Long Awaited MT Bike Ride

March 24 2010


Annadel State Park Santa Rosa


I just returned from spending a wonderful weekend with my family back in Cleveland to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. Thankfully the rain had vacated for a few days so Roby and I could enjoy our day off from work. You still have to let it warm up until noon before you can enjoy the day. The mornings still hover around 38 degrees. The forecast was 70 and sunny so we loaded up the mountain bikes and headed about 45 minutes south of Hopland to the "roaring" metropolis of Santa Rosa. Our friend Troy from Hawaii had lived in this area and recommended the Annadel State Park for some excellent mountain biking. We have been eying it for several weeks but we have had too much rain to even attempt it before now.

Once you hit town you venture a bit east and come upon the park. It is nice to have your days off during the week because we had the entire park to ourselves. Being so close to town and such a sweet spot this place is probably packed on the weekends. We unloaded the bikes and were anxious to check out the trail system. Our bikes were aching for some real dirt trails instead of the asphalt we have been riding. We went somewhat blind on the type of trail to ride but figured if any of it was too difficult we would just walk our bikes. Our designated route:

From the parking area we went up the Warren Richardson Trail and then up up up the bumpy Quarry Trail and then bombed down the South Burma Trail and looped back to the Richardson trail to the parking area. About two hours.

The views of the meadows encapsulated by the mountains with the wildflowers, mossy oak forests and green grassy hillsides is breathtaking. The elevation was a good climb. They forget to tell you about all the boulders and tree stumps you have to maneuver as you are trying to climb the hillside slope. Once you reach the crest you are rewarded with incredible views of the lakes and surrounding park.

It turned out to be a false summit for we had quite a distance to travel before the screaming downhill. But once we reached the top Roby was in heaven getting to jump off numerous perfectly placed boulders and logs and floating around downhill banked corners all while trying not to hit his brakes. Thankfully we have some decent suspensions! Thanks again Troy - that was an incredible day on the trail and we will definitely be going back to Annadel