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California Wine Country Bicycling
September 2006

Introduction

This was a really nice and long overdue vacation. We went on an organized tour put together by a company called Vermont Bicycle Tours. (Note that this is not the same company we've traveled with before, which was Bike Vermont.) VBT does tours all over the world (and surprisingly few of them in Vermont, as it turns out). The groups are small (20 people, max, plus two guides), the hotels were great, the food was fabulous, and everything ran like clockwork. Interestingly enough, we turned down other tours in the same area from companies like Back Roads and Trek because they seemed a little bit too pricey. But we bumped into those guys on the road all the time, and wound up staying in many of the same hotels. If you want to see the specifics of the tour that we were on, you can check out VBT's Wine Country tour for 2007. But enough advertising.

Day 0 Saturday -- Arrival in San Francisco

You lose a whole day traveling. We got into San Francisco around dinner time, picked up the rental car and checked into the Marriott Courtyard on Fisherman's Wharf. We didn't have time to do much more than have dinner, walk around a little bit, and crash. We couldn't get into Alioto's (one of the big touristy places to go) without a reservation and a long wait, so we went next door to the Fisherman's Grotto #9 and stumbled on a really good place. I'd go back there.

Day 1 Sunday -- Walking around in San Francisco

The tour didn't start until late Sunday afternoon, so we had all morning to walk around and explore. Lot's of cool things to see in the area.

Like cable cars. You've gotta take pictures of these. It's the law. This one's at the bottom of Hyde Street. At the ends of the line the car goes onto a big turntable where the operator actually rotates it by hand. Must have some pretty decent bearings. And I don't think they have Rice-a-Roni ads on them anymore. I guess when they built the BART, the cable car got demoted from a mass transit vehicle to a tourist gimmick. Oh well. They're still cool, IMHO.
And the Golden Gate Bridge. Definitely a neat looking piece of engineering. It's really cool the way the fog slides down the highlands on the north side of the span (right side of the picture). It was like this until around 10am in the morning, and then it was all gone. (In fact, when we first got up around 7am we were completely fogged in and it looked like it would be a crappy day -- glad that didn't happen.)
These shots (and the one above) were taken from the same general area, a small man-made bay near the base of Hyde Street and just west of Fisherman's Wharf. There's some sort of a collection of historical vessels, but it wasn't open when we were there (early on a Sunday morning). And while we were standing there, a flock of pelicans went right overhead, moving towards the bridge
Looking out into the bay you can see Alcatraz. While we were there, some sort of a large navy ship pulled out of port, with complete fireboat escort. Really looked neat.
Next, it was time to do some walking around. Just inland (south) of the previous vantage point is Ghirardelli Square. Mostly, its just a small shopping arcade, but its famous for the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. It also provides a little bit of high ground, with a nice view back towards the bridge and the bay.
Heading further inland on Hyde Street, its all uphill. Quite a good walk. The cable cars can make it (they were, after all designed for it), but if you take a good look at the tourists hanging on on the outside of the car, not all of them are smiling.
That's because they're heading downhill and the view is impressive. Notice how the cars all have their wheels turned into the curb. Better to chew up a few tires than to have to fish the whole care out of the bay.
Near the top of the hill Hyde Street intersects Lombard Street. One of the most twisted (literally) roads in the world. You can tell this place hardly ever gets snow and ice.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. Here's an oddity we saw on the walk up Hyde Street. These things are called GoCars. Believe it or not, there's a 35 mph gasoline engine in one of these little buggys. You follow a pre-recorded tour with guidance from a GPS. There were also places that would rent you a Segway scooter, but I never actually saw anybody riding one.
Coit Tower is one of San Francisco's other famous landmarks, sitting on top of Telegraph Hill. It's shaped like a fire hose nozzle, as a memorial to the fire fighters who lost their lives in the fire of 1906 following the big earthquake. You can take an elevator ride up to the top, but they've glassed it all so you can't get decent photos. But there are a couple of decent views from the base of the monument.
One of the neatest things about the tower is a flock of wild parrots that have taken up residence there. They're pretty comfortable having people around, and there's no trouble at all getting within about 10 or 20 feet of them. There's a documentary about a homeless guy who takes care of them called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill but I haven't seen it yet.
Just one other strange photo. This is a sign in a window we passed by while walking down from Telegraph Hill. Must be one heck of a cat to require bars like this.

Day 1 Sunday (Continued) -- Yountville, CA

After having lunch in San Francsico, we drove north about 60 miles to Yountville, CA. Yountville is in the Napa Valley, just north of Napa. The climate is very different compared with San Francisco. Not quite a desert, but very dry and sandy looking soil.

