Back to Rockville, It's drizzly! Gonna be slippery!

A drizzly day, strange for normally hot September at Rockville, but the weather is getting strange in general..

Even though it was lightly drizzling and even rained a bit, it was not cold. Maybe it was the humidity?

It was nice to rice with the moisture bringing out the smells of the grass, the dirt, and the plants and trees.

Annadel State Park, The road over the dam, a popular destination.

The top area of Annadel State Park, Lake Ilsanjo, which is not some spanish name, but the combination of two guys names who used to ranch the land the park is on.

Unlike rockville you can swim here, and I saw people in the water in kayaks and in fishing floaters.

I've swam her in the summer before, but it was raining here and not really swimming weather. Usually you will see a  lot of people here, sitting and eating, resting and watching each other.

Annadel State Park, Canyon side of the dam

The dry side of the dam looking down off the road over the top. More varied trees than rockville, and denser too.

Annadel State Park, The lake, Lake Ilsajo

Looks like it could be a lot more remote than it is! Its really in Santa Rosa, CA.

Annadel State Park, Ritzy park! A repair station!

I like this idea, a bike repair station attached to the side of an outhouse. There were two new in the box tubes inside and most of the basic tools. 

I'm cheating, riding annadale today. It's drizzly and smells wonderful!

So its the Rockville Mountain Bike Park blog and I go to Santa Rosa and ride...so much for any sort of consistency. But Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa is very similar to Rockville, only bigger. Both are on the edge of town but really right up on the edge, not aways out. There are houses build right up to the edge of both.

Both also have the same shape, more or less a cone with a lake in the middle. Rockvilles lake is closed to human entry, but allows fishing, Annadels is open to people and fishing.

What I love about both is that you ride up from whereever you start, which means you ride down to get out and back to your car. I like out and back, in the up and down configuration.

I rode up the Warren Richardson trail at Annadel, Its about a mile from the free parking along the road before the park entrance, but the ride to the trail head is pretty and a good warmup. The Warren Richardson trail starts at the parking for the horse trailers, and is a mile and a half or so of fire road up hill till it gets to the meadows and lake in the center of the park. Some of it is a little steep but my kids did it when they were little with some walking.

You have to be careful though for people bombing it in the downhill direction! Think not much time to get out of the way, and not much control on their parts if they're getting air!

Around the lake is a lot of flat single track and horses and hikers, and trails heading off into the yet to be explored.

I came down via the Rough Go Trail, to the Orchard Trail, and finally the Cobblestone trail. All fairly rocky, Rough Go the worst. It was work going down, almost more than the climb up as there were a lot of rock outcroppings to pick your way over and through. Maybe thats why guys bomb down the fireroad!

Next time I go I think I will try the Spring Creek trail, I saw kids and a pregnant lady come up it...

:)

It was a 75 mile drive for me, so I'm lucky I have Rockville! But it was a good change and a great place to ride.

Annadel map

My Diablo from the top of the green valley trail

Fern falls rock garden

Spot were I crashed hard last year

Rock wall on unknown trail

Along the "unknown trail"

Perfect ride...

Sometimes a ride is perfect and last weekend was one of those, although it was more about the whole experience than just the riding.

My wife hints at me that she would like to ride, occasionally, so I invited her along and suggested a picnic. As luck would have it I had remembered the Arch Trail recently and had been thinking with the new main trail up into the park, that it would be a great ride for the less technical riders. Ride up the main trail from the parking lot, past the lake, and up the arch trail and then to the Jockey Junction loop and the picnic table there.

It great for an introduction to Rockville even though it is mostly all climbing, its mostly downhill all the way back!

This it a bit of the Arch trail, it starts on the southwest side of the lake where a lot of the trails all come together, and it climbs up to the back side of the park. Its nice because it is not as rocky as many of the single track in the park and is easier to ride because of that. It starts in trees and climbs till you can see views of Green Valley, then goes back into trees till it ends at the Jockey Junction loop.

Jockey Junction loop is a flat high little peninsula with a bit of oak forrest that overlooks Green Valley. It has shady places, a picnic bench and views through the trees. We took a couple of old blankets with us and I dug out my panniers to carry food and drink. Normally panniers are not very practical at Rockville,  as I usually have to hop and jump rocks and roots, and chatter away at the rocky downhills, but this route didn't dislodge them. Well at least till the end of the ride when I got about 2 inches of air over a tree root almost at the parking lot and off they came!

Our trusty mounts. Yes they are from the 1980's! But they got us there, and we don't know any better, as we have never ridden full suspension bikes. We think we're cool so don't spoil our illusions!

And cool we were in the shade, with views, with food, and with sparkling wine! Thanks to Mike Peterson of Main Street Cellars in Winters. http://mainstreetcellars.com/ He had given me a couple of bottles of this wonderful Australian bubblly wine and this was the perfect place for it. It was not dry and fancy, but fruity and fun.

Thanks Mike! It made the day! (and sorry Ranger Terry if you see this, I think I am probably breaking the rules here, but all is fair in love and war!)

Note the boots off, the books....we even took a nap! I had been wanting to do this for a while, relax and enjoy the park. Rockville has some great places in it and I usually just ride through them.