75 Classic Rides Washington: The Best Road Biking Routes
Winthrop to Andrews Creek and Back.
75 Classic Rides Washington: The Best Road Biking Routes by Mike McGuaide
San Juan Island Crisscross. Tour de North Whidbey. Super Torture Metric Century. OrtingEatonville Daffodil Metric Century. Gig HarborPort Orchard Loop. Paradise from Stevens Canyon. RochesterRoute 6 Adna Loop. Winthrop to Washington Pass via Mazama. Planning a trip to a northwest national forest, national park, or other federal public land recreation site?
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Thank you for your support! Quick Questions Shipping When will you ship my order? When will my order be delivered? What will the shipping cost? Can I print out my pass? Delivery estimates are based on ship date, not original order date. Need a Recreation Pass? But go make your own discoveries. Just remember to check to make sure the road is paved before heading out. On the AAA map they look the same.
75 Classic Rides Washington: The Best Road Biking Routes
Often the maps are simply wrong—the Benchmark atlas of the area says that Hawyer Rd. The layout of the terrain is dead simple.
Hwy 49 runs north and south a bit uphill eastward into the Sierra foothills. Everything to the west is rolling grassy farmland, all very much the same, pretty and perfect for a lazy bucolic roll before the summer heat sets in.
If you want to ride out there, the best roads are Sutter-Ione Rd and Stony Creek Rd, so try to include them in your route. So every road that runs east runs uphill, every road that runs west runs downhill, and every road east of 49 that runs north and south is a series of ups and downs as it crosses a series of creek canyons and ridges running perpendicular to your route.
There is no flat road in the Gold Country. Remember our general rule: All the highways have double or triple the traffic of the back roads. Hwy 4 is the next worst. You can ride the Gold Country all year round, but when you ride has a big effect on the experience. Spring is manic anywhere near Daffodil Hill.
Reward Yourself
Fall is beautiful but everywhere you ride will be plagued by eye flies, those little black gnats that hover in front of your face. The summer is surprisingly hot. Just put all this info in the hopper and make your choice. The Ebbetts Pass ride and the higher sections of the Carson Pass Plus ride and the Yosemite tour are closed by snow in the winter. Part of the allure of the Gold Country—the reason why the Bay Area non-cyclists are here—is the large number of charming towns. These three are a little precious, a little theme-park-ish, but it works.
Lodging in the area can be quite upscale, but there are mom-and-pop motels to be found, and a number of quaint restored hotels in Volcano, Jackson, and Mokelumne Hill, for starters that are fun and can be inexpensive. In the summer of , the Butte Fire burned a vast tract of prime riding land south and east of Mokelumne Hill. You can find the hardest of them at pjamm cycling , including Onion Valley Road , the hardest ride in California. Southern Gold Country and Sierra rides: The Wine Country the Napa and Sonoma Valleys and surroundings is probably the area of California most populated with tourists on a summer weekend day Yosemite may be worse—not sure.
And the drivers have come to drink. So you have to use your wits to ride there. Follow one simple rule: That means, stay off Hwys , , and Hwy east of the Silverado Trail would be a great ride if they closed it to cars. And so it goes. Since the good roads always climb up from the valley, all 6 rides in this section have serious climbing.
Sonoma County would be in the running for Best Place to Ride a Bike in California were it not for the road surfaces, which are uniformly bad once you get off the heavily trafficked routes. Every Wine Country ride in Bestrides has serious road surface issues. The Wine Country is also one of the most expensive places to rent lodgings in California.
There are some not-so-horrific options: These three rides are all close enough to the Golden Gate Bridge to be folded into the Bay Area section of the list, if geography were everything.
75 Classic Rides: Washington: The Best Road Biking Routes
You had to be there. Pretty much all of the small roads in Marin are pretty good, and much of it is pretty indistinguishable. Here are the three rides that rise above the norm. See the Adding Miles discussions for each to see other possibilities.