Originally I had made a reservation at a budget motel in Ukiah, but then my friends recommended Vichy Springs Resort. It was about the same price, and I’m so glad I switched lodging. Vichy Springs is a modest renovated traditional style motel, with a couple of separate one-story buildings each with several small rooms. The room was simple was nicely decorated, but the main theme here is the hot springs, which are naturally carbonated. They have one largish hot tub with the special water, and then several individual tubs that you can fill up self-serve style. I tried one of these first but found the water too cool (they say it’s at around 90 degrees) so then ended up soaking in the large hot tub. Nice.For dinner, went into downtown Ukiah, which was nothing to write home about, but had dinner at the Ukiah Brewing Company. The place has great California country ambiance, features organic ingredients, and offers several brews on tap.
Oh, another nice thing about Vichy Springs Resort is that they offer a really nice continental breakfast starting at 7:30. That ended up being perfect timing for a pre-ride breakfast.
It only took about 15 minutes to drive from Vichy to the starting point of the ride, at the Fetzer bottling facility in Hopland. While registering, I overheard one of the organizers say that only 250 or 300 riders had signed up this year, which I think makes this the smallest organized event I’ve ever done. It was nice at first, because there weren’t hordes of cyclists on the road, but it also meant that the ride wasn’t as well supported as others I’ve done. They had some snafus with the cue sheets and route signage. I had a complete double-sided route sheet, but others only had one side, and some folks apparently had a map stapled to theirs (I didn’t have a map at all). So lots of people were somewhat lost to begin with. Then there was at least one error on the cue sheet, where it listed a left turn instead of a right (hello!), and then they failed to mark a turn down a country road that had no road sign. So.. several dozen of us missed a turn and end up at the wrong rest stop, having cut out a 12-15 mile loop. Hence the not-quite-metric-goodness of the total distance for this event.
However, at the end of the ride, they had a fabulous barbecue back at the Fetzer winery. Maybe the best post-ride setup I’ve seen, although most conversations at the tables were about how the cue sheets and signs were totally screwed up. Not sure if I’ll do this one again, but I would like to explore the area a bit more and spend some more time at Vichy Springs.
Bike vanity note: Got several compliments on the Tournado (Artemis?) Everyone agrees it is a very pretty bicycle.
Event begin and end: 8:40 am – 2:15pm
Total Distance: maybe 55 miles
Elevation gain: probably 2000 feet
Time in the Saddle: unknown
