Santa Cruz

Last weekend I took I ride I've done several times before, down to Santa Cruz and then back on Mountain Charlie Road.

View Santa Cruz in a larger map

I left the house a little before 9 AM, then went to Los Gatos over Kennedy. As I was riding down the Los Gatos Creek Trail, I hooked up with another rider going at roughly my pace, which is unusual for me. He was on his way to Carmel, so we chatted as we climbed up Old Santa Cruz Highway.

Surfers near Capitola

At the Soquel/San Jose road, I peeled off and headed down into Capitola. The temperature rose to about 70 as I approached the coast at about noon. The beach was busy and there were at least a few surfers in the water.

The boardwalk in Santa Cruz

Once again I stopped at Betty Burger for lunch, then continued west toward the boardwalk. I rode up the west side of the San Lorenzo River, then crossed and started up Graham Hill Road. I cut over into Scotts Valley, then took Bean Creek Road to Glenwood, and then to Mountain Charlie Road.

I now have my little analysis program calculating the most difficult kilometer of the ride. Difficult in this context means climbing, and the steeper the climb, the worse it is. On this ride, the most difficult kilometer was near the end of Bean Creek Road, when it rises steeply to meet Glenwood. That climb is a little over a kilometer long, and averages 7.7%; the most difficult kilometer averaged 8%.

Before I started up the hill, I once again tried to find one of the train tunnel entrances around here. I rode up Glenwood up to Glenwood Cutoff, but didn't find anything. The woods have so much irregular detail that they could easy hide an overgrown entrance.

After that it was back to Mountain Charlie, and up to Summit. At Summit I headed northwest to Bear Creek Road, and then down to Los Gatos, Kennedy and home.

Elevation profile

This ride was a little over 71 miles, with almost 5500 feet of climbing.