Someone built a sweet self closing gate...

Rockville trails-Luxury homesites across the road from Rockville hills park

The Air Has A Wonderful spicy Smell.

Silly photographer cant resist taking photos

Fall color

Last ride of the year......

Probably my last ride of the year. My season pass expires in a few days
It's beautiful fall day, hazy sun, 60ish, no wind.... And the trails are firm from the rain but not muddy!

Spooky tunnel!

The park was decorated for a Halloween hike event!

Halloween

Halloween trail decorations on the pond trail

Fairfield

This is from the powerline fireroad that comes down from the Mystic area, and shows Susuin City, Fairfield, and Travis off in the haze.

The Lake

The Lake from the powerline road

Mystic Valley from mystic ridge

Crack Pipe overlook - I call it that because I found one there once!

This view is into Green Valley. Green Valley Road is just in front of the vineyards in the valley.

The Quarry

The main trail up into the park heads up hill into the middle, but the Quarry trail stays to the far right following the barbed wire fence along Rockville Road. Thats the way I went today, and was the way I always started before they redid the main trail.

The Quarry trail leads to the Cave and Unknown trails. The Cave trail is better for hiking, the Unknown trail is a real test  in parts as it has some rock sections that I can not ride clean, and it is inches from barbed wire! But later it opens up to a wonderful meadow with an old hand built stone wall, and one of the more quiet parts of the park. (Photos from the unknown trail are elsewhere on this blog).

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