Golis: Back roads journal: One (long) lap of Sonoma County

Here's what you learn when you drive the back roads of Sonoma County:

- You can live your whole life here and still be amazed by the beauty and variety of landscapes. Vineyard valleys, oak-studded hills, rugged mountains, shady redwood groves, jaw-dropping views, an ocean shore like no other - it's all here.

- When you find yourself in remote places, you are reminded there are vast spaces where few people ever go. We drove 16 miles from The Geysers geothermal field to Cloverdale on Geysers Road and never saw another moving vehicle.

- If you're looking for reasons not to go to these remote places, you could mention the condition of a few of these back roads. Rugged winters and a county budget that can't keep up with hundreds of miles of rural roads have taken their toll.

It turns out there may be a reason nobody's on the road between The Geysers and Cloverdale.

For better or worse, history has handed down almost 1,400 miles of county roads, some located in rugged, remote and sparsely populated areas.

Witih slides, crumbling pavement, potholes, roads reduced to a single lane - on narrow, bumpy mountain roads, caution becomes the order of the day. In a couple of places, we wondered whether this adventure was such a good idea.

Commerce still happens on the back roads of Sonoma County, but it requires courtesy and a willingness to adapt to conditions. In one one-lane section of road, we were forced to back up (carefully) to allow a logging truck to pass. Another time, a UPS truck backed up for us. We were grateful.

We found out that circumnavigating Sonoma County can be slow going, especially if you stop to take in the views and the familiar smells of early summer. We took 14 hours over three days to navigate 270 miles of (mostly) back roads. As best we could, we kept to public and paved roads, choosing a route that would follow as close to the county line as possible without leaving the county.

Leaving Porter Creek Road, we followed Franz Valley Road, which descends into Knights Valley, a beautiful corner of Sonoma County many people never see. It rests at the foot of a familiar profile, Mount St. Helena.

Want to contemplate mistakes not made? The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation once entertained thoughts of building a dam and flooding this lovely valley.

We drove up the flank of Mount St. Helena before deciding that the length - and narrowness - of Ida Clayton Road was worth exploring some other day. Ida Clayton was a school teacher in the Knights Valley town of Kellogg.

Kellogg? Mapping these back roads, you learn of towns that time forgot. Ever heard of Pine Flat, once said to be the fastest-growing town in Northern California? How about Mercuryville?

In the 1870s, quicksilver mines flourished in these mountains, giving rise to towns that came and went along with the price of mercury.

Leaving Highway 128 and then Pine Flat Road, we follow Old Red Winery Road in the Alexander Valley and then begin the climb up Geysers Road. The view of the valley from the overlook on Geysers Road is spectacular - a reminder that you can live here a long time and still miss amazing scenery.

Along the way, we see vineyards in places we didn't expect and a sign that locates the town of Mercuryville (“Pop. 2, El. 2,600 ft.”). The screeching of buzzards lets us know we aren't welcome, which seems fitting for this place lost to history.

We rattle our way through patches of bad road, places where barriers, signs and cones warn of problems ahead. In some places, stop signs have been installed, not because they signal an intersection but because a slide has reduced the road to a single lane. The signs say, wait and take your turn, though on these remote roads, you won't encounter many cars.

We pass The Geysers geothermal field, said to be the largest producer of geothermal energy in the world. We come upon a lovely and historic bridge. The sign says the Geysers Road Bridge was erected in 1909 and relocated to its current location in 1937.

Those must have been better times. A short distance away, a section of Geysers Road has been reduced to gravel and potholes. Vehicles with low clearance may want to go a different way.

From Cloverdale, we continue on Dutcher Creek Road to Warm Springs Dam, where we began the 34-mile drive to the Pacific Ocean. It takes us more than two hours to drive from the Dry Creek Valley to the sea, following the Skaggs Springs- Stewarts Point and Annapolis roads. Some of the Skaggs Springs-Stewarts Point Road rides the mountain ridge with spectacular views north and south. It's more beautiful than we remembered from earlier visits.

From Stewarts Point, we drive south on what is a more familiar track, Highway 1, though each new ocean view makes us wonder why it's been so long since we came here. We are reminded why Californians were determined to protect their coastline from wall-to-wall development (and now must confront the threat of climate change and rising sea levels).

On the last leg of the trip, we drive through Valley Ford and around Petaluma and Sonoma, then up Cavedale Road before taking Trinity Road back to the valley and the finish line in Santa Rosa.

Half way up Cavedale Road, the view of the Sonoma Valley and the Bay Area beyond is stunning, but this narrow, winding road requires that you pay attention.

One final note: When we completed one lap of Sonoma County in late June, the countryside already looked dry and vulnerable to fire. We couldn't decide whether conditions are unusually dry, or the fires in recent years have changed the way we see the landscape. But the message is the same: Be careful out there.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com

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