Early feeler for bikepacking trip weekend of July 24

[Justin!]

Hi Friends!

I haven't been commuting with SF2G for a while so miss seeing everyone!

I think I will have a good weekend over July 24th for a bikepacking ride and wanted to see if we might be able to assemble a few interested folks from here. I am open to different areas (local or driving to the beginning) and routes, perhaps cribbing from one of the Hopper routes?

I have only been bikepacking once and it was awesome but all my equipment is new and untested so I would expect that I will have some delays with packing/unpacking, adjusting bags, etc. This would be a great ride for anyone who loves riding but is new to bikepacking.

To keep things simpler and lighten the load, my ideal would be staying somewhere relatively close to food so that we could pick up (or eat out) dinner relatively close to the campsite (and maybe bring a couple of post-ride beers back to the site). I'm also thinking a route where water would be available at least 2x per day so we wouldn't need to carry a ton or filter. I did something like this on my prior trip (awesome loop in Mendocino) and it worked well.

Anyone potentially interested in joining? If not, please live vicariously and suggest some routes!

For reference, I did roughly this route last time but with 2 nights out, each time near enough to a town to buy food or eat out (and lunch/beer at North Coast Brewing in Ft. Bragg was a big winner): https://grasshopperadventureseries.com/rides/mendo-hopper/

Day 1 was 30 miles and 2500 feet (left the Bay Area at noon)
Day 2 was 50 miles and 5000 feet
Day 3 was 50 miles and 6000 feet (back to the Bay Area in time for dinner)

This seemed like a good amount of distance and climbing to make it a good adventure but not unreasonably hard.

[John Murphy]

One note - check ahead on Campgrounds. The post pandemic world the entire Bay area is going out to play and every travel option is getting scarce

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[Justin!]

Good point, Murph. One other ideal is staying in places that don't require advance reservations or that can still be reserved at this point. Last time we did a hipcamp for night 1 that was solid (https://www.hipcamp.com/california/sherwood-lake-forest/sherwood-forest-camp) and one of the coastal state parks for the second night. I believe the state parks (with hike/bike campsites) don't turn away bike campers, so I think that's usually a good option.

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=26837

[Patrick Kitto]

I’m interested!

I am planning to take my son on His first bike camping adventure, likely around that date range. no worries on slow load out or lots of pack adjustments or gentle paced days- I have the lil dude on a Mac-ride.

I am planning super short (sub24 overnighted) for a first outing - hoping for Hawk Camp in the headlands.

After thatIm hoping to do 2-3 nights with first come first served hike/bike sites in Marin. Pan Toll/Boot Jack, point Reyes, Samuel P Taylor. No one gets turned away from a hike/bike site. 

Pan toll has water, and you drag food up from mill valley. Pt Reyes you get water from bear valley vis center and carry food from pt reyes station, and samual p Taylor has water, and a tiny market in lagunitas.  

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[Darrin Ward]

due west in olema just over the hill from samuel p taylor has a pretty
decent beer selection on tap and a pretty decent burger.
https://olemahouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DW-Dinner-Menu-05.28.21-1.pdf

re: ft bragg if you ever make it back to fort bragg, i was actually
pretty impressed with overtime (https://www.overtimebrewing.com/) -
both food and beer.
while i do like north coast, i admit i was a little surprised their
entire tap list and bottle list were just things i can find in a local
store and food was just ok.

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[Justin!]

Just bumping this for this coming weekend. Very rough initial plan is:

SATURDAY

ride to Mill Valley (starting from Oakland but others could ride from the city or wherever)

pick up lunch and a beer at Mill Valley market

climb Old RR Grade to Tam

eat lunch, drink a beer

go down the paved road from East Peak to Rock Springs

[some mix of fire roads and roads - any route recommendations]

get to Samuel P Taylor

set up camp

ride to Olema for drinks and dinner at Due West (thanks Lurch for the recommendation)

back to Samuel Taylor to sleep

Go to Lagunitas for breakfast

SUNDAY

ride home, perhaps via Bolinas Ridge

[route ideas welcome - need to end in San Rafael to take the RSR bridge home]

get back by early afternoon Sunday

I've also heard good things about Gestalt House in Fairfax but not sure how to make that work with the route.

Anyone interested or have other route ideas? I have no reservations, but I think Samuel P Taylor should have room (no reservations required for hiker-biker camping in CA State Parks).

Thanks!