Annadel State Park

    Annadel State Park is located north of San Francisco, near Santa Rosa. To get there from SF, take  highway 101 going north, then take the 12 going east until exit 488B and turn left onto Farmers Ln. Turn right onto Sonoma Hwy, then right onto Mission Boulevard.  After that turn left onto Montgomery Drive and finally turn right onto Channel drive and continue until you have the State Park on your right side. From SF it takes about an hour to get there. 

Annadel State Park is a great place to enjoy wildlife. In the park, visitors can often see wild turkeys, ducks, deer, mountain lion and rattle snakes. Most of the animals are there at dawn or dusk, rarely during the day though. Only some apes can be seen during the day. 
They also don’t hesitate to walk (or even run) on the paths so be careful with them. They are often unaware that you might be behind them because they are listening to music!
  

       The park offers a lot of single tracks and a few fire roads. The California Department of Parks and Recreation has a useful map on their brochure (www.parks.ca.gov/MediaGallery/?page_id=480&m=brochures). There is a lake inside the Park called Lake Ilsanjo. Most of the trails go toward the lake; it is therefore easy to stay oriented on the map. The park has a lot of diversity with the trails. All the trails are open to mountain bikes.  Some single tracks are very technical; the Rough Go Trail is probably one of the most challenging. It presents big boulders close to each other and is therefore difficult to keep a good momentum. It is definitely more interesting to do it downhill, but it requires a lot of vigilance (I recommend it for advanced bikers). My favorite trail is the Orchard Trail Loop, located north of Rough Go Trail because it is fast, a little less technical and located under the trees; with my hardtail bike I have much more fun. The Orchard Trail Loop offers a 400 ft downhill, semi-technical and fast trail which goes back to the parking lot: the perfect ending to an awesome ride.  

       Annadel State Park is a good place to mix and match the trail to your own technical skills. A good 8 mile ride, with some warm up at the beginning is to start at Channel Drive, then Channel Trail, switch to Warren Richardson Trail and continue until the lake.   

Go around the lake (the view is nice), then go on Rough Go Trail and switch to Orchard Trail Loop and finish on Cobblestone Trail. This ride is interesting because the technique level increases with the miles. It starts with fire road and ends with some technical single tracks.

Length:        6/10
Difficulty:    9/10
Scenery:      4/10