Our hotel for tonight and tomorrow night is the Yountville Inn. It's an extremely comfortable place: large rooms, gas fireplaces, and very nicely landscaped grounds. The first afternoon is devoted to settling in, getting acquainted with the other people on the tour, and taking the bikes for a quite ride (3 miles) around the neighborhood to get the feel of the equipment. Dinner was at the Napa Valley Grille, which was a quick 15 minute walk away. (That's about the size of downtown Yountville.) Good, but nothing special -- certainly not compared to some of the other places on the tour. I'm told that THE place to go in town is a very, very snooty restaurant called The French Laundry, which we walked right past. Nice looking building, with and they grow all of their own vegetables in a small plot right across the street. But I'm told that you have to make a reservation 6 months in advance, and that the fixed price menu for dinner is well over $200 per person (without wine). And you have to put on a tie for dinner, so we definitely didn't go there.

Our tour guides were Susanna and Jonathan. Both very cool, EXTREMELY hardworking people. Jonathan used to be in IT, but now does bike tours in the summer and ski patrol in the winter. Susanna biked solo and unsupported from Calgary to Tierra del Fuego (22,000 km), and does bike tours in the summer and wind turbine engineering in the winter.

Day 2 Monday -- Yountville, CA

Finally, we get to do some riding! The scenery is immediately beautiful. We arrived at peak season, what the vineyards call "the crush" (as in crushing the grapes, I suppose). The whites had already been harvested for the most part, but the reds were still on the vine. And the vines stretched from one horizon to the other. You can probably see from the second photo that everything is irrigated. There's a small drip valve right next to each grape stalk, and not a drop goes to waste anywhere else.
This is typical of the sort of thing you see just riding around. Beautiful Spanish style architecture (in this case), surrounded by vineyards.
During the morning ride, we stopped at the Oakville Grocery, which is really more of a gourmet deli than a grocery store. We ordered lunch, which our tour leaders put into picnic coolers in their van, so that it would be waiting for us when we stopped for lunch later in the day.
Our first stop of the day was at Mumm Napa Valley -- they make sparkling wines. Truth be told, I wasn't into drinking champagne at 10 in the morning. But the tour was interesting. And they've got a superb collection of original Ansel Adams photos in their winery. The grounds were nicely landscaped, although we certainly saw MUCH more elaborate gardens later in the week.
After riding some more, we came to the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA). It's located in the former Greystone winery, which used to be part of the Christian Brothers family of wines. Gayle and I had visited the CIA main campus in Hyde Park, NY and had dinner there a few times. Definitely worth the trip if you're ever in the vicinity. As you can see from these pictures, the building and grounds are spectacular. We stayed for a cooking demonstration (Asparagus and something. A dozen different ingredients and a lot of work. But it probably tastes better when somebody else is cooking.) Our tour leaders met us for lunch, which we enjoyed at picnic tables next to the CIA. The side of of the building was completely overgrown with morning glories. I don't think I've ever seen so many in bloom at once. Check out the star-shaped metal bolts in the side of the building. They're actually caps for steel rods that run all the way through the structure as a very early technique to stabilize the structure (solid stone) against earthquakes. So far, its working.
From there, we rode back to the hotel. We were on our own for dinner (the only time during the tour) and found a restaurant up the road called Brix. Actually, it's a restaurant in a vineyard with a wine shop. We dined outdoors, almost in the vineyard, and watched humming birds, bats and other critters as the sun went down. Excellent food, superb service, and a fantastic end to the day.
Almost forgot, the topographic map for Monday's riding.

Day 3 Tuesday -- Yountville, CA and Sonoma, CA

Another perfect day. Sunny and 60^oF in the morning, warming up to around 80^oF by mid afternoon, with only moderate winds. Our first stop of the day was the Hess Collection winery. This place was at the top of a long hill that just kept going up and up and up and.... you get the point. (Check out the Tuesday topo map). Nicer grounds and better wines (IMHO) compared to Monday. Lots of nice wood construction. They too had an art collection, but it was all modern -- not my taste.
Riding out from Hess, we really got so see some more of the countryside. Despite the fact that it's probably pretty close to being a desert (if it was left to its own), the vines were beautiful, with lots of ripe fruit.
We had lunch at the Mahoney Vineyards. They were kind enough to let us use their picnic tables, which were right next to the big grape crusher. Susanna and Jonathan put on quite a spread, including home made guacamole. It was delicious!
And after lunch, it was time to explore the winery and have another tasting. (It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it). The tasting room overlooked the vineyards and had a beautiful stained glass window with a design that reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright. (I may be way, way off on that, but it's my story and I'm sticking with it). Little did I know that I'd be seeing more of FLW's stained glass at the very end of the trip.
It was a nice easy ride from Mohoney to Sonoma. Just before getting into town, I saw a sign for Ravenswood, which is one of my all-time favorite wines. They make these wonderful full-bodied reds. The company motto is "No Wimpy Wines" and they mean it. So I split off from the group and went a few miles off the plan to take a taste. I wound up ordering half a case and had it shipped home. It arrived promptly and intact via UPS, although I did have to sign a release form stating that I was over 21 and was not currently intoxicated before they would hand it over. The picture at right is a sign from their garden in front of the winery -- I don't know if its true, but I guess it keeps people off the lawn.
In Sonoma, we stayed at the Sonoma Inn, which is a Best Western. Perfectly OK, but entirely unremarkable compared to the other two hotels on the tour. For dinner, we went to a local restaurant called The Girl and the Fig, which was excellent. If you ever go there, be sure to try the salad with fresh figs in it. They're not anything like the dried stuff.

