OT: Sonoma Airport to Navarro route?

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Nathan Dushman

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Jul 1, 2019, 1:22:30 PM7/1/19
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I'm going to a 2-night work event in Navarro, CA later this summer, and I have plans to bicycle there and back starting from the SMART station at the Sonoma Airport. It looks like I have a number of options from the airport to Cloverdale, and from there the route is unavoidably CA-128 which has been previously discussed here (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/sf2g/boonville%7Csort:date/sf2g/US2Tt0Zwt30/1LuM4H9s1ggJ. Any further recommendations on what route to take? Google Maps is proposing Old Redwood Highway, but I'd probably follow Murph's suggestion from the previously-mentioned thread to take Dry Creek to Dutcher Creek. Is it worth adding 10 miles and some climbing to take Westside Rd/W Dry Creek Rd instead? If I'm feeling really energetic on the way home (when there's less time constraints), is Rockpile Rd/Elkhorn Rd around the other side of Lake Sonoma worth the substantial distance and climbing? Thanks for your thoughts!

Nathan

John Murphy

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Jul 1, 2019, 1:39:58 PM7/1/19
to 'Jason Thorpe' via SF2G
West Dry Creek is prettier. lumpier, and quieter, Dry Creek has big wide shoulders, they run parallel in the same valley, no nominal difference really. They both start in Healdsburg, from Madrona Manor it's either a straight shot on WDC or Kinley to DC. Going out to Westside (presumably via Mark West/Eastside/Wohler) adds some miles and it's pretty lumpy too. Just depends on how much of a hurry you're in. Most direct route is Airport to Skylane to Shiloh to Windsor to Old Red through HBG to Kinley to DC, so if you skipped Kinley you could take WDC. From the Airport you could go left on Laughlin Slusser Mark West and take Eastside and bypass Windsor.

128 won't bother you, it definitely depends on time of day, but you'll be fine. I've done it since I first wrote that, the first time I did it I was very stressed because my wife was with me.

Rockpile Road is not a through road. I don't really know what that Elkhorn Road is, it might look like it connects to Rockpile,  but you can't go through there.  When I climb Rockpile from the Lake, you end up at a gate. Don't go through the gate. There are people up there with guns who aren't afraid to use them, I presume they are protecting their pot grows. If you *could* go through, that Elkhorn Road would have to be a serious challenge, and I would suspect it would be dirt. Rockpile Road from the Lake is like 7 miles and it's STEEP. It's in the same category as Geysers or Skaggs.

If you were feeling energetic on the way home, the way to go would be 253 to Ukiah, which is an open road, awesome pavement, stunning views, and a ridiculously awesome descent. Then you can take River Road down from Ukiah which is really good, then when you get to Hopland just slug it out down US-101, which is for comparison, a lot more pleasant than say, Skyline South of SF - better shoulder, less traffic (which isn't endangering you, just creating noise). 

On Mon, Jul 1, 2019, at 10:22 AM, Nathan Dushman wrote:
I'm going to a 2-night work event in Navarro, CA later this summer, and I have plans to bicycle there and back starting from the SMART station at the Sonoma Airport. It looks like I have a number of options from the airport to Cloverdale, and from there the route is unavoidably CA-128 which has been previously discussed here (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/sf2g/boonville%7Csort:date/sf2g/US2Tt0Zwt30/1LuM4H9s1ggJ. Any further recommendations on what route to take? Google Maps is proposing Old Redwood Highway, but I'd probably follow Murph's suggestion from the previously-mentioned thread to take Dry Creek to Dutcher Creek. Is it worth adding 10 miles and some climbing to take Westside Rd/W Dry Creek Rd instead? If I'm feeling really energetic on the way home (when there's less time constraints), is Rockpile Rd/Elkhorn Rd around the other side of Lake Sonoma worth the substantial distance and climbing? Thanks for your thoughts!

Nathan


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John French

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Jul 1, 2019, 5:40:53 PM7/1/19
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I rode 101 south from Hopland to the Geysers Rd exit in April and while the shoulder is plenty wide, it was covered in gravel and debris - worse than I've ever seen skyline except maybe the day after a rainstorm. Slashed my tire bad enough that sealant didn't work. That was months ago though, so hopefully it's gotten better.

128 is OK, low traffic but no shoulder, I did get a random lecture from a driver when I stopped for coffee in Cloverdale about how cyclists on 128 were "forcing" her to pass dangerously, ugh.

