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.