Thursday April 26, 2012, 22 miles (35 km)
 Total so far: 440 miles (708 km)

After the usual huge bed and breakfast meal, Nancy and I get ready to ride in Sonoma. Today’s plan is to make our way on surface streets to The West County & Joe Rodota Trails. This is a local rail-trail built along land that was once the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railway, a line that linked Petaluma and Santa Rosa with Sebastopol and Forestville. The trails total fourteen miles long. The trails are paved for walking, bicycle riding, and roller skating. An unpaved equestrian trail runs parallel to the paved trail. Designated as a Community Millennium Trail by Former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, the trail offers beautiful views of farms, vineyards, and other agricultural lands.

It’s a great trail, with some great scenic views along the way. There are no restrooms on the trail, so if you ride it, be ready to deal with that.

About half way we managed to stop at a trail side winery for a brief tasting.  The Taft Street Winery is only a block away from the trail and makes a great rest spot on a hot day (or any day for that matter)

The street part of the ride was also pretty great. Small country roads with little traffic past old historic farmhouses. We did need to deal with one big hill, about a half a mile long, but other than that today’s ride was really flat.