s12o

left after 11pm, a quick ride out to redwood.

climbing


foresting


slime-ing


descending

oat hill trailing (2 |2)

morning dew


camp


structure


fuzzy


fog lifting


started moving up the trail around 9 or 10, and it was already warming up fast.


It quickly became clear that the "rock gardens" i had been warned about were real, and that this was turning out to be pretty gnarly terrain. i was already 4 miles or so in, so I figured I'd just keep pushing instead of bailing for the road far below.


amazing views around every corner


you can see the trail traversing the slope in this frame


then it went to this entirely...




see the wagon ruts!


atlantis perched in said ruts.


getting hotter still, it became a head down bike push for the last mile or so before the ruins of


helm's hold: situated in the strategically important saddle of the mountain pass. i stopped for lunch.


alligator pose


ruins


lots of friends about


turned out that the palisades trail involved even more bouldering--not fun with a loaded bicycle on your shoulder--so i turned around and decided to complete the traverse by staying on oat hill road which appeared to be ridable. it would mean more road riding after that, but at this point i wanted to just ride instead of carry/push.




looking down onto pope valley road near aetna springs road, my new destination.


lots of pretty rock formations




slick rock riding at times,


spring stream riding at times,


and occasionally hefting my bicycle over boulder fields,


i finally made it onto aetna springs road, which dropped a couple thousand feet on gravel, much fun.


the remainder of the ride was some twenty miles of non-serviced riding climbing out of pope valley via butts canyon road and reaching middletown.


2 days at hot springs were worth it.

wild oat (1 | 2)

Oat hill near the outset (just barely enough light for photos). I could ride this with some effort, but it only got rockier from here. The atlantis and 40mm schwalbe tires gave no issues (as always), which is nice (as always).


expansive views kept me moving while the sun set.


camped high enough to get the last bit of sunset.


easily one of the best night skies within a day's ride

wild oat (.5 | 2)

I jumped on the ferry to vallejo after work:


my heading was oat hill trail, which climbs to a pass adjacent to hwy 29 out of napa valley.


futureshock | vallejo


About 40 miles to oat hill, all fast road riding on the beautiful silverado trail;


then came real trails...

about

fun with skinny tires

hawk hill s24o (2|2)

morning


morning pods


morning rods


morning sods


morning nær


morning where


morning hare


doble hare


sunrise




back to camp after a hike


breakfast, freshly ground coffee to preserve the volatiles


fancy bike


yellow


spider


adam rides


it's spring, hence my flower/plant posting frequency


bridgelands


fields


doble fields


gabriel and may


climbing back up to conzelman


obligatory bridge shot.

nice to be camping again!