RR: Santa Cruz Thanksgiving Weekend

[VTVic]

Here's a teaser from a trail near UC Santa Cruz right through the redwood forest... This particular section is called mailbox (or mailboxes). Will post more later...I'm headed to Soquel Demonstration forest now...

[Pain Freak]

Hey, I rode that great short trail. I rode it with the guys from the LBS over by the boardwalk.

[stjunkie]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

Hey, I rode that great short trail. I rode it with the guys from the LBS over by the boardwalk.

Mikey: I can't believe Vic is on a road trip and we aren't. Something is wrong here.

Have fun Vic.

[sheclimbs]

Hey Vic, looking forward to your report, I'm interested in riding there sometime on my way up the coast. Enjoy!
Lynn

[dstepper]

Originally Posted by stjunkie

Mikey: I can't believe Vic is on a road trip and we aren't. Something is wrong here.

Have fun Vic.

Yep I guess Vic is smarter than you two clowns.

[VTVic]

Alright, here it is...
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Day One: Thanksgiving morning @ UC Santa Cruz... keep it a secret.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Wow, this has been the best weekend I’ve had in Santa Cruz in a long time. Hooked up with Nativeson(Mike) and SCHeckler(Dwight) whom I met back in 06 at the Fort Ord ride through MTBR. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Mike picked me up at 8:00 and we drove to Dwight’s home near UC Santa Cruz. From his house we rode the streets up to meet with Steve and Bruce. Great guys to ride with. From there we took off to the trailhead across campus. Weather was pretty chilly, perhaps in the low 60’s but perfect for riding. The trail is right smack in the middle of a dense redwood forest with gradual and continuous climbing that starts to get to you after a while. The trail was nicely packed with very windy and narrow sections. Blinking was not an option for a while as we were having to squeeze through trees and branches that would pop out of nowhere… I don’t have the elevation gain/loss but the distance was under 15 miles with lots of log crossings and many stunts of all sizes.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Towards the end we hit a section called Mailbox that gradually starts to descend into a very steep and technical downhill section with plenty of rocks and ruts, which I cleaned... This was definitely the highlight of this ride. From there we rode out through a small rock garden and into a creek with more awesome views. Will definitely hit this again on my next trip out to the area. Here are some of the pictures I took…[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Mike hitting a couple jumps[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Steve and Bruce[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Mike on a very tight section of the trail[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Me[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Bruce, Dwight and Steve[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Dwight going through a fallen tree...[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]regroup...[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Mike posing with his Ibis Mojo carbon…very sweet ride[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]View from bottom of DH section at Mailbox…pictures don’t do it justice[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Looking down about ¼ of the way up[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]More looking up…[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Redwoods…[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Along the creek[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Rock garden[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Log crossing about 15 over the creek[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]End of the trail[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Steve[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Ocean view…[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Great ride and fun group. Just what the doctor ordered before the big turkey grub.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]I'll post day two @ demo later...[/SIZE][/FONT]

[VTVic]

Day 2: Demo Forest
Again, WOW. I never imagined how close to my in-laws’ place this trail is. Before moving to their current home, they used to live right at the bottom of the road that takes you into Eureka Cyn and up to Demo. It was disappointing to find out how close it was and never have driven up there before. Well, now I’ve done it and had a big smile at the end of the ride.
Again, Mike picked me up a little later and we began riding at around 10am. While it was later in the day it was still in the low 60's. The drive to the trailhead alone was very nice on a windy narrow road that was very beat in some sections. The ride itself starts with about a 3 mile fire road climb to a sweet secret single track section that Mike recommended and eventually dropped us out at Aptos Creek fire road. From there we rode about another 2 miles or so till we found West Ridge trail enjoying a few ocean views of Moss Landing along the way.
Ridge trail was a lot of fun with buff single track, sudden steep climbs and sweet and fast descends. The vegetation and scenery here were very similar to the UCSC area also with plenty of stunts. We were expecting to see a lot of traffic due to the holiday but there weren’t that many people out there. While stopping to break and to have a beer, we met a few locals and a couple that was there visiting from Oregon.
From this point it was all downhill with a few loose sections and again plenty log stunts and mini jumps that were doable for me… I estimate the downhill section of this trail being about 5 to 8 miles with some pretty dark and spooky sections along the way. :shock: There’s no way I would ride this by myself. The forest is pretty dense with not a whole lot of sunlight in most sections of Sawpit.
The trail finally drops you off at the fire road that will take you on a 4 mile climb back up to your car. What a sad way to end the fun single track… while the fire road was long, it was not too bad. There were a couple sections that were painful but the scenery and the smell of the forest would make it all better. Mike was at first talking about doing 2 loops; I thought he was crazy...he needs to hook up with Dean and Scott
Again, I don’t have the elevation gain/loss but I estimate the ride also being about 15 or so miles. However I understand you can also turn this into a 50 miler ride…good luck
Big thanks again to Mike for giving me the royal treatment. Hope we can do it again soon. I owe you big time and hope you can make it out to our neck of the woods in the near future.
Here are some of the pictures from Demo:

Mike on the fire road climb

Secret trail…





Ridge Trail



Mike on a nasty climb



Oh yeah…

One of Mike’s many hucks

My only huck…

Too scary…almost 5 feet tall



Fun’s over…spooky fire road climb


Back at the lot…

Mike’s Ibis Mojo

Needless to say, I will be visiting my in-laws more often

[dirtmistress]

EXCELLENT!! I've ridden both areas but we had no guide so we were winging it for sure! Still, it was gorgeous. Up north RULES!! I'll take ferns and redwoods anyday! The Aptos area was great but at the bottom of some trail we were on, there was a ranger with radar on us. We were not going fast but still.
Hardly any cars were there which means hardly any people. I mean, this is what our taxes pay for? How pathetic! For that reason, up north sux!

[Pain Freak]

Vic, is this ride going to count against your monthly ride production? Shiat, we won't see you out on the trails again for months. Tell your wife she can't count these rides because we weren't there.

[Tom Cosgrove]

I rode that park in Sept . Beautiful

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

Hey, I rode that great short trail. I rode it with the guys from the LBS over by the boardwalk.

[VTVic]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

Vic, is this ride going to count against your monthly ride production? Shiat, we won't see you out on the trails again for months. Tell your wife she can't count these rides because we weren't there.

Nope, as far as I know this counts as 1 (one) normal weekend ride from my "every other weekend" ride schedule. I will see you boys again in two weeks ...I think.