Dirty Way to the Top: Mt. St. Helena

After Santa Rosa I dropped into Calistoga, one of the jumping off points for the Napa Valley vineyards. The population is small, but the main street was crowded with little shops; a town for tourists and transients (a much different transient population than Santa Rosa's young travelers waiting for the bus). But I wasn't here for the wine, I was here for the mountain that lay next to this quiet town -- Mt. St. Helena. At 4,300 ft, only Mt. Hamilton stands taller in the surrounding Bay Area. The big difference though is that the only road to the summit is a gravel service road for the tower.

The vineyards before I got too high.

At about 11 AM with the sun harshly beating down I set off for the summit, carrying as much water as I could, as there would be no water on the way up. The entrance to Robert Louis Stevenson park was up on Lake County Highway, which heads to, you guessed it, Lake County. The highway climb was nice and quiet thanks to one lane construction that bottlenecked traffic, which I would avoid by letting it pass, then ride the open road. After what at the time seemed like a long climb, I saw the first sign for Robert Louis Stevenson State Park (named after the Bay Area author, who spent his honeymoon on this mountain, the remnants of his cabin are still on the hiking trail, but I was on a bike). At the apex of the climb, I swung left on to the dirt. It was time to start cranking.

The trail dissecting the mountain.

The climb was pretty straightforward, just hammering away at the gravel. The shade helped at first, but was short lived. The sun was now baking me at the hottest part of the day. I pushed into the granny gear and made sure to keep my butt in the seat as to not over exert myself. I grabbed what little shade there was along the way and stopped frequently. I was amazed to see hikers coming down with little to no water and wondered how they did it. After about an hour, the park (which was more an open space lacking rangers, water, or any sign of life) was  desolate. I could look up and see the radio tower coming closer. It was about here that the 'road' ramped up and I was glad to have the On-One Midge Bars, sitting in the saddle and pulling away at the ends was super powerful and kept my weight back to keep my rear wheel planted -- could not be happier. Unfortunately, I could only get so much power and the last section was super tough where I pulled and pushed until I could no more and walked the final section.

The view stretches for a while.

The top was so worth it. Apparently on a clear day SF is visible (probably need binoculars though), unfortunately the haze kept it hidden. Instead I looked East to the Sierras over the lakes. Then I looked down at the dot that was Calistoga. The summit was just the radio tower and some maintanence, there was no one there but me and my bike and a 360 panaramoic view. It was a grueling but worthwhile struggle.

The totals of the climb was bottom to top: 4,241 ft, 6.1 percent average grade, over 12 miles. The off road bit was 2,204 ft at 7.6%, over 5.1 miles (my new Garmin eTrex makes mapping and detailing my ride so much more fun).