Road Trip Ride #8: Santa Cruz

Dutifully chatting with the ride leader, Ray, Reilly told him who we were and what we were up to.  Ray stopped his bike and got off.    “Well, you’ll have to leave.  You can’t ride with this club, for safety reasons.”  With that, he simply waited for us to ride away.  We were speechless, so too were the apologetic-looking faces on many of the other club members.  In virtually any other circumstance, we would have been enthusiastically invited to join the group, cyclists welcoming travelling cyclists.  Apparently not with this crew.  Oh well, we left Ray and his posse behind and set out to explore what Santa Cruz has to offer.  And let me tell you, it has quite a lot!

As was the case in Marin, the day started with a climb.  We rode up Wilder Ridge, then Twin Oaks, Eucalyptus then Chinnquapin.  Mostly double-track, we were soon getting warmed-up but wondering if there was much single-track to explore.  As we rode, the local high-school mountain-bike racing team went by.  We chatted with their organizer, who directed us to cross Empire Grade Rd. and explore the UCSC trails.

The trails flowed beautifully, with “hero-dirt” keeping our wheels firmly planted on the ground as we whipped around corners and bombed the little ups and downs.  Eventually, we came across Richard, who’s chain had broken.  While Reilly tended to the patient, Richard told us a bit more about the trails we were heading towards, including a particular downhill section.  Back on the bikes, a few minutes later we came across a group of riders all on Specialized bikes; turns out they all work for Specialized.  Since they had the full-suspension bikes and the local trail-knowledge, we followed them down one of the gnarliest, most technical and steep downhill sections I’d ever ridden, with plenty of drops, roots, rocks and sphincter-clenching excitement.  It was incredible!  Although, the very last section was so steep, with such high drops before hitting the road, that we all had to walk it.  On the asphalt, Reilly and I left our Specialized crew for a mile or so before getting back onto the trails.  However, since we got to go down, we had to climb back up.

Eventually, after much climbing, we exited the UCSC trails and were back on the Wilder Ranch trails.   A balmy 5c(41f), we spent the last two hours of our ride in the rain.  The long double-track trails back to the trail-head had us flying, although, soaked to the bone while trying to keep the spray from our eyes.

After about four hours we were back at the van, shivering but smiling.  A wonderful, but wet, day in Santa Cruz.   Thanks Ray.

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