Novato - Point Reyes Station - Navato

Today I am a bit late for my ride as I had different things to do. So it was not until 11 o’clock that I could leave home. I decided to make an easy ride from Novato to Point Reyes Station, which is located at the south end of Tomales Bay.

There is not very much one can say about my starting point Novato. It is a town of may be 40’000 people about half way between Santa Rosa and San Francisco. Novato is not ugly but there is also not very much to catch the eye. Only about 4 Miles outside in direction North there is the Staford Lake Park. 

The park is inhabited by a large number of gooses, which makes the lake (which is an artificial reservoir) more picturesque. However the down side is that ever square meter of the lawn is covered by goose sh... ähm droppings. So it is really not easy to find a spot for your blanket if you plan a picnic here.

The route takes me to the junction with the highway leading from Petaluma to Point Reyes. The reason for this ride was actually the Nicasio Reservoir, who’s lake is embedded in a very particular prairie like surroundings.

Point Reyes station is a little, quite touristic spot on the Hw 1 with the inevitable restaurants, markets and gift shops.

At the coast the weather was really chilly and I soon was on my way back. Half way I stopped at this spot....

The stop was motivated by two reasons. First it has a nice little spot to rest and eat a banana...

Second, I am a bit of a cheese junkie and now “clean” since three weeks, except for the cheddar on the burgers, but that doesn’t count right? So I hope for a piece of good cheese. However I was not really impressed by the collection and so I needed to get the “stuff” at Safeway, where they have “Emmi” Emmentaler, Gruyere and Appenzeller. However the price is around 7$/100g which is about three times what we would pay back home. However, the urge was stronger...

The ride today amounted to some 60 km with 900 hm and was really easy except for the wind, which luckily was a front wind on the first go and a tailwind on the return. The great things over here is that you own the streets for your self... Freedom!