This was my first overnight bike trip. Ever since I went to college up the road in San Luis Obispo, I have driven through the Santa Ynez Valley many times. I love the area and I saw several easy bike routes among the nearby ranches and vineyards.
The Santa Ynez Valley is an area known for producing some amazing California wines, especially Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Rhone varietals. There are well over 100 different wineries in the area
I decided to stay in a hotel in downtown Solvang, to see if I could ride my bike through town, and out to the surrounding countryside. The hotel was perfect, newly renovated, very comfortable.
Unfortunately, there weren’t as many choices for restaurants. I ended up eating two nights at a local Irish Tavern. I had Shepherd’s Pie (which was pretty good) the first night, and “Irish Nachos” (which was a heart-attack-on-a-plate) the second night. No wonder the Irish drink a lot.
The downtown Solvang traffic was a lot more dense than I expected, so I decided to drive a little ways out of town and launch my bike from there. I drove to “Sunny Fields Park”, to start riding up Alamo Pintado Rd.
I had a vague plan, but since it was my first “real” bike-adventure…. I wanted it to be a bit unscripted… in spite of the fact that it makes my lifeless body harder to locate, in case I die on the trail.
I rode along the “Dan Henry Bike Route” for a little ways. This route connects Solvang with Los Olivos. It starts on Alamo Pintado Rd at the Eastern end of the “historic” Solvang downtown. In case you wondered, Dan Henry is “a bicycling legend and inventor of directional pavement markings commonly used to guide participants along the route of organized bicycling events. The markers themselves are usually called ‘Dan Henrys'”.
The Dan Henry Bike Route is part of the Solvang Century. It connects the Lompoc-to-Solvang leg via Santa Rosa Rd and Hwy 246 on the one side and Foxen Canyon Rd on the other.
I rode along Ballard Canyon Road, which had very little traffic, but it was pretty rough also. Ballard Canyon itself is a long, thin canyon that runs in a curve from north to south and is surrounded by a myriad of smaller canyons interspersed with dry, rugged hills. It was twisty and curvy, and most of the vehicles I saw were pickup trucks.
The following picture was taken at the summit, looking towards Solvang. Ballard Canyon AVA is an American Viticultural Area comprising an area of approximately 12 sq.mi. where 10 commercially producing vineyards cultivate approximately 565 acres with Syrah being the primary varietal.
What a beautiful day.
When I got back to my car, I was SOOO exhausted… I had never done all 3 tasks in the same 8 hr period:
Unload my bike out of my car
Ride 25 miles
Reload my bike into my car
I almost thought I couldn’t do it. I kind of wanted to ask someone for help, but that late in the day, there was no one around. I had to put my “big boy pants” on and just get the job done.
Maybe I’m an optimist, but it deserved the name: “Perfect Ride”
The next day, I checked out of my hotel in Solvang and drove to my Mom’s house on Mare Island.
