Originally Posted by
stevepusser
The winds howl inland through the Golden Gate, then tend to diverge to the north and south once in the Valley. I'd head up through the wine country to Clear Lake (hike and bike sites at the state park), then north either through the ranges or the valley to Redding, and then along the I-5 corridor up to the Oregon border. There's another nice hike and bike about 55 miles N of Redding at Castle Crags SP, but that's the last HB site in CA you'll see. Expect it to be very hot inland along this route in summer, especially near Redding. I've gone north from Redding a couple times in August, and the wind was not a factor at all, just beating the heat and avoiding flats on the I5 shoulder through the Sacramento River canyon.
Can't help you much past the Oregon border inland, though I have read journals that headed that way on cgoab, and they did not mention the wind, either.
I wouldn't recommend going from Calistoga to Clear Lake. I did it a couple of years ago and there are no good cycling routes. It's very mountainous (like pushing my bike a good chunk of the time) and no shoulder two lane roads, often with fast traffic and lots of blind curves. I'm kind of surprised I didn't get creamed pushing my bike up mountain after mountain at the edge of the road with no shoulder considering the amount of cars that came around blind curves behind me. Next time I visit my friends in Clear Lake and cycle there I'll go through the valley even though that means more than 60 miles with zero services. I was considering that route (I was coming from Sacramento), but at my pace it meant more than a day without being able to get water unless I stopped at a farm and asked (on top of being a lot less pretty than going through the Napa Valley).