Just another day in paradise. Braille Trail in the Soquel Demonstration Forest is the hardest, most technical, most fun mountain bike trail I’ve ridden so far. It’s full of technical challenges and manmade obstacles, you can see some of them in the video below. What’s not shown are the thrilling downhill sections, 1-2 foot drops through rocks and roots, tight turns, and general mayhem. Once your adrenaline starts pumping it’s a simple matter of pointing your bike downhill and hanging on.

We had a bit of a mishap on the ride out and Gary had to walk his bike up most of Hihn’s Mill Road. Aside from that we all had a blast and are looking forward to the next time.

Here is the GPX file.

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The Turkey Day ride in Los Gatos was a whole lot of fun. Here are my pictures.

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The smoked turkey was really good! It was stuffed with oranges and glazed with a maple syrup, dijon mustard, and white wine glaze.

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This was my first trip to Soquel Demonstration State Forest (aka “demo”), considered by many to be the top mountain bike destination in the Bay Area. After today’s 2 hour ride I’d be hard pressed to disagree. We kept it fairly simple, riding from the parking lot down Highland Way, Buzzard Lagoon, Aptos Creek Fire Road, Ridge Trail, Tractor Trail, and than back to the car on Hihn’s Mill Road.

The single track is to die for. It’s like riding in a mountain bike video, with jumps, logs, banked corners, big rocks, drops through roots. Yep, the whole nine.

I can’t wait to go back. Braille Trail and Sawpit await.

Here is the GPX file.

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We rode a local classic this morning. Starting from home, we hopped onto the LG Creek Trail near the high school, then rode Jones Trail, Overgrown/Limekiln, up Limekiln to the junction with Woods Trail, and then ripped down Kennedy and back home. My maximum speed was 35.8 mph down Kennedy road. Good clean fun.

I’ve never seen more riders on Kennedy trail than we saw this morning. No doubt everyone is doing a shake down ride in preparation for the big Kennedy Turkey Day ride on Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to it.

Here is the GPX file.

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From hard technical riding to jaw dropping views to heart attack climbing to zippy single track, this ride has it all. This is a superb ride and highly recommended.

The route is:

• Saratoga Gap Trail
• Hickory Oaks Trail
• Long Ridge Road
• Long Ridge Trail
• Ridge Trail
• Horseshoe Lake (stop for a snack)
• Skid Road Trail
• Stevens Creek Nature Trail
• Canyon Trail
• Grizzly Flat Trail (North)
• Peters Creek Trail
• Ridge Trail
• Hickory Oaks Trail
• Saratoga Gap Trail

Here is the GPX file.

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I did a little riding on the flanks of Mt. Umunhum this afternoon. My goal was to find out if one can ride past the old Air Force base without needing to jump a gate. I was stymied by some “No Trespassing” signs about 0.5 mile from the gate leading up to the base. I also took a spin up to Bald Mountain on a nice little trail. I was deep in the clouds so there were no views to be had.

Here is the GPX file.

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Today was my first ride in Henry Coe State Park near Morgan Hill, CA. Coe is not only a popular destination for local mountain bikers, but it’s a frequent dark sky site for local amateur astronomers. With that coincidence in play, what could possibly go wrong?

The ride was great, some tough climbs but tons of super fun single track with a few technical bits and downhills mixed in. We followed the ride with lunch at In-n-Out Burger. What a perfect day.

Oh… we saw a tarantula on Gilroy Hot Springs Road. How cool is that? Check out the pictures for a close up.

Here is the GPX file.

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