King Ridge Dirt Supreme June 25th

As Sonoma County continues to grow, the NorthWest County stays wild. Living in the small town of Sebastopol I still find myself in the busy streets of Santa Rosa at least a couple of times a week. SR has become a hub of cycling in Sonoma County but it’s a hectic place at times. When we moved here in 1977 Santa Rosa had just over 40,000 people. Now it’s up to 4x that. Windsor was all but non-existent and Rohnert Park had just been formed. I would never trade where I live, but the change is undeniable. Still, there’s always the exploration and escape via bicycle to remind me of the beauty and remoteness of the North Coast. West of Occidental and north of Jenner it’s as if my entire being exhales; relaxes into a more simple, slower way of being. June 25th marks the final stage of this year’s Grasshopper Adventure Series. We began this journey together Feb 13 with Old Caz. with 400 plus riders on a crazy loop that symbolizes Grasshoppers. Next followed a smaller,but hardy group that faced floods and torrential rains at Chileno Valley. Super Sweetwater provided the challenging mix of road and dirt that included Old Caz, Meyers Grade and Chileno Valley. On the ticket this year was Lake Sonoma MTB and the trails were minty. At 25 miles this was by far the shortest Hopper and was a great social gathering afterward. Nearly 100 riders battled and survived Skaggs! last weekend in what is truly the hardest 100 miles you can do in Sonoma County. And 20 riders reached Jedi status by enduring and finishing the last 10 miles on Lake Sonoma single track. Here’s a little piece from Kitsbow that sums up the history of Hopper explorations and the day on Skaggs.

This leads us to King Ridge Dirt Supreme…

It’s been an honor to choose, organize and present these challenging rides over the last 18 years. When we first started doing King Ridge “in reverse” people had a hard time wrapping their heads around the loop. As a mountain biker I love riding up the “downs” and down the “ups”. Kinda’ like my favorite quote “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”. In terms of cycling this means that if you mix it up, you have at least double the options. This has become one of my favorite Hoppers. Descending dirt on Willow Creek on a road bike, riding up Hwy 1 to Fort Ross, the dirt decent to Hwy 1 via Salt Point, climbing Kruse on gravel, ripping down Hauser, and the never ending climb west to east on King Ridge. Oh, and the finish up Willow Creek.  Here’s a few shots of the days adventure to get the juices flowing!

See you on June 25th.

Yours in adventure,

Mig