notfred

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.

PWRDbyTRD

rock on...I sat inside with a cold. Nothing is going to stop me from my ride Monday though

Cornish_Rdr_UK

SOunds fun, we went to local Skatepark on Xmas day So my brother could use hyis new bike

bikered

glad you had a good ride...I only managed 15 miles on my roadie before lunch , well, I've got plenty more holiday yet

littleriderdave

not fred, can you describe the two obstacles you havent hit yet?

rockstar

yeah i know santa cruz well and it is a great place to ride..

notfred

One is just a drop between two redwood trees that's probably 4-6 feet depending on how fast you hit it. The other is a wierd log-jump thing. There are two logs across the trail about 3 feet apart from each other. One is lying on the ground and the one behind it is about a foot and a half above the ground. someone took a third log and layed it across the first two, so that it forms a ramp up from the first log to the second one. It's not very high, it's onlt like a two foot drop off the top, but it's prtty technically challenging, and if you fall there are two big logs going across the trail to hit. It's kind of hard to explain, maybe I should draw a picture.

Maelstrom 

We just got dumped on with snow. I was thinking I could at least ride some concrete on xmas but it didn't happen...oh well glad someone got a good one in :d

tFUnK

good to hear somebody got in some riding before the rain started here in the bay

mtnbiker66

Good story,sounds like you guys had a blast. I rode Christmas day but it was pretty cold so I'm sure your ride was a lot more fun. Oh yea, I did a nice little 4 footer for Mael cuze' he was snowed in.

Maelstrom 

Thanks man. I do appreciate it

Trekke

I'm sitting in a deep freeze with snow, ice, high winds and salt all over the roads (which BTW doesn't do any good when it is below zero). I can't ride but glad you can. I enjoyed your ride even though it wasn't me. Thanks

cryogenic

bleh... all I managed on christmas was my trip to and from work.