Four of us enjoyed a great day of cycling on Saturday, July 19th in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Mark Yelencich and I were joined by his friend Glen and Doug Dexter for our own self-supported century featuring over 12,000 feet of climbing.
We started in Los Altos and rode up Stevens Canyon to Redwood Gulch, which features several sections of 20% or more grade. Once up to the top of that beast, we rode up Highway 9 to Skyline Blvd. for our first regroup. The next part of the ride was particularly beautiful through the redwoods and up and down another climb to the ranger station in Big Basin State Park.
After a water and refueling stop, we began another climb culminating in the difficult ascent up Jamieson Creek Road, again with sections topping out at over 20%. From there, it was all downhill (and a great, screaming, 40mph+ one at that :-)) past Bonny Doon and into our lunch stop along Highway 1 in Davenport.
Of course, what goes down, must climb back up, so we had three miles of 10%+ climbing back to Bonny Doon. We turned right onto Ice Cream Grade and headed into Felton for another brief refueling stop. I am happy to say we didn’t see any evidence of the recent forest fires along our route.
With our third and final water stop complete, we began the looong climb up East Zayante back to Highway 35. After a rest at Hwy 35/9, it was time for one more long, screaming descent back to Los Altos and dinner, since it was now well past 6pm. A full day! Check out my MotionBased record of it here.
The Chain Letter 