Just moved here two days ago from the east coast. My bikes will be here Friday. I mainly ride road. Will be commuting to work on the Los gatos trail. Anyhow, can someone recommend me some rides in the area that I can't miss? Hilly is cool, or whatever. Maybe some non hard core trail riding would be cool too. I really know nothing of the area yet.
Thanks in advance!
Lots of great hills in Los Gatos and neighboring Saratoga. Kennedy, Shannon, Hicks, Bohlman, Mt. Unumhum, Alma Bridge, Redwood Gulch, Montebello. Easy trail riding in Fremont Older OSP.
Hi -holiday76, good to see you in this forum. Los Gatos is a great area for riding. Maybe we can arrange a C&V ride and hit a couple of the popular climbs.
Thanks and Sounds good! Hopefully this morning will be my first commute on the Los gatos creek trail. My kids are still on east coast time and waking me up at 4 am though, so we'll see....
From Los Gatos you can also ride south into the santa cruz mountains. You go south on the bike trail (dirt/gravel, one dirt climb) to Lexington Dam. From there you can around the lake and to San Jose/Soquel road. Or you can ride the wrong way on the shoulder of the freeway (probably illegal, reasonably safe execpt for the grate that sticks out into the road, and riding up the on ramp where people will clip the corner). Or when it's dry there's a singletrack that parallels the freeway and is usually rideable on a road bike. Of course you can go up Bohlman and cross through the open space and descent Montevina too. That's the hard way; Bohlman is very steep.
Once you're at Lexington you can ride up Black rd (steep, some traffic) to Skyline. From there either north or south. Or you can go up San Jose/Soquel, which is not nearly as steep. But if you go north there'll be some steep parts, just not nearly as long as the hard part of Black.
You can also go north from town and make your way to Foothill expressway. From there you can go north and reach some of the other iconic riding like Portola Valley, Old La Honda, and Kings Mountain rd.
If you're not used to climbing you'll be getting used to it soon. You can avoid the climbs here but that limits you to riding mostly in traffic.
The flattest riding of any significant distance is to go east and south out McKee road to the Uvas area.
Oh wow, we can bike Mt. Unumhum?Originally Posted by johnny99
I grew up in the valley and always wanted to ride up there.... any info appreciated.
2012 Trek 7.4 FX Lava Black (finally!)
2007 Trek 4400 MTB silver
The lower half of the road is open to the public. Take your chances above the "trespassers will be shot" sign. There is a plan to open the summit to the public, but that will take years longer.
Ah, good to know, thanks.
I sure hope they open up the summit. When I was a kid I remember seeing when they still had the rotating antenna up there.
2012 Trek 7.4 FX Lava Black (finally!)
2007 Trek 4400 MTB silver
There was a news story a couple years ago about a big pot farm bust way out behind Unumhum - and there were people with guns guarding it, so the warning about getting shot is probably worth heeding...
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote