WeTommyD

Looking for some route advice from Napa to Kings Ridge Route. My maps just came in the mail yesterday (Krebs Wine Country & Adventure Cycling San Fran to Santa Barbara)

Some detail follow:

Starting @ the River Terrace Inn in Napa the first week of May.
I will be camping once I leave the hotel.
Of course, I'm looking for the most spectacular route! That is why I want to hit Kings Ridge.
Not afraid of hills (love them) especially when they have a great view!
Looking to ride 60 to 90 miles a day.
Back country paved roads are good but also enjoy services (good meal) in the towns.
Need to be in or near San Francisco after three days of bicycling. I want to hit the farmers market on Saturday.

My original plan upon leaving Napa was to take Dry Creek Rd and make my way over to Santa Rosa. Monte Rio & Occidental area seems to be mentioned often.

Upon further reading, I noticed the Silverado Trail, and I could take that to Healdsberg and then make my way over to Kings Ridge & the Coast.

Please offer up some route suggestions. I thank you.

WeTommyD

I'm also looking for a bicyle shop in Napa where I can ship my road bicycle to and have it tuned up. Any reccomendations?

ConstantRider

I think your first thought would provide an overall more scenic ride. Silverado Trail is a nice but pretty flat and straight 30 miles from Napa to Calistoga. Once you switch over to 128, it gets a little hillier, but still pretty flat if I'm remembering correctly when I rode it. (It's been a couple years....) All in all, it'd be a pretty enjoyable route to get to Healdsburg, but not nearly as epic/scenic as you could go....

Instead of Dry Creek, I'd start on Mt. Veeder (accessible from downtown Napa via Redwood Rd.) It parallels Dry Creek, but there's more climbing (and more descents). Eventually, you'd connect with Dry Creek, turning left at that intersection. Dry Creek would eventually turn into Trinity, which is a tough climb (but even tougher if you were going in the other direction). Going down Trinity toward Glen Ellen is a steep and twisty descent. In Glen Ellen, there are some convenience stores where you can get food/water. From there, I'd take Warm Springs Rd. and then Bennett Valley Rd. into Santa Rosa. Essentially, you'd be doing a well-known double, The Terrible Two, in reverse for much of this route.

Once you're in Santa Rosa, you can take a road called Old Redwood to Healdsburg. It's pretty flat, boring, and suburban riding in this portion.

Exiting Healdsburg, you could take Dry Creek to Skaggs Springs, then left onto Tin Barn Rd. I've never ridden Tin Barn Rd. before, but since you said you want to ride Kings Ridge, it looks like Tin Barn connects to it. Then Kings Ridge back to the town of Cazadero. Once you get on Skaggs Springs, there will be few service points on this route; I'd advise using a Camelbak. At the intersection with Tin Barn, there is a place called Camp Gualala. Last time I rode this route (2008), there was a working water faucet there.

If you don't mind riding on gravel and crossing a creek, Old Cazadero is supposed to be a great road. (Never have done it). Otherwise, the best road out of Cazadero is probably Austin Creek. That will take you to River Rd./Highway 116. From there, I'd go west toward Highway One, then take One all the way to at least Point Reyes Station. The most spectacular way would be to continue taking One all the way back to the Golden Gate Bridge, but it can get pretty trafficky between Stinson Beach and Sausalito, especially on weekends. So you might want to do alternate routes.

I'm not sure what the overall mileage of this route would be.....but you won't be disappointed by the scenery or the climbing, that's for sure.

If you want more details, let me know. There are route sheets I could point you to for more specific directions, etc.

B. Carfree

The only things I would add to ConstantRider is to turn south off of hwy116 on Bohemian Hwy to Occidental, then turn west at Occidental on Coleman Valley Rd. for one last climb before reaching Hwy1.

Also, it would seem like a shame to start a ride in Napa and not do the Oakville Grade. Go ahead and go up the Silverado Trail to Oakville crossing and have at the funnest mile in the area. It's only bad when the biting flies are out.

WeTommyD

Thanks for the response guys. That was exactly what I was looking for.

Alamere

Did Old Cazadero on a road bike. Big, big mistake! The first (uphill) half is a paved road and a nice climb if you turn around at the top. The down hill part toward Kings Ridge keeps getting worse and I ended up walking a long way. My wheels still haven't forgiven me.