Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Cheese, Pastry and White Rabbit in Marin

Nice day for a Saturday ride in Marin.  I left the YMCA in San Raphael with 3 other riders for a 55 mile ride to Petaluma and back, via Nicasio.   Around 8:30 am we headed west out Lucas Valley Road. Traffic was light and the temperature was perfect for the climb to Big Rock.

You may know that this is the trail head for the Big Rock Trail, at multi-use trail that runs along the west side of the Lucas Valley Open Space Preserve.  If you have a chance to hike the trail, which I did the next day, you are treated to great views of the surrounding hills and valleys and an overlook of Big Rock Ranch.



Searching the web, I found the pic below of the Big Rock Ranch – (note, the trail is in the trees high up on the slope behind)

After the Big Rock summit, the road descends several miles through woodlands and redwoods, eventually emerging in the grasslands near Nicasio. After a brief stop we rolled past the eastern shore of the Nicasio reservoir, and then turned East toward Petaluma on Red Hill Road, where we encountered a bit of a climb. Fortunately, the road surface is great, and there is a bike lane, so I just kept the pedals moving. Once over the bump we cruised down to the Marin French Cheese Factory (www.marinfrenchcheese.com/), a popular stop for cyclists. 

The cheese factory has a spacious, bright interior and features excellent pastries from a bakery in Sonoma, as well as some good looking pre-made sandwiches.  Of course, they also offer a wide variety of fine cheese (and crackers) with several cheese selections out for tasting.  Did I mention the duck pond with picnic tables and a bathroom?  You can see why it is popular with cyclists


From there we took Hicks Valley Road over to up over Wilson Hill Road and did the climb/slog up Wilson Hill.  This hill is always a challenge, but there is very little traffic making it possible to ride along with someone and chat your way to the top. Looking closely in the upper left corner of this pic, you can see the tree line at the top of the climb.

After the climb, we had the fabulous and FAST descent down toward Chileno Valley Road.

Once down onto the flatter ground, it was on to Petaluma.  Coming into Petaluma from the West we rode through some very charming neighborhoods on our way to the Tea Room Café (http://www.tearoomcafe.com/ ). 

We scored a table outside, and I had the Mascarpone toast. This was a thick piece of toasted sourdough, slathered with Mascarpone, topped with sliced strawberries and drizzled with honey.  It was scrumptious.  Others had French toast, Vegan Tofu Scramble and the Vegetable Frittata.  All were excellent.  The Tofu scramble comes with a bean side that looked great.  This place can be a bit crowded, but is worth the wait.
Here are a few examples of their wares.


The route back featured two musical episodes worthy of mention.  First, as we were climbing above Mc Evoy Ranch on Red Hill Road, strains of ‘White Rabbit’ were drifting up from an event at the ranch far below us.  It was live music and we speculated that they were holding Grace Slick hostage down there. 

After cresting that hill and a couple more, we were treated to more rock and roll as we pedaled past the Nicasio Valley Farms Pumpkin Patch set up just north of Nicasio (http://www.nicasiovalleyfarms.com/). This was a major attraction with hay rides, inflatable slides, a band etc. all adjacent to acres of pumpkins.   What was really amazing was that none of this was even set up we pedaled through Nicasio earlier in the day (around 9:30 am).  It is ironic that this pumpkin patch event is located along the exact stretch of road out of Nicasio that has signs posted asking cyclists to please refrain from talking – as to not disturb the neighbors.  Hmmm…

All in all, a fantastic day on the bike.

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