I like commuter trains. Well, trains in general I should say, but I like the convenience of well planned trains for getting around urban areas. Recently I discovered Seattle has a great train that runs to and from the airport that I had never used on previous trips. Tried it on the last trip up there and it was great. And a couple of bucks in comparison to the usual $40-50 cab fare into the city. I’ve used BART many a time to do the same kind of trip from the airport into the heart of San Francisco. But, I had never taken Austin’s relatively new commuter rail.

I hadn’t previously planned to go out of my way to ride the train. It’s not close to me and its schedule is such that it’s virtually useless to me on a routine basis. Kinda sad because it’s some fantastic infrastructure. So why bother? The logistics of a Friday car repair had me leaving one of my cars downtown at the office while I got a lift out to pick up the repaired car. So, I could trouble someone to give me a lift back downtown to get the other car or I could think of something else. I wanted to get in a bike ride anyway on Saturday so it occurred to me, why not ride over to the train and check it out. It goes right downtown. Cost for the one way trip: $2.75.

So I rode the 12 or so miles over to the Lakeline station in far northwest Austin. It was the easiest station to get to from my place. Cycling over to the Lakeline station in NW Austin is not hard and yet I would guess most people would have no interest. It’s not near much of anything other than Avery Ranch and the roads you have to take to get there are heavily traveled by cars going pretty fast. But at least there are back roads (not 183 or its frontage) that you can take to get there. But I did have to take hwy 620, which I hate to ride on. Way too much traffic. So it’s doable but really annoying.

The schedule on a Saturday is odd as far as I’m concerned. The earliest train on a Saturday from Lakeline starts at 4:48pm. If it went earlier, I bet they would get riders. The downtown is a growing and vibrant part of the city and moreso every day. People would go there during the day on a Saturday.

I wondered whether I would be the only one riding the train. Clearly not. The train is two cars long and the one I was in had at least 20 people in it by the time we headed south into the city. And we picked up more riders at ever stop. By the time we got downtown, the train was full and both bike racks were filled. You can see my bike hanging within the car in one of the photos here. There are only two racks in each car. The alternative is to stand with the bike while you ride. There’s limited space to do that but it certainly seems like it wouldn’t be hard.

There were 8 stops (including Lakeline where I got on and the downtown stop) along the way. Once we got going I was impressed that the train actually picked up some pretty good speed between some of the stations – particularly the ones further out. Total time to get downtown was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-45 min. Along the way we went through parts of the city I almost never see, and it literally goes through a lot of people’s back yards in north and east Austin.

There’s not likely to be too many reasons I need to go out of my way to ride the Austin Metrorail – me and most of anyone that lives west of Mopac – and yet I think it’s a great start. Now if it just went to the airport, I bet I would use it.

Last photo: ‘end of the line’ next to the convention center in downtown Austin.

Day 6 of the bike tour was the last day and as such it was going to be relatively short. We needed to finish by late morning in time for a farewell lunch at noon and a shuttle at 1pm.

I opted for the 27 mile loop that took in the Oakville Grade. Figured might as well get in a workout that morning. Only a few of us took that option. Some shuttled in the van to the top of Oakville Grade and rode the rest. A couple opted to just take in the spa at the hotel. But the weather was once again great so why not get one more good ride in. As you can see from the elevation profile, the Oakville Grade is something of a wall to climb up. Temps were in the 40’s that morning but as you might imagine climbing that grade worked up a bit of a sweat. Click thru the image for all the Garmin info.

The rest of the route was easy and pleasant – except for the section on the Silverado Trail. Plenty of shoulder on the side of the road to ride in but just lots of traffic. And of course after a week of riding and only a few miles left to go, I managed to get a flat tire. After fixing that, only a few miles left to go.

Below you’ll see a birds eye view of all the routes of the bike tour. We covered a pretty good chunk of the area. I’d really like to go back again some time and do some of these roads again and maybe take in some others we never got to.

The Sonoma coastal area offers the quieter roads I would say. It’s hard to get too far in the Napa area without encountering quite a bit of traffic. But the roads in Napa County are better maintained.

This was an excellent tour for guys like me that wanted lots of options to choose from. You could ride longer or more challenging routes if you wanted or just do a short one and van the rest of the way if that’s what you wanted. The overnight stays were great, the food was great and the tour leads were helpful. I rarely actually rode with any of them though.

I think Backroads does this tour very frequently through the summer. And during the peak, I think they’re over lapping tours. The inns and wineries must love the bookings/visits. None of the places we stopped though seemed like they were tired of what must be a constant stream of cyclists throughout the year. Especially the wineries that were on the agenda. In fact, they seemed to go out of their way to cater to us.

