Touring - SF Bay Area - Good weekend trip?

My girlfriend and I are looking to do a two-day, one-night tour this weekend somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area and are looking for suggestions. Ideally we'd like to stick to head north, stick to the coast, camp overnight, and ride 45-55 miles each day. We can drive to the starting point, but would rather not drive more than two hours or so.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

A few weekends ago I rode from San Francisco up to the Bothe-Napa State Park (they have $2 camping for ride in and a great shower bathroom facility, though don't forget the mozzie repellent). It was a lot of fun but I made the mistake on the ride up of taking HWY 37 (trucks thundering past going 65mph) and then 121 into the Sonoma valley (really busy on the weekend and no shoulder). I then rode through the Napa valley which was real nice. On the way back I came back through Santa Rosa and then Petaluma, and down D Street which was nice but had to ride into a headwind for part of the way. That was a 183 mile round trip, too much for a weekend, but you could just do a nap ride and it would be fantastic.
I'd love to hear what other people suggest as well.
Cheers
Leon

My girlfriend and I are looking to do a two-day, one-night tour this weekend somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area and are looking for suggestions. Ideally we'd like to stick to head north, stick to the coast, camp overnight, and ride 45-55 miles each day. We can drive to the starting point, but would rather not drive more than two hours or so.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.I'm not terribly familiar with the area north of San Francisco. But you can check out the Santa Rosa Cycling Club website (http://www.srcc.com/). Check out their "10 Great Rides". There is also a book "Bay Area Bike Rides" by Ray Hosler (available in local SF area bookstores and bikeshops) that has a few road rides in Napa, Sonoma, and Marin counties.

Good Luck!

Well, we wound up starting in Guerneville and taking 166 west to the coast, then rode highway 1 north to Gualala where we camped. It turned out to be 50 miles each way, which was plenty for us due to the fact that we're getting used to 35+ lbs. of gear and that the route is fairly hilly. Highway 1 wasn't nearly as traffic-scary as I had feared. Nearly every driver was courteous and gave us plenty of room as they passed.

Sounds like it was a nice ride Soylent, I checked it out on the map. Wanted to ask you a few more questions about it, because I am setting out on a tour in two weeks. Am planning to first ride down to the Central Valley to Sequoiya (sic?) National Park, and Kings Canyon, then up through Yosemite (hope by then the pass is open) and tahoe. I was then thing of heading back North and to the coast. Is Hwy 1 just one lane each direction? Does it have much of a shoulder to ride on? And more importantly, was there much wind?? What is the camping like? I heard that there is camping along the hwy spaced approximately a days ride from each campsite? Does it have showers? And are the campsites easy to find or are they off the hwy quite a way?
Hope I haven't asked too many questions, but would love to hear more about it.
Cheers
Leon

Sounds like it was a nice ride Soylent, I checked it out on the map. Wanted to ask you a few more questions about it, because I am setting out on a tour in two weeks. Am planning to first ride down to the Central Valley to Sequoiya (sic?) National Park, and Kings Canyon, then up through Yosemite (hope by then the pass is open) and tahoe. I was then thing of heading back North and to the coast. Is Hwy 1 just one lane each direction? Does it have much of a shoulder to ride on? And more importantly, was there much wind?? What is the camping like? I heard that there is camping along the hwy spaced approximately a days ride from each campsite? Does it have showers? And are the campsites easy to find or are they off the hwy quite a way?
Hope I haven't asked too many questions, but would love to hear more about it.
Cheers
LeonHi Leon, sorry it took me a while to get back to you, but I've been away form the computer for quite a while. Anyway, to answer your questions:

- Yep, it's one lane in each direction. There are turnouts every couple miles so faster traffic can pass slower traffic, but it's always two lanes.

- Shoulders vary quite a bit. Sometimes you have a really wide, smooth shoulder, sometimes you have six inches of pavement to the right of the end of the lane, and then a four inch drop into dirt and gravel. Sometimes it's just two feet of shoulder and then a guardrail to prevent you from falling down a huge cliff to the ocean. :eek: However I have to say that at no point did I ever feel really uncomfortable. There were a few RVs that passed a bit too close for comfort, but like I said for the most part the cars/traffic were very polite and accomdating. Just be sure to wear an annoyingly-bright windbreaker/jersey.

- Wind wasn't too much of a problem, but maybe we were just riding on a calm weekend.

- I don't think the camping is quite a far spaced as you're thinking. I believe we passed at least four/five campgrounds on our ~40 mile section of Highway 1 we rode. THe campsite we chose was beautiful and had running water/bathrooms/showers. I think this is pretty common for California coastal campsites. My girlfriend bought a "California campsites" map that lists all campgrounds in teh state. It's very handy.. I'll see if I can find where she ordered it from.

Hope this was helpful.