King's Ridge Ride

[PrincessZippy]

http://tandemhearts.com/coppermine/albums/kings-ridge/kr-0001.jpg

King’s Ridge has been on my list of rides to do for awhile. It’s about a two hour drive north of us and there are no stores for about 40 miles of the route. Those two things made it logistically a little difficult. But everything I had read about the route made it sound wonderful: some tough climbing, some white knuckle descents and gorgeous scenery. When my friend Sarah e-mailed me that her Team in Training group was doing an informal ride up there and a friend would be providing SAG, I knew it was time to tackle King’s Ridge. This would also be my first long ride after having my bike fit done. Because I could not shake my nagging knee problems, I went to professional to see if my bike setup was part of the problem. It was. With some adjustments of less than an inch in various directions, my bike felt great and my knee was happier on the test ride. I knew King’s Ridge Road would be a great test ride with lots of climbing to test the knee and descending to test my nerves. Thumbs up to both.

http://tandemhearts.com/coppermine/albums/kings-ridge/kr-0003.jpg
Back on Highway one - North of Jenner

http://tandemhearts.com/coppermine/albums/kings-ridge/kr-0006.jpg
Meyer's Grade Rd. descends to Highway 1. It has some sections of 18% grade, but some of the stuff on King's Ridge was steeper.

There are more pictures on our website.

V.

[oaklandcyclist]

One of my all-time favorite riding roads in the whole Greater Bay Area, fo sho!! I like doing it as a loop from Bodega, hitting that store in Cazadero to tank up on food and drink before the ridge. Because of the stores situation, I've preferred doing that ride early in the year (January-March), but haven't been there yet his year. :(

Kind of a bummer that the store in Stewart's Point has been gone all these years, although recent discussions I've encountered in a moto forum suggest it's either been re-opened or will be very soon. :) Without it, the next food and drink stop was a long way down Hwy 1 in Jenner, or required a 22-mile out and back, north to Gualala.

Looked like good times, V.

[ROJA]

Hey PZippy- is that the same as the last ride listed here: http://srcc.memberlodge.com/Default.aspx?pageId=68595?

I've always wanted to do that one, but it kind of psyches me out. How tough is it???

[PrincessZippy]

Yep -it's the one they list as King's Ridge -Meyers Grade.

I wasn't riding it hard, so I thought it was a very pleasant day. :) The climbs do seem to go on for forever, but I was enjoying the scenery. The descent off Hauser was the worst. It's very steep in several sections and you don't quite have two lanes.

We're already plotting how we could do again without SAG because there really is no place to get more water. I think I could do it on 4 bottles.

Go do it, it's gorgeous!

Veronica

[ROJA]

Thanks! I have a Camelbak that holds 100 ounces of fluid, so that should probably get me through the ride. That is equivalent to about 4.5 or 5 regular water bottles. Did anyone in your group have a Garmin GPS? If so, I would love to see the route on Motionbased (or the .CRS file). Otherwise I can just plot it out on a map!

[oaklandcyclist]

Instead of going down Hauser, consider staying on the ridge, Tin Barn Rd, then drop down to the coast via Skaggs. The left turn at the end of Tin Barn is basically the summit of the gawd-awful Rancheria grade on the Terrible Two. Skaggs then spits you out onto Hwy 1 @ Stewarts Point.

Like I said earlier, the store @ Stewarts Pt is due to re-open any day now, if it isn't already open by now.

[oaklandcyclist]

^^^

Clicky: Visual aid (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Cazadero,+CA&daddr=38.600237,-123.185577+to:stewarts+point,+ca&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=13&via=1&jsv=107&sll=38.574474,-123.173904&sspn=0.06925,0.112953&ie=UTF8&ll=38.615261,-123.326683&spn=0.13842,0.225906&z=12)

[silentben]

I just called the Stewarts Point store at the number on this (http://www.stewartspoint.net/store/) page and a generic answering machine picked up. Seems like they have still not opened up yet but I would love for someone to prove me wrong. Anyone know for sure if they're open or closed? I am planning an 80-100 mile ride out there in the upcoming weeks and would love to have a place to buy refreshments. I'll be basing the ride out of Ocean Ridge airport (see this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=409119))

I will try asking in a couple of the motorcycle forums as well.