California Wine Trip

Nan and I took a trip in Aug. 99 out to the west coast with some friends to experience , first hand, the life of NAPA.

We actually went on the Backroads tour, biking to the wineries daily and then onto the days destination, usually a bed and breakfast. The Biking part of the vacation was 5 days. Most days were 25 to 30 miles (mostly flat). We would stop at two or three wineries before lunch and usually the same in the afternoon.

Day 1 covered Alexander and the Dry Creek Valleys with an overnight stay in Calistoga.

Day 2 saw us mostly on the Silver ado trail. With a quick stop at Beringer

Day 3 was a trip from Napa into Sonoma with a private tasting at our final stop "Ravenswood Winery" courtousy of one of the other riders who was definatly "connected".

We stayed at the Sonoma mission in that night, which was hard to leave.

Day 4 (No Drinking). 40 mile ride to the ocean. The head winds hit us at lunch and remained a steady foe for the afternoon ride. Hardest ride of the week. We arrived in Bodega Bay (Where "the Birds" was filmed) ready for the hot tub.

Day 5 was simply a beautiful ride up the Pacific Coast

to the Russian River and the to the Armstrong Reedwoods for lunch. This was the final meal with our fellow riders of the week.

(Group Shots for everyone).

We continued biking until mid afternoon when we hit Korbel Champagne Vinyards. I can't think of a better way to end 180 miles then enjoying a bottle of Korbel with some close friends.