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The instructions for an ideal Bay Area summer day should read thus: 1. Drive to Russian River. 2. Inflate tube. 3. Apply sunscreen. 4. Gather snacks, water and beer. 5. Float.

It’s step 6 that often poses the biggest problem: Find a lift back to your car.

On July 27, San Francisco outdoors retailer Sports Basement is debuting a new Russian River bus service meant to ease the logistical issues that often hamper summer flotillas and leave tubers soaked, stranded and lugging a giant, inflated pineapple miles from where they started.

For $75 per person, the Russian River Bus will take riders from the city to Sonoma and equip them for a day on the water. Breakfast, coffee and mimosas are provided during the ride, and everyone gets a waterproof bag, light packed lunch and a couple of beers for their river journey. Optional rentals of standup paddle boards ($55) or tubes ($25) are available from Sports Basement, and those want to canoe or kayak can be dropped at a local outfitter.

Eden Slezin, general manager of Sports Basement’s outdoors programs, sees the new service as the summertime answer to the company’s popular Tahoe bus, which shuttles skiers from the city to the mountains and back during winter weekends.

“Two years ago, I started our ski bus program,” he says. “It’s been hugely successful. The first year we did 500 people, and this past season we did 5,000 people.”

When there’s no snow, Slezin is hoping those same customers will literally hop on the bus to the Russian River. Unlike the Tahoe service, which runs to Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows every Saturday and Sunday during the winter, restrictions on the number of buses allowed on weekends and holidays at Steelhead and Sunset beaches mean Sports Basement is only running the service on select days when it has the proper permits.

The July 27 departure sold out in one week. Other trips are scheduled for August 17, September 2 and September 14. After Labor Day, permitting limits are lifted, so more dates may be added into the fall.

“We’re conscious of the impacts of bringing a lot of people to the river,” says Slezin. “With our ski buses, we’re taking people to ski resorts. It’s set up appropriately for that. The river, it’s a fragile ecosystem and a small community. We want to do our best to be aware of that.”

The bus holds 50 guests, and only one departure will leave on any given date, picking up at Sports Basement locations in the Mission, the Presidio and Novato. Once riders arrive at Steelhead Beach in Forestville, they’re responsible for having enough water and sunscreen, for cleaning up after themselves on the river and for making it the 3 miles to Sunset Beach (still in Forestville) for pickup by 4 p.m. Canoers and kayakers have about a 10-mile journey to their take-out spot.

Snacks, beer and wine will await tubers — and their deflated pineapples — for the bus ride home, and unlike the return trip from Tahoe, there’s no chance of the freeway being closed by a blizzard.