Circle the Bay: Day 10: Bear Flag Republic to Vallejo Ferry

Day 10: Bear Flag Republic to Vallejo Ferry

(Sonoma to Vallejo)

Circle The Bay Part 3

May 13th 2018

38.8 miles in 6 hrs 9 mins

(Total: 200.8 miles in 36 hrs 21 mins)

After a bunch of dilly-dallying between those SMART train stations we had to commit to biking from Sonoma to Vallejo today, as there were no other options for public bicycle carrying transit (not actually true, we could have taken a bus to BART and never got on the ferry).

Leaving the historic Sonoma Hotel

Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome

Turkey Vultures working on some rail kill

It was a really rough ride at the southeastern tip of Sonoma County farm roads. The roads in the northwestern extreme of the county (Sea Ranch) are far better. When we finally. crossed into Napa County they let you know it (see picture below).

Crossing from Sonoma to Napa County

But for whatever reason, on a nice Napa farming hillside I shifted to highest (or smallest) gear on my back freewheel (instead of shifting from lowest to middle on the front gears), which set off a cascade of events that led to making it easily on time to a later ferry than we planned, and a nice Mother's Day brunch on the Napa River while my bike got repaired at the Napa River Velo bike shop.

I had just installed my rear rack, the last piece of my original 1980 setup for a California bike trip. But the particular short bolts that keep from interfering with a 7-gear freewheel had disappeared who knows what decade, and the generic water bottle fastening bolt I used was a tad too long. Unable to peddle I successfully unclipped (yeah!) and inspected the problem. In trying to free the chain from this bolt that retarded it, I slipped the rear derailleur cable out of its rear stay.

It would have been an easy catch, but instead I let myself believe the rear derailleur cable had gotten unadjusted. When I loosened the cable to readjust, the metal iglet at the end of this cable of twisted metal strands flew off. Which caused the cable to fray quickly to the point it was no longer feasible as a cable. The bike did not work.

Our thoughts went back to moments of breakdown in the past. You become reliant on the goodness of other humans to help you get back on the road. And the thing is, the goodness always shows up. And now we have Uber as well.

Which worked for me to take the bike in the trunk of a Lexus to the coolest bike shop on the Napa River right downtown next to several fine choices for restaurants. He tolerated the beep-beep of the open rear trunk we had to tie down to fit the bike in all of those 10 miles and I thank him. Laura had to bike those 10 miles but made it within minutes of me.

The rest of the trip to Vallejo was uneventful, but all that time on CA 29 was something Laura never wants to experience again. This from a woman who bikes to work every day. But this is the pinch point in the entire Bay Trail, the place where there are no good options for the pedestrian or cyclist. The alternative is CA 37 which is hard to recommend as well (until it gets rebuilt into a real freeway like its counterpart to the south, CA 237, with a modern bike route attached) .