Enjoying Life in West Sonoma County

We took off this morning for a 75 mile ride through the Sonoma wine country.  It is the first ride we have been able to take up that way since the heat wave from a week ago and the effects from the various fires in Napa, Mendocino and Lake Counties.  

It was a beautiful day although it was a bit cold when we took off.  The morning temperatures were around 52 but by the time we got to Alexander Valley around noon it was a very nice mid-70s.

It seems that we were not the only ones who wanted to get out and ride in this area, I would guess we saw over 100 bikers, many in groups of six to eight, so these were organized events.

It was a great day for a ride and a great way to celebrate living in West Sonoma County.

Yesterday morning I took off for my morning bike ride before heading into the office.  I rode from my house up to Healdsburg and was going to return through Windsor.  It was a little difficult because of the smoke from the various fires around Sonoma and Napa, but I was plugging along as I rode through Healdsburg, when I saw my first major accident.

As I passed the Healdsburg Nursery, this old green pickup truck passed by me and took a slow left turn into the nursery.  However the driver of this truck was either asleep, not paying attention or worse, as she did not see two people coming from the opposite way on motor-scooters.  The first of the people on the motor-scooters had to lay his bike down and slide a long distance but luckily missed the truck and the second person ended up hitting the first person’s bike and went over on to her side.  The two people looked hurt, one was bleeding and the other had significantly hurt her shoulder, but they were able to walk over to this side of the road and sit down.

I worked with some others to move the scooters off of the road and many people were asking what happened.  There was a lot of confusion but what amazed me is that no one had found the person driving the old green truck.  Apparently the driver had no idea of the damage she had caused and was in the nursery shopping for plants.

The people from the nursery did a great job helping the two injured people and had called 911.  Although it seemed like forever for the EMTs to arrive, the scene had calmed down and I hope the two people are fine after this accident.

As a road biker seeing this accident had a significant impact on me as it is the one concern I have when we are out biking.  When ever a car or truck has a collision with a bike (either a road or motor) the larger vehicle will always win and I worry about this a lot.

Then to make matters worse (in a minor manner considering the earlier events) I was thinking about the accident when I noticed that my front tire was flat.  Yes this is a minor inconvenience it just added to desire to hide in my office and not risk any further bad luck for the day. So yes that ride now qualifies as my worst morning ride.