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12-25-04, 11:50 PM
I'm at my parent's house for the holidays, and as they live in a great mountain biking area (Santa Cruz, California) I brought my bike down with me. Last night I saw an old friend I haven't seen in a year at a Christmas Eve party, and I invited him to go riding with me today. He's doesn't mountain bike normally, but he's a really athletic guy who just got back from a 2-month surfing trip to Indonesia, so he's in good shape and has a pretty good sense of balance. He was able to borrow a bike and meet me at my parent's place today.
The trail we took isn't really a long one, the whole trip was maybe 9 miles or so, but after today I think it's come to be my favorite trail. We leave my parent's neighborhood, cross a street, and immediately head up a paved hill. The road takes us about halfway to the trailhead, and then we have to take a fireroad up the rest of the way, where the trail starts behind a water tower on top of a big hill. When you get to the top of the hill, you're winded from the climb, but it's an awesome place to stop and catch your breath before starting on the trail, because you have a view of the entire Monterey Bay and the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. From there the trail is all downhill, it's not super technical - there's almost no rocks, but there are lots of tight turns and small berms, logs acorss the trail to jump over, and some small drops and things.
It's my favorite type of trail - it's fast and flowing and the obstacles are fun challenges. I really prefer this type of riding to a "technical" trail that basically consists of a whole bunch of jarring rocks, but nothing really difficult. This trail is awesome, it's smooth in most spots, aside from some sections with roots, and you just flow through the whole thing and try to hit the drops and things when you get to them. Everything on the trail just feels right - you're never feel like you're fighting against the trail, but flowing along it as if there's some sort of harmony between the forest and your bike.
Aside from the fact that I really like the sytle of riding the trail offers, it's also beautiful. The trail runs down through a redwood forest, and everything is lined with moss and there are ferns alongside the trail, and when you get to the bottom there's a creek to ride alongside. If you've never experienced a pacific redwood forest, you should try it sometime. If you've seen north shore pictures, the forest is pretty similar in Vancouver to Santa Cruz.
Anyway, it's maybe 4 miles or so, all downhill, from the water tower until you come out on a fireroad in a state park (forest of the misene marks - you can look it up on mtbr.com if you're curious) you ride the road for a little bit, then you can get back on some fun but not real challenging single track near the road that leads you another mile or two to the park entrance. From that point, it's about 2 miles back to my parent's place on the road. We stopped at the beach on the way home (it's about a 1/4 mile detour to the beach, so it's not far out of the way) and talked for a while before heading all the way back.
One more thing that made the ride great is that I realized I rode the trail much better this time than the last time I was up there. Everything just felt right I was flowing through the obstacles and things exactly how I wanted to, while last time I felt like I just wasn't riding nearly as well. My friend kept up pretty well, too, he was riding over 8" logs with no problem, hitting the sections with roots just fine, and didn't have any trouble with the small drops. There was only a couple places he had to stop and walk that I rode. I thought he did great for someone that hasn't ridden a bike in along time. There are still two more obstacles on the trail that I haven't hit, that I'm going to try the next time I ride it. It gives me an opportunity to improve even more the next time I ride the trail.
Awesome ride, great weather, good friends, it was a nice way to spend Christmas.
The trail we took isn't really a long one, the whole trip was maybe 9 miles or so, but after today I think it's come to be my favorite trail. We leave my parent's neighborhood, cross a street, and immediately head up a paved hill. The road takes us about halfway to the trailhead, and then we have to take a fireroad up the rest of the way, where the trail starts behind a water tower on top of a big hill. When you get to the top of the hill, you're winded from the climb, but it's an awesome place to stop and catch your breath before starting on the trail, because you have a view of the entire Monterey Bay and the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. From there the trail is all downhill, it's not super technical - there's almost no rocks, but there are lots of tight turns and small berms, logs acorss the trail to jump over, and some small drops and things.
It's my favorite type of trail - it's fast and flowing and the obstacles are fun challenges. I really prefer this type of riding to a "technical" trail that basically consists of a whole bunch of jarring rocks, but nothing really difficult. This trail is awesome, it's smooth in most spots, aside from some sections with roots, and you just flow through the whole thing and try to hit the drops and things when you get to them. Everything on the trail just feels right - you're never feel like you're fighting against the trail, but flowing along it as if there's some sort of harmony between the forest and your bike.
Aside from the fact that I really like the sytle of riding the trail offers, it's also beautiful. The trail runs down through a redwood forest, and everything is lined with moss and there are ferns alongside the trail, and when you get to the bottom there's a creek to ride alongside. If you've never experienced a pacific redwood forest, you should try it sometime. If you've seen north shore pictures, the forest is pretty similar in Vancouver to Santa Cruz.
Anyway, it's maybe 4 miles or so, all downhill, from the water tower until you come out on a fireroad in a state park (forest of the misene marks - you can look it up on mtbr.com if you're curious) you ride the road for a little bit, then you can get back on some fun but not real challenging single track near the road that leads you another mile or two to the park entrance. From that point, it's about 2 miles back to my parent's place on the road. We stopped at the beach on the way home (it's about a 1/4 mile detour to the beach, so it's not far out of the way) and talked for a while before heading all the way back.
One more thing that made the ride great is that I realized I rode the trail much better this time than the last time I was up there. Everything just felt right I was flowing through the obstacles and things exactly how I wanted to, while last time I felt like I just wasn't riding nearly as well. My friend kept up pretty well, too, he was riding over 8" logs with no problem, hitting the sections with roots just fine, and didn't have any trouble with the small drops. There was only a couple places he had to stop and walk that I rode. I thought he did great for someone that hasn't ridden a bike in along time. There are still two more obstacles on the trail that I haven't hit, that I'm going to try the next time I ride it. It gives me an opportunity to improve even more the next time I ride the trail.
Awesome ride, great weather, good friends, it was a nice way to spend Christmas.