On Monday, July 1, 2019 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-7, murphstahoe wrote:
West Dry Creek is prettier. lumpier, and quieter, Dry Creek has big wide shoulders, they run parallel in the same valley, no nominal difference really. They both start in Healdsburg, from Madrona Manor it's either a straight shot on WDC or Kinley to DC. Going out to Westside (presumably via Mark West/Eastside/Wohler) adds some miles and it's pretty lumpy too. Just depends on how much of a hurry you're in. Most direct route is Airport to Skylane to Shiloh to Windsor to Old Red through HBG to Kinley to DC, so if you skipped Kinley you could take WDC. From the Airport you could go left on Laughlin Slusser Mark West and take Eastside and bypass Windsor.

128 won't bother you, it definitely depends on time of day, but you'll be fine. I've done it since I first wrote that, the first time I did it I was very stressed because my wife was with me.

Rockpile Road is not a through road. I don't really know what that Elkhorn Road is, it might look like it connects to Rockpile,  but you can't go through there.  When I climb Rockpile from the Lake, you end up at a gate. Don't go through the gate. There are people up there with guns who aren't afraid to use them, I presume they are protecting their pot grows. If you *could* go through, that Elkhorn Road would have to be a serious challenge, and I would suspect it would be dirt. Rockpile Road from the Lake is like 7 miles and it's STEEP. It's in the same category as Geysers or Skaggs.

If you were feeling energetic on the way home, the way to go would be 253 to Ukiah, which is an open road, awesome pavement, stunning views, and a ridiculously awesome descent. Then you can take River Road down from Ukiah which is really good, then when you get to Hopland just slug it out down US-101, which is for comparison, a lot more pleasant than say, Skyline South of SF - better shoulder, less traffic (which isn't endangering you, just creating noise). 

On Mon, Jul 1, 2019, at 10:22 AM, Nathan Dushman wrote:
I'm going to a 2-night work event in Navarro, CA later this summer, and I have plans to bicycle there and back starting from the SMART station at the Sonoma Airport. It looks like I have a number of options from the airport to Cloverdale, and from there the route is unavoidably CA-128 which has been previously discussed here (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/sf2g/boonville%7Csort:date/sf2g/US2Tt0Zwt30/1LuM4H9s1ggJ. Any further recommendations on what route to take? Google Maps is proposing Old Redwood Highway, but I'd probably follow Murph's suggestion from the previously-mentioned thread to take Dry Creek to Dutcher Creek. Is it worth adding 10 miles and some climbing to take Westside Rd/W Dry Creek Rd instead? If I'm feeling really energetic on the way home (when there's less time constraints), is Rockpile Rd/Elkhorn Rd around the other side of Lake Sonoma worth the substantial distance and climbing? Thanks for your thoughts!

Nathan


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John Murphy

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Jul 1, 2019, 7:02:50 PM7/1/19
to 'Jason Thorpe' via SF2G
It's all relative to roads like Joy and Jonive out by Occidental :)
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Bryan Davis

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Jul 2, 2019, 1:48:45 PM7/2/19
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Interesting, we just did this route recently and I would *not* recommend it.


We had to climb over about 6 gates and there was literally no road in many places.  It was more of a mountain bike route for 20 miles, probably hiked the bike about an hour up very steep rocky paths.  There is obviously no water and also no cell service.

I didn't see any people or pot grows, although that doesn't mean much.

Nathan Dushman

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Jul 2, 2019, 2:22:57 PM7/2/19
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Thanks to both of you; definitely won't try the Rockpile route. A bit of internet searching turned up others who have done it and made similar comments, https://veloblog.maxp.net/2016/03/2016-fleche-norcal-higher-gear.html
"The next 60 or so miles—Fish Rock Road, Elkhorn Road, Rockpile Road—were largely unpaved and took us nine hours. We hopped fences, negotiated hiking trails, and several times had to resort to pushing our bikes on terrain too steep to cycle. We traversed much of the most difficult terrain after dark, with only our headlamps and David's GPS maps to guide us along the the faintest of trails. There were no services, so each of us made do with two water bottles for the entire nine hours."

I do like the limited bits of Google street view for the beginning of Rockpile, and especially Elkhorn, though. Plus the random "photo sphere" from Rockpile Ranch.

John Murphy

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Jul 2, 2019, 2:40:47 PM7/2/19
to 'Jason Thorpe' via SF2G
To be clear, from the dam, the climb up Rockpile is an excellent, well paved, steep climb that we do as an out and back with some frequency.

I'd hate to descend it in the dark though, at least with 50 year old eyes.
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