Santa Cruz Ride, Wednesday 06 Jun 07
Although the last weeks have had fog over the Santa Clara valley until
noon or later and low fog on the coast, Wednesday was the first day
with clear skies and cumulus clouds high over our mountains.
It was cool as I started shortly after 7:00 under a bright sun without
a filtering haze as it was most of the past weeks. As I crossed the
summit at Skylonda, I met a stiff wind from the northwest, blowing
across the road but with the shelter of the forest, it remained above
the treetops most of the way to the flatlands as I headed to the
coast. After leaving the forest, it was a bit of a push part of the
time to San Gregorio even though it is generally downhill. However,
it was mostly a tailwind, once I reached the coast and headed south.
Under a clear sky with visibility to the horizon, the ocean was
beautifully dark blue with the beginnings of white caps. Looking down
from the cliffs, the change in sand bars was striking, with waves
breaking a quarter mile offshore, then becoming smooth again over
deeper water and finally rolling in over shallow clear greenish-blue
depressions that were partially separated from the ocean by low tide.
Pescadero Creek barely flowing to the sea was itself mostly sand bars,
inland of the highway, and its tidal "tunnel" dry with its rocky floor
exposed. Being low tide, many harbor seals lay resting on secure
water-surrounded rocks like so many grey blobs, just sleeping, between
Pebble and Bean Hollow beaches. A couple of small fishing boats were
just offshore but no container ships at sea today.
Pigeon Point with its gleaming white light tower was magnificent in
the clear sky, it's beacon flashing every 10 seconds as though someone
were still using the signal to discover the coast. The brisk tailwind
was a bit intermittent but never completely gone.
I made good time up the hill to Big Creek Lumber Co. from Waddell
Creek and had a marvelous view of Greyhound Rock and Pelican Rock to
the south with crashing surf even with as mild as it was.
Rolling down to Scott Creek before Davenport, I reached 51mph with the
wind that helped me cruise past the town briskly without stopping for
a snack. This year the Aids Ride, last Sunday, seems to have been
better organized year because I saw only a couple of water bottles
lying next to the road. Last year there were hundreds.
I got to Santa Cruz at about 11:00, watched Guillemots fly to their
hidden nests in the cliffs, and surfers, waiting for Godot, who was a
no-show, at least not like last Saturday when the waves were so big,
that many surfers let them go by. The view to the south, was all of
Monterey bay in the clear, with billowing clouds over the Santa Lucia
mountains. The view of the beach at Rio del Mar was reminiscent of
the Riviera with sparkling blue water white sand and a backdrop of
mountains.
The Boardwalk had more visitors than other weekdays but then some
folks are good responding quickly to good weather. I crossed the
San Lorenzo river on the RR bridge and past the Marina, with its
million dollar boats, before stopping at Amsterdam Bicycles where Tom
Sullivan presides (in the windmill). After exchanging a bit of bike
talk, I pushed on to Capitola and Aptos, where I headed inland on
Valencia road that ducks into a dark redwood forest just behind town.
After the woods, Day Valley Rd. climbs past a great growth of prickly
pears that get harvested each year. The birds at the ostrich farm
were just walking around as always as I descended to MacDonald Rd. and
on to Freedom Blvd. Hames road connects to Corralitos with a steep
short bump before town. Here I got some food and drink at the Sausage
Factory and general store for the next climbs that I had in mind.
Eureka Canyon Rd. was marvelous as it climbed along Corralitos Creek
through dense redwoods on what was once a logging railroad. Then it
begins to climb more lush redwoods from one watershed to another. re
in their foggy home territory, the redwoods have light green new
leaves on all their "finger tips". Because there was practically no
traffic, I rode on my "private road" to four corners summit, the
intersection of Eureka Canyon, Highland Way, Buzzard Lagoon and Ormsby
roads
I turned up Ormsby with all its phony private road signs and threats
of locked gates at the upper end, while several real estate signs
invite people to have a look. The road is immaculately paved to near
the top, after which there are still a couple of unpaved steep bumps
to summit road. The junction is paved for some reason, but there are
no more signs about go back you are on private property and the like,
just county road signs warning of sharp curves and rough road.
Summit road does a few steep ups and downs, but mainly up before it
reaches Loma Prieta Avenue, where I turned right on the smoothly paved
"dirty bump" that was once a challenge to the bicyclist because it is
steep and was unpaved and loose. Because the residents of Loma
Chiquita in part have front wheel drive cars, this piece was
impassable until it was paved. It was in better shape than I have
seen it in years.
Today the view from up here was spectacular, with the Pacific Ocean on
one side, the Santa Clara valley below a backdrop of the Mt' Hamilton
range crowned with brilliant white Cumulus clouds and a view to
Monterey. I went around the north side of the peak (3809ft) and filed
my water bottle at the spring before heading off toward Mt. Umunhum.
The road was in good shape except for a couple of rocky areas that
required slowing down, but other than that it was a good dirt road.
I met no one on this road nor on the Umunhum Road down to the road
closure above Hicks road. As I descended the steepest parts of Hicks
road, riders were going up in what appeared to me to be after work
workouts. It was too late to go over the mountain and there isn't
anything on top.
After the steep descent of Hicks Rd. it's a short climb over Shannon
road to Los Gatos where I took the cut-off to Saratoga Road and joined
another rider who was out testing a new cyclometer. I took
Stelling-Hollenbeck-Pastoria road to Homestead to reach Foothill Expy.
and cruise home on the wheels of some bikies who improved my ET.
That was 137miles and 8570ft climbing in great weather.
-----------------
Jobst Brandt