Now to figure out what the next bike tour might be…

Day 5 of the bike tour was the best of both worlds. At the start, coming out of Yountville there was very little chance of avoiding the Silverado Trail to get to, first, the Sage Canyon Road and then subsequently the Chiles Pope Valley Rd. There were choices this morning and once again I opted for what I hoped would be the most scenic and least traveled roads.

You can see the route I took here. As with other mornings this week, it started chilly and overcast. Yount Mill Rd was a beautiful start to things though.

The St Helena Hwy was a different story though. Lots of traffic. Thankfully, a nice wide shoulder. Same could be said of the Silverado Trail. Lots of traffic. The shoulder is identified as a bike lane though so that’s at least helpful but the heavy truck and car traffic whizzes by pretty fast.

The turn off onto Sage Canyon Rd then up to Lake Hennessey is a welcome change of pace. I was chilled to the bone that morning (temps in the 40’s) but things seemed to start to climb a bit after the turn so that helped me warm up.

That 5th day, the only person that wanted to take the option with me was Mark. We had a good time riding this section of road. Very scenic and enjoyable. The reason it wasn’t so popular with our fellow riders was it was going to entail climbing over Ink Grade Rd. That was indeed a long climb, but the grade was better than some others we had done and it was up a quiet country road with little traffic so it was fine. Weather was ideal by that point because not only had it warmed up a bit by that point we were working up a sweat.

After we crested the climb, it was a fantastic curvy descent down into St Helena. Along the way, we stopped and I took the above photo of the valley. Too bad I couldn’t manage to get the camera out in time to take photos of the deer that were up ahead of us at one point and ran up the hill.

St Helena was bustling. Lots of traffic in town but at least it was moving slowly. It was pretty clear from the morning ‘route wrap’ that the tour van and therefore the primary meet-up point would be Gott’s. It’s a roadside burger joint that seems to be really popular. Not that they just have burgers. In this case, I got the California grilled chicken burger – and fries of course. I think this must be one of the original Gott’s. It seems to now be a chain. In fact, I went to the one at the Ferry building in San Franciso and took this photo from there.

I could have easily finished the ride back to Yountville at this point but given it was all along the St Helena Hwy, its only promise was going to be heavy traffic so I bagged it after my lunch and just grabbed the van back to the Villagio in Yountville.

The weather had turned nice in the afternoon after such a chilly start to the day. I grabbed the following photo just outside the Villagio in Yountville after a nice visit to the spa’s hot tub.

By day 4 we’d become pretty accustomed to chilly and foggy mornings. This morning was no exception. The fog was very thick. Again, I was really happy to have brought along so many layering options – and a flashing red tail light. We typically left by 8:30 and that was the plan this morning too so the fog and early morning light left it fairly dark out. Here’s the route for the day.

Breakfast at the Madrona Manor was buffet style and very European in style. Lots of cut meats and cheeses. There was also a varient of Chilaquiles that I’d have to say I wasn’t a big fan of. Regardless, there was plenty of tasty stuff to fuel the day.

Despite the fog, which was going to burn off pretty quickly, the ride up West Dry Creek Rd from Healdsburg area was a really pleasant ride. Highly recommended.

At the point we crossed Hwy 101, things got less interesting to look at until we got past Geyserville. That was a nice section of road as well but more highly trafficked than the early morning. Lots and lots of pleasant vineyards to look at along this section. And in fact a winery along that route, Robert Young Estate Winery, was our lunch stop for the day.

It was a pretty long lunch stop. The weather was fantastic and had warmed up by that point. We never really got into the tasting room. We were greeted with early tastings of wine and also fresh pressed Cabernet. See the picture above. It didn’t taste exactly like grape juice you might buy at the grocery store but it was definitely fresh juice but tasted nothing like the wine it will eventually become.

Backroads put on the usual spread for lunch – wow. While we munched on that there were tastings of multiple Chardonnay’s, Merlot and Cabernet. All really excellent.

With all the food and wine, there was a fair amount of lingering at lunch before getting back on the bike. I opted to take the Franz Valley Road option that day. Much less traffic than Hwy 128 and much more scenic. Also much hillier! If you check out the elevation profile of the route you’ll find a big climb in there. From the top of hill on that route it changed from Sonoma to Napa county and was a pleasant descent into Calistoga. Napa county maintains their roads better than Sonoma and there was a stark difference between the lumpy pot-holed climb and the smooth descent. Locals apparently lament the disparity.

I landed in Calistoga to find the van just about to shuttle some people into Yountville and I’d been told the rest of the day’s route was more highly trafficked highway (with a shoulder) but that didn’t sound all that appealing. I’d already done 50 miles so why not just go enjoy the hot tub at the Villagio in Yountville? That’s exactly what I did.

