Pictured below are Kim Dwyer &  Lynn Reed who took part in the 8 day Bike & the Like Tour in  Northern California  (www.bikeandthelike.com).

The ride started in San Francisco  where we crossed the Golden  Gate Bridge (not an easy crossing on a tandem with all the racers and rental bikes sharing the  narrow space!) and headed  through Saulsalito and north to  Point Reyes National Seashore.    

From there we followed Tomales  Bay (which was the epicenter of      the 1908 earthquake) to Guerneville. The coast was sunny, but cooled by chilly breezes off the Pacific and we were happy to  turn inland and warm up in the  Russian River Valley & Sonoma  Valley. 

We toured along the Silverado Trail and saw vineyards  for miles. Of course we stopped  along the way & enjoyed the  local wines with a picnic lunch.    

The terrain on this ride was very hilly to mountainous in places.  We are quite sure that we tempered the steel on our disc brakes as is came in good use on some of the massive descents. Mileage was between 40 and 70 miles per day and the scenery was spectacular. 

Eventually we crossed the last mountains and cruised across the flats that ran through orchards on the way to Davis, CA which is a very bike-friendly town —a bike shop on every corner and plenty of bike paths. 

We finished up  the ride in Benecia, which is across the bay from San Fran.  There were 33 people on the ride with ages ranging from 27-77.  Folks were from all over the US and also Bermuda. The tour was very well run, very fairly priced and we would recommend this group to others. The healthy California food was great and there was plenty of it for Lynn.