Times have changed. Or have they? Yesterday David and Eric led an off-road ride out of Half Moon Bay up Purisima Creek trail to Skyline and back. Purisima is an old logging road originally constructed when redwood cutting was all the rage in the Coast Range back in the 19th century. As such it’s a dirt road. The Santa Cruz mountains are full of them, some of which are still in use such as the Old Haul Road near Big Basin State Park. Purisima is now a ‘trail’ and is a not-too-well-known connector between Skyline near where Kings Mountain and Tunitas Creek join and Highway One. Cycling down is the preferred direction but David and Eric ventured heading up along with Duncan, David L., and Brian.
Once the habitat of a few road cyclists it has been used mostly by mountain bikers. But all-road and ‘gravel’ bikes have made riding on dirt fashionable again and you’ll notice there isn’t a mountain bike in the group. I certainly hope they’ll lead this ride again!
Here is David’s report:
“We had a great time today. The weather was cool and breezy but mostly sunny after the morning shower. The trails were great, not too crowded. Neither were the roads (except for Hwy 1, natch).
We saw Michaelangelo on his ALC training ride going the other way on 1. Crazy coincidence since we were on 1 for all of two minutes.
No incidents to report except that I got a pinch flat on the last 100 yards of the single track. Everyone but Brian (who had a dog waiting for him at home) patiently waited for me to perform a tube change on my rear wheel, which may be the most finicky rear wheel I’ve ever worked on.
We had a windswept dinner outside a the Himalayan restaurant at the north end of town.
We’ll do that ride again for sure.”
Sure beats riding with cars, doesn’t it?
The Chain Letter 