It became readily apparent after day 2 that bike fit was going to be an issue. I thought I had placed things reasonably well when I took off that first day but it’s really better to actually measure things and I wish I had. With the climbing on the 2nd day and a seat that was positioned too low, the back of my right knee took on more than it usually does. Consequently, it was pretty well torqued by the 3rd morning. The damp, foggy and cold morning only exacerbated things. So despite being an otherwise awe inspiring ride up Hwy 1 to start the morning, it was also a painful one. I took some pain reliever after a bit and it helped some. I also raised the seat – again. And it was something I did a few more times before finally arriving at a point that felt like it was right.

Our start that morning was back up Hwy 1 till we got to the turnoff toward Guerneville. There were only a few of us that chose that option and only two of us rode together along Hwy 1 until we got to Duncan Mills. (The other had left earlier to take in the Cazadero hwy route.) Here’s the whole route for the day.

The fog broke enough along the way to snag this pic of the coast though. And maybe because it was mid week, the traffic along hwy 1 was pretty light that morning. It turned out to be a really nice morning ride.

By the time we rounded the turn and made our way to Guerneville, the weather had improved dramatically. Another sunny day at hand. It certainly hadn’t warmed up much though.

We veered off to detour into Armstrong Redwood State Natural Reserve. It’s a beautiful park of old redwoods. We lunched there before heading on. In the shade of the trees it was downright chilly. Was glad to get back on the bike and into the sun.

On this day I took the Green Valley Road option and like other options, it was a scenic route with very little traffic. Eventually it joined up with the route most everyone else was taking and that was up the Westside Road. I’ve been up that road before tasting wines back in 2010 so it was familiar looking territory. Taking the option put me behind the others so when I arrived at Arista Winery to taste some wine most everyone else was just leaving.

Arista had some great Pinot Noir and was a nice spot to just park for a bit. Nice views there. Warm temps. Later, I rode on with Maureen, the ‘sweeper’ lead for the day.

From that point to our stay at Madrona Manor, it was a relatively short ride.

All in, a 57 mile day. We enjoyed a wine tasting and dinner at the restaurant at the Madrona Manor that night. We never did get into Healdsburg. (I went back on the weekend after the tour to see a bit of Healdsburg though.) This old house was very cool but considering we were so close to Halloween more than a few of us thought the house was just a little creepy looking. And yet, I slept fine that night after all those miles and a belly full of good food and wine.

The second day of the bike tour is when things got more interesting. It offered up some interesting route options and after some discussion with the tour leads about the nature of the routes, I wanted to do Coleman Valley Road to finish. It was the longest option and finished as a 62 miler (100K). It wasn’t the mileage I was interested in, it was that the Coleman Valley Road was supposed to be the more scenic option. Check out the full route map and details here.

Half the fun of these trips is the food and breakfasts are no exception. On this morning we started things at the “Big 3“. I went with a big omlet. Tasty.

Weather kinda sucked to start with. We knew it’d get better later, but it starated chilly and foggy. I was very glad I had brought along plenty of layers. The weather in the area at this time of year appears to start off chilly if not downright cold (40’s) and later warm into a sunny livable 70’s. Full finger gloves, a jacket and leg warmers were in order.

We trekked up Arnold Drive that morning, out of Sonoma and through Glen Ellen. Traffic was not bad though the cars are fairly plentiful on that road. From there we started a significant climb up Sonoma Mountain Road. This was a winding, hilly and potholed road. Pretty countryside though. Long climb and we warmed up quickly. The descent was rough on that road. The potholes made it more technical than it might otherwise have been. We quickly reached the lunch stop though at Matanzas Creek winery on Bennett Valley Rd.

Turns out I’ve been to this winery a few times and was already a member. They treat members nicely so Stephanie behind the counter offered up several wines not otherwise on the Backroads tasting menu. As usual, it was all very good stuff.

After another fantastic picnic lunch at Matanzas Creek and more than enough wine to choose from, we were off to finish the rest of the day. The majority of the ride was still before us. Coleman Valley Road had been billed as being the scenic option so I was up for it but it was also the route with two more tough climbs on it to end the day, and an interesting descent as it turned out.

The climbs up Coleman Valley were indeed tough and by that point it had warmed up considerably. I had almost left my jacket in the van along the way. Glad I didn’t. After climbing, the view at the top was wonderful. Long vistas to the west. By this point in the day it was also becoming apparent that fog was going to be rolling in. In the distance you could see it in the valleys. As I approached the coast, I knew there’d be a descent down to Hwy 1 and into Bodega Bay. Up ahead I could see that that descent would be into thick fog. From sun to thick fog in short order. The temp drop dramatically. Really thankful I had my jacket with me. I put that on and headed down. Brrr. A very steep, curvy descent over several cattle guards. Very cool though, literally and figuratively.

