From the JoeBurnsBlog: Marin Bike Rides (Series): Headlands, Miwok, Tennessee Valley

In the first of many-to-come great bike ride posts in Marin County, the Headlands -Tennessee Valley mountain bike ride is one of my favorites.  This ride is a quickie, perfect for early morning or late evening calorie-burn ride. 

(described as a pre-dawn , weekday ride)

From Downtown Sausalito:  Head south on Bridgeway like you're heading to SF, as you pass Princess Street you either see the lights of San Francisco or the fog bank that confirms the climate preference of Marin Co.  Often in the 6 o'clock hour of the morning you will see a larger freighter heading out to the Pacific.  In the quiet of the morning you can hear the boat's engines wind and with all else being still it is almost like you are alone with this massive liner.  Continue your pedal up Second St, don't gear down much, just stand and work through it, there is plenty of soft climb ahead to recoup.  As South St turns into Alexander there is another little uphill burst.  At this point there hasn't been enough ride time determine your energy level for the morning, but depending on time you may want to turn right at Bunker Rd and go through the tunnel. (This detour only save a couple hundred feet of climb and 12-17 min of ride-time.)   If you have the full 1 hour then bypass Bunker Rd and continue up Alexander, under Hwy 101, and right at the Highway entrance to the Headlands Rd officially known as Conzelman Rd. The first part of the paved-road climb is the steepest, not a little ringer, but still a bit of punch for 500 yrd, then it levels out to a steady mid ringer for 1.2 miles to McCullough Rd. 

Now at this point if it is still too dark and you don't have proper lighting, you can choose to head down McCullough on the paved road, the better route is to veer right on McCullough, then cross over to the northwest corner of this intersection to a dirt parking lot and gate. Enter the gate there and pick up the Coastal Trail.  This is a real fun soft downhill single track of 1.6 miles. I keep my mouth motoring with shouts of my arrival as to not startle a feeding mountain lion.  Most summer mornings this trail is still fogged in, by September the fog rolls back a little earlier, but it is also darker at 6am.  There are a lot of cottontail bunnies on the trail, but they scurry out of the way quickly.  Deer are less mobile and can be hit if they are in an area that doesn't have a quick exit.

At the bottom of the trail is an auto gate, continue on the trail to the road, cross over and left on Bunker Rd (look both ways) and pick up the parking lot trail 20 yrds up. From this semi-paved lot you will see a trailhead in the trees that is marked with a small sign, take this path over the small bridge and up to the fire road, turn left on the fire road and follow up to the Miwok Trail, be careful not to turn right on Bobcat Trail and stay left until you reach Miwok, then turn right. Now you have a great 1.5 mile climb, so may get away with a middle ring climb, but I can't very long and shift down to little ring saving one or two rings in the back.  The climb has a couple steep points but for the most part is a consistent grade to the Wolf Ridge Trail. Continue past Wolf Ridge which is a pedestrian-only trail and head up one more steep climb before dropping down a couple hundred yards to a left turn onto Old Springs Trail.  Once again, a fun and easy 2 mile downhill with no drops and only a couple kidney-shaking stairs at the very end.  The trail ends at the Miwok stables and we respect their request to dismount your bike and walk through their parking area. Say hello to "Casino" and "Maxwell" in the last two corals, then remount and head down Tennessee Valley Rd at a big ring pace. After passing Marin Rd on left, cross over the street to catch the creekside trail past the park lodge and under Shoreline Highway(duck your head), and continue to the Mill Valley Sausalito Bike Path along Richardson Bay.  You can now streak up the trail to Mike's Bike, onto Brideway and back to your starting point.   

Great ride, extremely scenic in all seasons and all times of the day.