28 October 2006

The last day before the end of daylight savings time was warm and sunny. Since the days were getting shorter, I decided to go on a shorter ride on some of the smaller roads that I hadn't ridden in a while. Many roads also had newly paved sections. The repaving of High St was finally complete, so I started off heading down it for the first time in months. I had hoped that the work on the Market St underpass of Hwy 1 had also been completed so that I could take Glen Canyon to Scotts Valley, but it wasn't, so I headed up La Madrona.


Tube house on Mtn Charlie From Scotts Valley, I headed out on Bean Creek Rd, which, descending in the morning into the valley, was somewhat cold. It warmed up as I climbed to Glenwood. Glenwood was a gradual, slightly windy descent to the base of Mtn Charlie. Just before the Weston intersection, the air suddenly became cold, but I knew it would warm up on the ascent of Mtn Charlie. I hadn't ridden on Mtn Charlie since July, and there were some segments that were newly paved, which were much smoother than the rough, broken road that used to be there. I stopped by the blue tube house to take a picture. Just before Old Japanese Rd, three cyclists sped by in their descent.


Hwy 17 from Redwood Estates At the top of Mtn Charlie, I crossed Hwy 17 and continued down Mtn Charlie and Old Santa Cruz Hwy to Holy City. I planned on heading up Holy City Rd through Redwood Estates, but I got confused at the upper end of Holy City Rd, thinking that it ended at Hwy 17, and that it wasn't Holy City Rd, so I backtracked and continued down Old Santa Cruz Hwy for a mile or so before deciding that it actually was Holy City Rd, so I climbed back up Old Santa Cruz Hwy and Holy City Rd, and crossed under Hwy 17. I stopped at the intersection with southbound Hwy 17 to take a picture, then continued up the steep, winding maze of Redwood Estates to Summit Rd.


Thorn in my tire I headed left on Summit, crossing over Hwy 17 to Old Santa Cruz Hwy, where I turned right, and soon turned left onto Schulties. The sign at the top of Schulties warned of a rough road, which certainly was the case. At first, it was just another narrow road, lined with redwood duff, but the pavement continued to deteriorate, becoming essentially a dirt road for a mile or so. There were even sections of rocky gravel. My arms were tired from riding the brakes, and I was thankful for the return of pavement. At the end, I continued on Redwood Lodge, which initially dropped into the cold, dark woods, then crossed a bridge before climbing steeply. After it started climbing more gradually, I felt my rear tire go flat. I walked a hundred feet or so before finding a convenient, sunny spot off to the right of the road and patched the tube. I had a spare tube, but I wasn't in any hurry. Looking for the source of the flat, I found a big thorn, about a quarter of an inch long, lodged in my tire, and took a picture of it. My arms were still tired from riding the brakes on Schulties, and it took something like 200 strokes to pump up the tire, so I felt more tired that I otherwise would have. With the tire fixed, I continued to Soquel-San Jose.

After a brief descent on Soquel-San Jose, I headed up Stetson and Skyland, and down Highland and took a break at the Summit Market. I then descended Soquel-San Jose, and headed over Laurel Glen and up Granite Creek to Scotts Valley. The roughest part of Granite Creek had also been repaved. From Scotts Valley, I headed down Mt Hermon to Felton, then down Hwy 9 back home.

21 October 2006

Pigeon Point from Hwy 1 I took advantage of the beautiful weather to climb Haskins Hill from the west and Alpine Rd for the first time. I started north on Hwy 1, stopping to take a horrible picture of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, which is the white dot in the distance. It was sunny, and mostly warm, with some cold pockets.

I turned right at Pescadero Rd and continued up and over Haskins Hill. There were a number of cyclists headed in the opposite direction, including five or six tandems. At Alpine Rd, I turned right and headed up to Skyline. Near the top, one more tandem passed by going the opposite way.

On Skyline, there were packs of motorcycles. I stopped at the fire station for a break and to refill my bottle. Then, I headed down Hwy 9 to Felton. There were more motorcycle packs on Hwy 9. I think at least one of the packs was also on Skyline, since one guy made pedaling motions with his legs both times. From Boulder Creek to Ben Lomond, I played leapfrog with a SCMTD 35 bus. All the traffic reminded me why I generally prefer heading up Jamison Creek to Empire Grade rather than continuing down Hwy 9. At Felton, I took a break at New Leaf.


