4 November 2006

Boulder Creek, Big Basin and Skyline

It had rained from Wednesday evening through Friday morning, and it was cloudy in the morning, so the streets were still a little wet. The club ride was to start from Boulder Creek, so I headed up Hwy 9, giving myself 70 minutes, though it took me 53 minutes. About 15 people showed for the ride. Before starting, there were warnings that the roads would be wet, and that Lodge road, which I had never ridden before, was narrow and potholed in places.


Lodge Rd We headed out of Boulder Creek on Park. After a mile or so, we hopped over to Hwy 236. After Jamison Creek Rd, I was riding with two other guys, going at a pretty hard pace. We finally stopped at the start of Lodge Rd, and I took a picture. While we were stopped, a car came up Hwy 236 and turned onto Lodge. I wonder if it went on the one-lane, duff covered part of the road, though I would guess it probably turned off before that.

After two more guys arrived, we continued on Lodge at a more relaxed pace. The first part of Lodge reminded me of the steep part of China Grade, only not so steep. The middle part of Lodge was very narrow. It reminded me a lot of Pipeline Rd in Henry Cowell. Finally, it opened up into a wide, newly repaved road before ending back on Hwy 236, just before the Big Basin Park Headquarters. The reception on my GPS was blocked by the trees and mountains, so the map won't show this part of the route very well.


Trees at Big Basin Park HQ Since it was early in the ride, I didn't get anything. Some of the other guys got coffee, since it was slightly chilly. I took a picture of the trees from next to the store. We hung around long enough to see everyone else on the ride to arrive.

The route called for heading up Escape Rd, but, due to the wet road conditions, the group of five that I was riding with decided to head straight up Hwy 236 instead. At the intersection with Hwy 9, the longer ride option headed up to Skyline, while the shorter option headed straight down to Boulder Creek. We all headed up to Skyline. I got a hot dog and a coke at the stand. After regrouping and a little break, we headed south on Skyline, going by Castle Rock, Black Rd and Gist Rd, all the way to Bear Creek Rd.


Monterey Bay from Bear Creek and Skyline At the intersection of Skyline and Bear Creek, I stopped and took a picture of the fog over the bay. Two of the guys, who had ridden to the start, decided to head left to Summit, then down Mtn Charlie and Glen Canyon. I headed right with the other two back to Boulder Creek. Since Bear Creek Rd was fairly dry, I went on ahead of the other two on the descent, and rode alone for the rest of the ride.

From Boulder Creek, I headed out on Hwy 236 to Jamison Creek, which I hadn't climbed in about a month. At a point a little more than a mile from the top of Jamison Creek, a dark brown Miata with vanity plates was stopped on the right side of the road, facing traffic, with its emergency blinkers on. There was nobody in the car. I noticed a bottle of water in the holder behind the stick. I didn't see anybody around, so I hope whatever that was turned out okay.

I reached the top in under 32 minutes, which wasn't too bad. I was also using my 30/23 gear, rather than my lowest gear of 30/25 that I'd usually use on this climb. So now I can be confident that I'd be able to climb Jamison Creek without too much difficulty if I got a compact double with a 34/27 low gear on my next bike.

I continued home on Empire Grade. Since the parts with lots of tree cover were still a little wet, I was a bit more cautious than usual on the descents.

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.