It was a beautiful day in the Napa Valley and my favorite loop was screaming for a ride, so I whipped out the ole camera and appeased it for the day.
Here's my route, leaving Napa up a local road called Dry Creek, down the infamous Oakville Grade, through the vineyards of Far Niente, around the back side of the haunted hills of Yountville, through the sleepy little town and back to home. Normally about 35-45 minutes depending on traffic in towns.
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Leaving my house I had open roads and blue skies... who can complain about that.
The vineyards are just starting to bud, and we've gotten our average amount of rain so they should be good on water as well.
As the elevation increases, the road gets more forested and creekside, cools down a bit which is great on a hot day, and has plenty of twist and turns for anyone to enjoy.
You do drive by some of the people in this valley with more money then brains, though it tends to lead to some awesome driveway markers... seriously, I want a T-Rex in my driveway...
and a mini rex, and a brontosaur, and a crazy dude on my gate
You do have some of the coolest bridges, and when there is water in the creek it's great, but the overgrowth didn't make good pictures unfortunately :wallbash:
There is this house that has always given me the creeps. I actually dropped it playing the Moto Photo Game on another forum. I rename it based on the current scary movie but that stopped at the House of Ten Thousand Corpses, it was perfect...
It also signifies the end of Dry Creek and that I'm fast approaching Oakville Grade, with some great twist, a jump, and it's been freshly paved.... :razzled:
It also happens to go right by Madonna's house
And eventually takes you to one of the best views of the Napa Valley
It's a great hill to go down and as a kid, I can remember plenty a day that someone came in with half their body covered in rash thanks to a long board race, or a PBG race, ahhh, memories.... :laughter:
At the bottom is Far Niente Winery, with both personal history and historical interest for the Napa Valley, as well as for any guy ((the deceased owner was a Ferrari racer for years and they have his garage still on display)).
But why go in the front door when I can go around the back....
A favorite dirt loop takes me right past the front lawn, around the "Welcome to the Napa Valley sign, and to another small loop I like to take.
I scared off some Geese from destroying the crops..... ok, they wouldn't do that, they just land in the open fields for a rest, but I still scared them.
I might be in the background of a half dozen tourist trying to take this picture from the highway. Nice thing about cutting through the vineyards is that I can get right in front of it and not have the train tracks in the way.
I think this might be my entry for Aprils bike of the month photo
Once I cross the highway I cut around some haunted hills, and wind up passing another old barn... this one I like though.
Still blown away at the beautiful day, and love watching the clouds cut shadows across the hills.
In Yountville is the world famous "French Laundry" restaurant, anywhere from 400 to 1000 a person, 3 weeks to 6 months in advance for reservations. I've eaten there 3 times.... meh. Worth the experience but I'd rather spend that money and fly to France.
About this time my ipod started a set of Blues...
Oh I went down, to the station... and left my baby there!
I went downnnn to the station, and left my baby there!
I tossed her off the bike
Like I didn't care!
After I was done taking photos, it was time to head home, 3 miles of straight away... :yikes:
And my favorite part of the ride
Of course, by the time I finished this write up....