Monterey Bay from High St From Felton, I headed up Felton-Empire to Empire Grade. Felton-Empire had relatively heavy traffic, and the air pollution from the oversized pickup trucks was bothersome.

I headed down Empire Grade, stopping near the UCSC west entrance to take a picture of the bay. I had hoped that this would be one of those rare days where the Monterey peninsula would be clearly visible, but it was fogged over, as usual. My crappy camera phone would probably not be able to capture it even if it were clear anyhow. After that was a short downhill coast back home.

14 October 2006

Eat and ride day - Progressive dinner

The ride was to start by meeting on Highland for coffee and pastries at 9, so I got my bike out about ten minutes before that. I decided to try using a camera phone for adding pictures here, so I took a picture of my bike. The easy route and the food succeeded in attracting a lot more riders than usual, despite the chilly, overcast weather. There were even four tandems.

We headed out back to High, then down Western to the bike path along Wilder. After an out and back, we headed down through Natural Bridges, along West Cliff, by the Beach Boardwalk, and over the trestle bridge where I took another picture.

We went around the yacht harbor and out on Brommer and stopped at Sorrento Oaks Park for snacks and appetizers. I took a picture of all the bikes there.

We headed out along Brommer to Capitola, down Cliff, up Monterey, and along Park. We passed by New Brighton, taking McGregor and State Park and Soquel to Huntington. I had never before ridden Huntington, a nice quiet road with a few ups and downs leading to Valencia.

A short leg along Valencia led to the well-worn Day Valley to Freedom. We headed down Freedom, briefly on Corralitos, Varni and Amesti to lunch on Corona Ct. There was salmon and various salads for lunch. I took a picture before leaving after lunch.

The long route option, which I was riding, had most of its climbing, such as it was, after lunch. I headed out in a small group along Amesti and Pioneer. On the rollers of Pioneer, I got ahead of all of them except one guy. I gradually gained on him on Green Valley, and continued on when he stopped at the Hazel Dell intersection. I headed off on my own up Hazel Dell and down Browns Valley to Corralitos, up and down Hames, along Freedom and Soquel. I saw the four tandems between Aptos and Capitola.

From Capitola, I took East Cliff, went around the yacht harbor, and took the river paths through Santa Cruz, up Potrero to High St, then up the steep end of Highland. I took a picture at the hairpin in the middle of the climb. At the end of the ride, there was dessert. The apple pie and apple cobbler were quickly finished.

Since it was still chilly, I headed home soon afterwards. But, before leaving, I took a picture of three of the tandems.

7 October 2006

I headed out solo to climb Page Mill for the first time. Since the Stanford campus was right by there, and since I hadn't been on the campus since I was born there, I decided to ride the campus loop, but ended up only riding half of it because I didn't really know the area.

I started up Hwy 9 to Felton, then up Zayante, Summit, Bear Creek, Skyline, down Hwy 9, Pierce, Mt Eden, Stevens Canyon, Foothill and through the Stanford campus. I then headed up Page Mill, Skyline, down Hwy 9, Hwy 236 to Big Basin. I returned home via Jamison Creek and Empire Grade.

This was the twelfth time I climbed Jamison Creek this year, and, despite having ridden about 95 miles and 7 and a half hours to get to it, climbed it in just over 32 minutes, which is about 3 minutes off my personal best.

1 October 2006

Surf City Century

Because of the cloudiness, I didn't wake up until 7, so I took a quick shower and had a skimpy breakfast and was on my bike at around 7:30. I rode to Cabrillo College to do the Surf City Century. I got started just after 8. The 100 mile route went to Corralitos, Gizdich Ranch, Aromas, San Juan Bautista for the lunch stop, Salinas, Castroville, Elkhorn, then back to Cabrillo for dinner. Afterwards, I rode back home. It rained a little around Castroville, and the roads were wet for the rest of the ride.

Since I had memorized the route from the web site, instead of taking Murphy Crossing, San Juan Highway, and Aromas Road to Aromas, I took Highway 129 and Rogge to Aromas, which had about the same distance, less climbing, but was narrower with fast traffic, including RVs and the like. Had I read the route sheet, I would have followed it, as it was the better option.