Lake Berryessa Loop (40 miles)

If I had had my druthers (and a smaller credit card balance) I would have headed up to Calistoga for the long President's Day weekend. The next best thing is to fire up the ol' Toyota and head up to wine country for a day ride. This particular ride starts and ends at Lake Hennessey, just a bit north of Napa, near Rutherford. My four readers may remember that I cruised by Lake Hennessey back in September, when it was particularly low. We've had some decent rainfall this winter, so the lake seems.. full? I dunno. I should have taken a pic back in September, so we could do a side-by-side comparison. Oh well.

Anyway, you can park your ol' Toyota (or the vehicle of your choice) at the Lake Hennessey boat launch. There doesn't seem to be any requirement that you actually launch a boat to park here, which is good because that would have complicated matters. From the boat launch, the route travels north through Pope Valley, heads east along Pope Canyon, skirts alongside Lake Berryessa for 13 miles, then heads back to Lake Hennessey via Sage Canyon Road (highway 128). Chiles Pope Valley, Pope Canyon, and Sage Canyon Roads all traverse canyons with creeks, so even the non-lake portions of the route are quite scenic. I imagine these roads could get crowded in the summer, but today I barely saw anyone on the roads. Just a handful of cyclists, a few motorists, and some motorcycles. For large stretches I had the road entirely to myself. Whee!

The Chiles Valley is interesting.. it's just a few miles to the east of the Napa Valley appellation area, but it's clearly a bit more arid. Apparently the fog that can settle in the Napa valley doesn't quite get past the foothills into the Chiles Valley area. In fact this morning the fog driving up through Napa was like pea soup, but it didn't penetrate past Lake Hennessey. It's another example of the microclimates that we see in California so often, where you have the coastal climate, then a small seismic ridge, then a valley, then a ridge, then another valley, all within a 20 mile radius from the ocean. The valley is named after a guy named Joseph Chiles, who got one of the land grants from the Mexican government before the US seized the territory in 1848.


Lake Berryessa is a more recent development. Since seeing the movie Zodiac, I associate the lake with the zodiac killer, but it's not just for psychotic murders! It's also for people who like recreation, and boats, and picnics. The lake is a man-made reservoir, and was formed in the 1950s by the Monticello Dam. The decision to create the dam and flood the valley (and abandon the town of Monticello) was controversial, and documented by Dorothea Lange in her book Death of a Valley.

If you travel through Napa valley this time of year, you'll see lots of yellow mustard flowers covering the dormant vineyards. I wondered if these were wild flowers (tales of Junipero Serra tossing mustard seeds to the wind) but the internets tell me that the vintners plant mustard because they
stimulate the soil. Hmm.

Of course, no visit to the area would be complete without a quick stop for winetasting/purchasing. To get to and from Lake Hennessey, you'll pass through Rutherford and be within sloshing distance of tons of wineries along Silverado Trail. I belong to the wine club at Rutherford Hill, so naturally I took the opportunity to stop by and pick up a few bottles of Cab and vintage port. When in Napa...


Total Miles: 41
Elevation Gain: 3590 ft
Animules: lots of horses and cows
Route map (bikely.com): Hennessey-Berryessa

Calistoga Loop (52 miles)

On Thursday I left work early and drove up to Calistoga for a couple of days to relax and rejuvenate. Naturally I took along one of the bikes for a little jaunt on Friday. I ended up taking the Terry touring bike, since I figured I might be stopping at a winery along the way and would then need the use of the panniers to carry back purchases. While in Calistoga I stayed at the Indian Springs Resort, my favorite place in Calistoga. They have a huge (like Olympic size) mineral pool fed from their own geyser right next to the pool. I love it.

Oh, and then on Friday morning when I woke up and popped my head outside, this beautiful hot-air balloon was passing right over the resort. Ah, wine country...



The ride, called the "Reverse Calistoga" loop, is from the Oakland Yellowjackets routesheet library. My total mileage was 6-7 miles higher since my starting point was in downtown Calistoga. The route is pretty straightforward: you follow Silverado Trail a couple of miles, then turn east for a bit of a climb up Deer Park/Howell Mountain road, then take Ink Grade to Chiles Pope Valley to Lake Hennessey. Then it's back up Silverado Trail. There was a steady climb up Deer Park/Howell Mountain, but it wasn't too bad, topping out at around 1800 feet before I turned onto Ink Grade. Ink Grade is a well-known climb in the north bay (it's featured in most of the centuries in the napa area) so I was expecting some pretty harsh climbing at this point. But it turns out that this route approached Ink Grade from the other end so all I had to do was descend. Maybe that's why they call this route the "reverse" Calistoga. Whatever. I was quite happy to be plunging down this grade rather than slogging up it.

The rest of the ride was really nice. The route takes you through vineyards and farmland, by the incredibly dry Lake Hennessey, and through two villages, Angwin and Pope Valley. Not many services to be had in this back country, so I was glad to have my panniers with plenty of food and water.

Animules: 2 foxes (I think), several deer, many lazy cows
Total Miles: 52
Elevation Gain: 3900 ft
Route map (bikely.com): Calistoga Loop

Wine Notes

As long as I'm up in wine country, it seems stupid to not do a little bit of winetasting, right? So on Friday, right after finishing up the ride, I headed over to Vincent Arroyo. I've been meaning to visit this place for quite some time. It's off the beaten path a bit, but I had heard that they had very good wines and that they sell out of their small production early in the season. Turns out that you're supposed to have an appointment for tasting, but Dave, my host, graciously signed me up for an impromptu appointment. I thought I was pretty special to receive this treatment until I saw them do the same for other walk-ins. Apparently they aren't zoned for a public tasting room, but they are happy to accommodate a small number of walk-ins.

Vincent Arroyo produces only about 8000 cases a year, and most of that is sold on pre-order before it's even bottled. I bought a bottle of their 2006 Chardonnay, which is lightly oaky with a bit of citrus, and a 2005 Petite Syrah, their signature wine. I also tried the 2005 Melange reserve (a gamay blend) and the 2005 Entrada, a blend of old vine Syrah, Petite Syrah, and Cabernet. It was a very elegant wine with a smooth finish, but at $65 a bottle, a little more than I wanted to pay.

On Saturday, on my way back to town, I stopped in at Heitz Cellars, just outside of St Helena on highway 29. Heitz is known for their Cabernet Sauvignons, particularly the Oakville "Martha's Vineyard" label. After trying their 2005 Chardonnay and a Verdot, I tasted the 2002 "Trailside Vineyard" Cab, then the 1998 Bella Oaks Cab. I actually preferred the latter because it had a lovely smooth finish, but that's probably due in part to the fact that it was 1998, right? Next I sampled three ports-- the Ink Grade port, the "vintage" Ink Grade port, and the Grignolino ruby port, that has an interesting citrus aroma that I don't think I've run across in ports. After all this, the host poured me a bit of their signature Martha's Vineyard cab, but my palette was pretty overloaded at that point. I'm sure it was delicious though. So, I ended up buying two bottles of the Chardonnay, one bottle of the Verdot, and one bottle of each of the ports. Yeehah!