratched off the list.
We departed San Jose around 10 or so and rode north on I-880 to I-680, riding past sites I had previously visited in Fremont, Danville and Martinez. From Martinez we crossed over the bridge into Benecia and connected onto I-80E to CA-12 ‘straight’ into Sonoma via a few lefts and rights.
Downtown Sonoma is small, quaint, and loaded with shops & eateries for the wine tourists. Mission San Francisco de Solano is named after a Saint who was a missionary to the Peruvian Indians and was the last of the missions in Alta California. It is also one of two missions that are designated state parks, so you must pay the park fee to enter. We decided not pay and stay as we wanted to get over to Petaluma for lunch. Here is an historical photo from years past to compare to the present day renovated Mission.
Reaching Petaluma was a continuation of the North Country’s brown hills with orchards and vineyards scattered about, after all, this is Sonoma where many a delicious wine is fermented. Once in Petaluma we found Lucchesi’s Italian Deli & Sandwich where Karol wanted to get the famous “Amer the Gamer” sandwich named after local celebrity Amy Gutierrez who is a field reporter for Comcast SportsNet. The sandwich, designed by Amy, is a roast beef, smoky cheddar cheese, creamy pesto, lettuce, pickles, onion, horse radish sandwich on fresh baked baguette. I ‘turkeyed’ out and settled for a cranberry turkey sub. Karol liked her “Amer” and I found my turkey sub not only delicious but also of a generous size. BTW, proceeds from the “Amer” sandwich sales go to a fundraiser for Petaluma Education. Oh, lest I forget, Amy G. covers the Giants during baseball season.
From Petaluma we then headed to Point Reyes National Seashore via Petaluma Rd. We hung a lefg (south) on CA-1 and only had about 2 miles to ride to Bear Valley Rd. But BV Rd is a quiet little road before a couple of buildings and I rode right past it before realizing that was where I had to make the right turn. So I pulled into what looked like a B&B or something and did a 'U-ey'. Lotsa traffic out here....seems to be a spot where the urbanites like to escape to. I really wanted to tour the seashore but we had a long ride back to San Jose and I was hoping to reach Muir Woods before they closed. So we settled on just taking a photo of me in front of the sign and then we were back on CA-1.
Wow! What a surprise this turned out to be. CA-1 between Pt. Reyes and Muir Woods starts out as a gentle country road ride through some hills and a lot of wooded areas, open fields with some climbs and descents and around of a lagoon of sorts entering Stinson Beach. After Stinson Beach CA-1 runs along the coastline and becomes a roller coaster of a ride with dips and climbs and twisties all the way into Muir Beach. On a couple of the turns we got gorgeous views of the Pacific and also of the San Francisco skyline.
In Muir Beach we turned left off of CA-1 on Muir Woods Rd and rode a few miles up into the hills where the Muir Woods Visitor’s Center is located. This is where Sophia went down for the 6th time! And I cannot claim a heavy load as an excuse because I wasn’t carrying all the gear, just a back pack and Snoopy (who was totally ticked off with me).
Once we turned onto the Muir Woods road, it was about a 3-4 mile ride and I was looking for the Visitor’s Center to pull into it. Well, it snuck up on me and I passed it. No problem, I figured there would be a spot where I could easily turn around and we could head back to the Center. Nope, the road doesn’t work that way. Immediately after the Center the road begins ascending and the first switchback is encountered. Again, I was expecting a turnout at a near point. Nope, more climbing and at the 3rd switchback I mis-judged the ascent and didn’t react in time to downshift and stalled Sophia out, in a climbing turn, next to sloping side, giving me no footage, and down we went, right up against the side of the hill.
Fortunately Karol was well back and she stopped traffic. A young man and his wife driving down the hill stopped and he helped get Sophia on her wheels. I restarted her and was able to turn around on the narrow road since traffic was stopped waiting for me to get out of their way. So embarrassing L.
We made it down to the Center where we parked and walked a short way to the Center which had extended hours to 6pm (we were there at 4:55 expecting a 5pm closure). No problem getting the passport stamped and a photo taken in front of the Center.
Then it was inspection time on the bike to see how bad the scrapes and bruises were. They weren’t that bad. The after-market fairing got a little scratched added to scratches from the previous 5 drops L. There was some mud in the spokes and fender, and the peg on the engine guard had to be rotated back into place. Seems I’m getting more proficient at these gentle drops/laydowns! If I could just get proficient in preventing them! While inspecting the bike, the young man and his wife who had helped right Sophia stopped by and chatted a bit. We exchanged cards and now I can’t locate his card……and I was looking at it just 3 weeks ago! Well, when it surfaces again I’ll update this blog J.
It was getting late now and we still had a lot of coastal CA-1 to ride. So we got on our bikes and headed down the hill to CA-1 then turned south on it towards Sausalito, US-101 and the Golden Gate Bridge into SF.
Did I mention ascending twisty turnies and switchbacks? Well on this leg from Muir Beach into the town where CA-1 joins US-101 is where the real West Coast Tail of the Dragon resides!! This was a lot of fun riding this rollercoaster road. Later, looking at the map, I came up with a future ride next time I’m up here. From the Golden Gate north on 101/CA-1, exit CA-1 to Tamaipai Valley and ride it to Muir Beach then up into Muir Woods, continue past the Visitor’s Center for even more exciting twisty turnies. And back into Tamaipai and CA-1; at US-101 head north to San Rafael and enjoy a nice lunch in this quaint bay town. Next time riding Muir Woods I plan on keeping Sophia upright on her wheels!
Once over the Golden Gate, @KarolHarley took the lead into San Francisco and took us over to the Great Highway for a ride along the San Francisco City Pacific Coast. The views of the ocean were fantastic. The funny part was, as we were riding thru the city and I was catching the fumes of automobiles, the scents of restaurant cooking, the smell of urban humanity, I commented to her at a traffic light “What is it about this City that people would want to live like this!” And then we came upon the views and the fresh ocean air….totally different part of the City, and yes, I could easily live there myself!
Miles later we connected onto I-280 and headed south through Palo Alto into San Jose. It would have been an awesome sightseeing ride but it was totally dark now and nothing could be seen. We tanked up and Karol headed on her way to Hollister and I rode almost 4 blocks with her to my turn off to head to Bro in law. That’s when I could smell fuel vapors all around me. WTH?? I looked down at fuel tank to tighten the cap and discovered there was NO CAP!! Arrggghhhh! The final self-inflicted insult to my day! I turned around and headed back to the gas station and, sure ‘nuff, there was the gas cap laying in the asphalt entry to the station. Nobody ran over it, and it only had a tiny nick on it’s edge….whew!!
This was indeed a long day. We rode 225 miles, visited two National Parks and one Mission, rode some awesome rides and saw some great vistas, and had a good lunch at the famous Lucchesi’s Deli in Petaluma.
Ahhhh, retired life is good J.
C ya mañana,
Gonzo
Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA
Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
Cell: 949-433-0761
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