22 August 2004

Start north on Bay from Meder.
Turn right onto High.
Turn right onto Storey.
Turn left onto King.
Turn left onto Mission.
Mission becomes Water.
Turn left onto Soquel.
Turn right onto Capitola Road.
Turn right onto 41st.
Turn left onto Opal Cliff.
Turn right onto Capitola.
Turn left onto Monterey.
Turn right onto Park.
Turn right onto Cabrillo College Dr.
Turn right onto Soquel.
Heading past Aptos, there are bunches of bicyclists on the road going the opposite direction.
Turn left onto Freedom. There are some more bunches of cyclists.
One hour.
Turn left onto Hames.
Turn left onto Eureka Canyon.
Two hours.
More cyclists going the opposite direction.
Eureka Canyon becomes Highland.
Lots of bunches of cyclists going the opposite direction until I get past the camp.
Highland becomes Summit Road.
Three hours.
Turn right onto Bear Creek Road. This was a mistake.
The first sign that it was a mistake was the sign right at the start: Los Gatos 6 miles.
The second sign that it was a mistake was in the back of my mind: that I was going down on the Santa Clara Valley side of the mountains. However, in the front of my mind was all the blind turns while sharply descending.
The third sign was seeing 17, and Lexington Reservoir beyond that.
Turn left onto Montevina.
Turn left onto Black. The sign says it leads to Skyline, which is where I want to go.
Four hours.
Turn right onto Skyline.
Turn left onto 9.
Five hours.
Run out of water four miles from Boulder Creek.
Stop at Boulder Creek to buy water at New Leaf. They don't have plain, uncarbonated water in a small enough size. Get some overpriced water with some weird citrus and berry flavoring.
Continue on 9.
Turn left onto Graham Hill Road.
Six hours.
Turn left onto Lockewood.
Turn right onto Mount Hermon.
Turn left onto Glen Canyon.
A woman walking with her baby stops me and asks if I ride on Glen Canyon often. I say I used to. She asks if it is dangerous. I say no, why? She says because it is narrow and people drive like maniacs. I say I've ridden it over a thousand times. She said and you're still here. Then she said thanks.
Thinking back, counting both directions, I'd estimate that I've ridden Glen Canyon close to 1800 times.
Turn right onto Glen Canyon.
Turn right onto Branciforte.
Branciforte becomes Market.
Turn right onto Water.
Water becomes Mission.
Turn right onto Highland.
Turn left onto High.
Turn left onto Bay.
Turn right onto Meder.
About 90 miles in about 6:45. Bike was Trek 4000 mountain bike.
I counted about 23 bikes riding on cars or trucks. I probably saw many more than that being ridden on the road.