Mountain biking 7/25: North Sonoma Mountain Ridge

I joined John and two of his regular mountain biking pals Chris and Pete try some trails at a park none of us had visited before. Chris drove us all up to Glen Ellen where we took Sonoma Mountain Road. It is a narrow, somewhat winding road with a mix of fancy homes and farms/ranches here and there.  I've ridden my road bike up that road, but it has been a while and I had no memory of seeing the park we were headed for.

Eventually we found the sign to turn and headed down that even smaller road, part of which was gravel.  At the end was a nice trail head.  We took North Sonoma Mountain Ridge trail, having no idea what to expect except that we were going to ride to the end of the trail, about 8 miles and then turn around and come back.

The trail started by going down, which, while fun, I really dislike, because that means that at the very end I'll have to climb to get to the car.  After the intital bit going down, we started climbing.  The first part of the trail had a fair amount of hairpin turns and hikers.  It was fairly warm, but not unmanageable, in part due to plenty of shade.  I could feel all the 90 miles from earlier in the week in my legs.  I could tell I wouldn't have much power.

View from a look out point early in the ride

Resting in the shade.

After continuing on the first trail for about 2 miles we crossed the park boundary into Jack London State Historic Park. We continued on the trail, primarily climbing.  There was very little flat or down hill. We moved on to Hayfields Trail and then on to Mountain Trail, also all primarily going up.  I'm not sure which it was of these, but I stopped and had some blackberries from bushes that were growing wild.  They were good, but not much to each one.

At the boundary for the two parks. Jack London State Park lies ahead and North Sonoma Mountain behind.

 The last trail we took, Sonoma Ridge Trail, was fairly short and came to a dead end. The surrounding land was privately owned.  The terrain was mostly rolling on this trail. 

Our return had lots of down hill, which was good for me because I was getting quite tired, but it also went up, too.  We came to a steep fire road with a fair amount of loose rock and soil.  When we went down it earlier in the day, I knew it would be very hard for me to go up it.  I was right.  I didn't have enough power in my tired legs to do it and had to walk most of  the way, pushing my bike. When I got closer to the others 
(who were waiting on a bench at the top), John came down and helped me by pushing my bike up for me.  It might not seem that like would make much of a difference, but it did.   

Because we were able to go down hill for most of the return, I did okay, but did have to do a little more walking at another uphill with loose dirt and rock.  Obstacles and moving soil need a lot more power to climb than smooth, packed soil. 

I expected to see a lot of hikers again as we neared the parking lot and trailhead, but there were only a few.  We felt a nice cool breeze on the trails on the return, but out it the open areas and at the parking lot it was blowing strongly.

The climb at the end that I was dreading (even more so given how tired my legs were) turned out to be a non-issue.  The slope up was so slight as to not be a problem at all.  Thankfully.

Bikes in the truck, ready to go home.

Stats:
16.01 miles
2,876 feet of elevation gain
Map of the park:
http://www.access4bikes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/SonomaMtnRT-AAT.pdf