At Hwy 1 it was a left turn and 3 miles or so to the hotel for the evening. The Bodega Bay Lodge. Hwy 1 isn’t my favorite place to cycle. While the traffic isn’t terrible, it’s still a major highway and traffic goes by at considerable speed. Occasionally there’s a shoulder along the way but it’s not consistent and often full of debris like gravel.

Made it in fine though and it was time for snacks and yet another big dinner at the hotel. That night I think we earned it.

It’s been over a year since I’ve done a bike tour of significant length and off in some interesting locale. I routinely search for interesting tours but the timing has to be just right because of my work schedule. So this year it worked out October had some time. After a fair bit of searching, I landed on one offered by Backroads.

In a nutshell, the tour was billed as the Napa/Sonoma wine country tour. 6 days of riding in the beautiful California wine country. Sounded good to me.

I’ve known about Backroads for ages but never booked them because they seemed to me to cater more toward really plush tours – not to mention they are also more expensive than average. I thought it might imply the routes might be boring or easy or both and it’d be entirely filled with first-timers. Turns out at least for the tour I booked, most of that wasn’t true. It was indeed plush – more on that later – but the routes turned out to have some great options and I found a few people I enjoyed riding with.

There were indeed some first-timers on the trip but there were also vets of other tours. For a group this size (23 of us and 3 guides) most people got along very well and the tendency I have seen in other tours of that size to have cliques form that never cross paths after the first day or so didn’t really happen. In a group this size there’s ‘always at least one’ person or couple that doesn’t quite fit the mold and that was true in this case too. Funny how consistent that has been over the years. Otherwise, the demographics were what I expected. People my age or a little younger, professionals.

Logistics for this tour were a little more challenging than others. Partly because there wasn’t airport pickup built into the plan. Instead, we started from a hotel in downtown San Francisco and later returned to the same hotel. But the transfer from the hotel had to be made independently. Why that couldn’t have just been arranged by Backroads I don’t know. Because we ended on a Friday it seems natural that some would just want to hang out in the wine country till Sunday and then fly home but there was no accomodation for that. And renting a car in the wine country after and returning it at SFO later is more costly than most would want to arrange. So in my case I ended up going to the hotel after and then SFO to get a car. It amounted to 6 hours out of my precious vacation in transfer time.

Enough of that and on to the cycling. After shuttling to Etude winery, we immediately got exposure to the Backroads touch. There was a wine tasting at Etude followed by an elaborately prepared gourmet picnic lunch. Nice. Who’s ready to ride!? I really should have taken pictures of the lunches. The picnic lunches were outstanding.

Time to ready the bikes… I brought seat, pedals and helmet and my own bike computer. A bike comes with the price of the tour and by all accounts on the website it seemed like a nice enough one that I didn’t need to bring my own. I missed my own as it turns out but the rental bike was actually a nice bike. It just wasn’t the same perfect fit as my own bike. The bike was a titanium frame with either Shimano 105 or Ultegra or in the case of the rear derailleur some mountain bike component. Gear ratios were plentiful. Triple crank with (I didn’t count) probably at least a 30 tooth cog in the back. Some really low gearing available and I appreciated that later. It was a decent bike and suitable to the task.

The ride that first day was easy peasy. We rode from Etude over flat country to Sonoma and to the Sonoma Mission Inn. Weather was fantastic. Warm, sunny and just right. Click through for the route and details.

The Sonoma Mission Inn is plush, very plush. The highlight was the spa and the Santé restaurant.

As guests, we had at least the “bathing ritual” access to the spa. That alone was nice because it included showers with exfoliating scrub, hot tub, steam room and sauna. With only 20 miles under our belt it hardly seemed like we’d earned it but it was sure nice!

Did I mention the wine? We’d already had a wine tasting at lunch, then along the way we stopped in and had a fantastic tasting of wines at Ravenswood and once we arrived at the Inn there was a complimentary (er, included) bottle in the room and then more to choose from at a meet and greet at 6pm at the fire pit at the Inn. Oh, and of course we could order more with dinner later too of course.

Dinner at Santé was excellent. We dined in 3 groups but in the same room. I went with the heirloom tomato salad, a filet and some ice cream/fig type dessert I couldn’t possibly remember exactly but it was all very good.

First day ended with everyone clearly getting to know one another. Some nice folks on the tour. Doctors, lawyers, business owners… from USA, Canada and Mexico.