# Petaluma and Sonoma Rides



## X513 (Mar 20, 2006)

Can anyone recommend 25 to 50 mile road rides leaving from Petaluma or Sonoma for an intermmediate + rider?


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## Rushfan (Apr 20, 2003)

This is one of the two Petaluma clubs-I'd start with them.

http://www.petalumawheelmen.org/

West of Petaluma there's some good roads but a local can probably answer better than me.


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## bc165 (Aug 5, 2003)

There are some excellent roads west of Petaluma that you can make a loop out of:
Spring Hill - small climbs
Chileno Valley - rollers and nice road surface
Wilson Hill, Marshall-Petaluma Rd - bigger climbs that get you some great views
Petaluma-Pt Reyes Rd - haven't ridden his one myself, hilly and maybe has a bit more traffic than the others listed 
Also, riding Hwy 1 can help to make a great loop with these other roads... rollers, good pavement and a fair amount of traffic
Make a loop by heading to Tomales or Pt. Reyes Station - good bakeries if you enjoy pastries

Out of Sonoma
Cavedale is a challenging climb that has crappy pavement, some good bay views and very low traffic... if you climb Cavedale, do the descent down Trinity road, return to sonoma via Arnold Drive... Hwy 12 can get pretty dangerous in places
or:
take roads like Hyde, Burndale, Ramal and Old Sonoma to get over to Browns Valley... then do the Mt Veeder climb returning on Dry Creek and retrace the route back to Sonoma... Hwys 12, 121 and 116 are all high traffic, very dangerous in places and best avoided

Great time of year to do these roads... the hills are green and lush


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## parity (Feb 28, 2006)

Here's another link with some routes which I have used:

http://go.northbay.pressdemocrat.com/clip/outdoors.cfm?activity=Cycling


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