Tuesday, February 13, 2007

roading 1.0



As all of you know, I am a bit of a car freak. I like to drive...and the new digs in Petaluma put me close to some really good driving roads in Marin and Sonoma County. The West side of Petaluma is a good jumping-off point for vehicular misadventures, particularly on rainy, lightly-traffcked afternoons...heh heh heh.

The first loop that I tried is Western Avenue to Spring Hill to Chileno Valley Road -- starting from downtown P'luma, you take Western (going West, surprisingly) which then turns into Spring Hill Road as you leave town. Western is dull, and things don't get interesting until Spring Hill, where you get to see a lot of dairy farms and cattle ranches. Spring Hill is mostly a transit, but has a few good corners -- once you get to Bodega Ave, you take a left and then turn on to the Tomales-Petaluma road, which takes you past a Coast Guard training center.

Make a left past the Coast Guard place, and you're on Chileno Valley Road -- it is a really nice combination of 3rd and 4th gear corners, with nice elevation changes and very little traffic. This section around Laguna Lake is really cool, and the views are spectacluar.

Next time, I am headed up to Bodega Bay.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can still hear the sound of squealing tires!!