Day 4 Wednesday -- Sonoma, CA and Healdsburg, CA

Today started with a nice ride out to an Olive Press. It's actually called The Olive Press (duh). It's a cooperative that many of the local farmers use. You can either bring in your own stuff and have it privately squished, or, literally anybody can bring in a couple of pounds of olives, have them communally squished, and then get back a proportional amount of the oil. We actually had an olive oil tasted, which sounded kind of strange. But there were many different varieties, and some mixed with herbs, citrus juice, and other flavorings that were quite good. Raw olives, like the ones shown on the tree in the picture, don't taste very good at all. Trust me on this one.
Next, a nice ride over the mountains to the Chateau St. Jean winery. The landscaping on this estate was the best we'd seen so far.
We had a private tasting, with Dan as our host. Dan had a lot of good insights into the wine making business in California and some good funny stories. It was a lot of fun, and there were a number of empty bottles at the end of the hour. They actually had some of the first good white wines that we tried all week.
Today was the shortest ride of the tour, but it had is share of hills, as you can see from the Wednesday topographic map.
We piled into two stretch vans for a drive up to Healdsburg, since our next two night's stay was at the Madrona Manor. All I can say is WOW.
The pictures above are of the main house and the grounds. Gayle and I actually stayed in the carriage house. This is what it looks like "before" and "after" cyclists. That's our main van (or SAG Wagon) complete with luggage trailer. And the group photo at the top of the web page was also taken right in front of the carriage house.
Dinner was at the hotel. And although the menu was limited (they really aren't prepared to cook for 20 people all at once), the food was excellent.

Day 5 Thursday -- Healdsburg, CA

Right away, you can see that Sonoma Valley is quite different than Napa Valley. Because its one mountain range closer to the coast, there's much more moisture. Which supports real trees like evergreens, redwoods, etc. The morning started off very foggy (almost, but not quite as bad as San Francisco on Sunday), but we learned that this was normal, and that it would turn sunny just before lunchtime. These images were taken looking down into the Russian River Valley from the top of a small hill.
Our first stop of the day was Korbel, where they make some truly excellent champagne. AND once they've met their champagne quota, they produce some very fine still wines (only available at the winery) with whatever is left over. Like Chateau St. Jean, they spend what must be a small fortune landscaping the grounds. The winery has some very interesting history, as well -- it was founded by three brothers, at least one of which escaped from prison in Czechoslovakia or something like that. It seems that they didn't know a damn thing about wine making, lumbering, and a whole bunch of other stuff, all of which they proceeded to make a small fortune in, anyway.
After Korbel, it was across the Russian River and up into the Redwoods on some nice back roads. Near the top of a hill, there was a small vineyard with grapes that looked seconds away from being picked at peak ripeness.
Lunch was another fantastic picnic put together by Susanna and Jonathan at the Armstrong Redwoods State Preserve. There's no good way to get a sense of the scale of these trees in a photo. They dwarf our 12-passenger van and luggage trailer in this photo (sorry, it's blurry), but the picture still doesn't do it justice. They're arrow straight and go up forever.
We retraced most of our route to complete the longest ride of the week. Click here for a look a Thursday's topographic map.

Day 6 Friday -- Healdsburg, CA and Jimtown, CA

Hard to believe it, but Friday is the last day of the bike tour. Our first stop is the Ferrari-Carano Winery. I don't know about the wines, but the grounds were the most opulent of any we'd seen so far. The statue of the wild boar is the vineyard mascot -- he was supposedly running around wild when they opened the place -- made a mess of the vines until they caught him.
After that, it was a quick ride to Jimtown, where we had lunch at a small general store. Neat looking placed that appeared to be frozen in time from the 40s. Throw the camera into sepia mode, and you'll have no trouble believing that the photo is an antique. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. Click here for a look at Friday's topographic map.
Next, it was a long drive (3 hours to cover only 60 miles) to get back to the San Francisco airport. They really don't know how to design highways out there, with all sort of bizarre schemes for controlling the flow of traffic. None of them seem to work. But we made out flight on time. Just a short hop to San Diego to spend a few day's with Gayle's brother and his family before heading home.