We had an excellent day on the bike and a beautiful, challenging and fun ride.  We had a total of 12 riders.   Most of us started at Fort Ross, however the ride was apparently not challenging enough for Dave L. and Karl B., as they started from Cazadero and met the group at Fort Ross.  The main ride was from Fort Ross, up the coast to Timber Cove Road up to Seaview.  The debate is still on as to whether riding up Timber Cove or Meyer’s Grade is more difficult, with the consensus leaning to Timber Cove being a bit “less difficult.”  From there we headed down Seaview and up Hauser Bridge Road, which is still a mess, especially the first part right after the bridge.  Fortunately we all made it up safely and then proceeded down Tin Barn Rd. to Skaggs Springs Rd, down the Rancheria Wall and over to Annapolis Road.  We took Annapolis Road to the coast which was a beautiful part of the ride with very little traffic and overall fairly good quality pavement.  It got a little hot on this section, but once we got down to Hwy 1 the marine layer cooled us down quite a bit.  We stopped for lunch at Stewart Point Store where most of us stayed inside to get out of the cold ocean breeze.  From there it was a nice jaunt down the coast back to Fort Ross,  When we finished we had ~52 miles and  6,000 ft. of climb, that is except for Dave and Karl who went back up Fort Ross road from the coast to Cazadero (with a side trip down to the Black Mountain Retreat Center) for some more bonus miles and climbing, finishing up with ~84 miles and 11,400 ft.!  I can’t wait until I’m as old as Karl so I can be as strong a rider as he is!

Thanks to Dave M. for suggesting this ride on our 1st "wild ass adventure" last week, and to all the goats for a truly enjoyable day!