McGill road (at top of Bohlman/On Orbit) question
Mike Jacoubowsky
of Bohlman and heads towards Highway 9, becoming Allegheny Court along
the way? I saw the road on Google Maps before today's ride up Bohlman,
so my son & I headed out on it to see if it actually would take us to
Highway 9. The paved road ended at a very expensive house, with what
appeared to be an un-maintained dirt road/trail heading out from there.
Google maps Satellite view shows McGill as possibly becoming a "real"
road again a few hundred meters further on, but it's difficult to tell
for sure.
At the entrance to McGill (at the top of Bohlman) there is an
unofficial-looking sign that says "Private Road, No Trespassing" but
there is no sign stating that it's not a county maintained road. Nor did
we encounter anything threatening for the mile or so we rode on it. If
we'd had touring our cyclocross bikes, or simply beefier tires, we might
have kept going and seen what was ahead, but not today.
Any information appreciated. Thanks!
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
Bill Bushnell
> Any information appreciated. Thanks!
Last month I posted the following on another forum:
On 2009/Apr/7 , at 20:25, [someone] wrote:
> all right you guys....now you got me looking at Google Maps with all
> your discussion of this, and my love for obscure roads is coming out
> big time.....so....what about those other roads that connect up there,
> namely McGill which connects to Allegheny Ct. which hooks into
> Sanborn, which I have seen off Highway 9 while climbing that up to
> Skyline and have always been curious about....are these all dirt
> roads?=A0 has anybody been up there?=A0 are they passable by bike?
Having submitted some suggestions a number of years ago to the
committee developing the new Sanborn County Park Master Plan, I found
myself on the distribution list for updates and progress reports. So
far I like what I see.
Today Sanborn Park doesn't allow biking on any trails within the park,
but the new master plan shows that this will change, eventually, adding
a couple of connections from Sanborn Rd. to Skyline Blvd, Black Rd.,
and a future connection to El Sereno OSP. The main hurdle for the
latter is the securing of a couple of short easements along part of a
road that apparently already exists.
For the latest information see:
http://tinyurl.com/crg4c2
Today you can ride to Los Gatos directly from the top of Bohlman Rd. by
taking the dirt road that connects across the ridge to Montevina as
described in earlier messages. But, instead of turning right at the
"T", continue straight and uphill for a short distance on the Aquinas
Trail before beginning a long descent to Sheldon Rd. in Los Gatos.
Yes, it does go through. Lots of nice views along the way if you're
heading downhill, the direction I recommend, especially if you're on a
road bike. The trail is in good condition most of the way, no more
technical than the Montevina Ridge Trail, but it is longer, about 4
miles of dirt road from the T to Sheldon Rd. and steep in places.
http://openspace.org/preserves/maps/pr_el_sereno.pdf
--
Bill Bushnell
http://pobox.com/~bushnell/
Paul B. Anders
always interested in these discussions. Just wondering - is it still
possible to take Peacock Lane as a diversion off of Montebello Rd. ?
You used to be able to take it and reconnect with Montebello at the
end of the "flat" section in the middle. Had a hell of a climb, over
20% in the middle, and you had to duck under a gate.
Tony Rall
> Just wondering - is it still
> possible to take Peacock Lane as a diversion off of Montebello Rd. ?
> You used to be able to take it and reconnect with Montebello at the
> end of the "flat" section in the middle. Had a hell of a climb, over
> 20% in the middle, and you had to duck under a gate.
Might depend on how you deal with the gate at this point:
http://tinyurl.com/cxtrde
--
Tony Rall
Paul B. Anders
Aha! That wasn't there many moons ago when I rode that route. I have
to wonder if it's legit or yet another attempt by a rich homeowner to
restrict access. If you start where Swiss Creek Ln. interesects
Montebello and you go back, is there any restriction before you reach
this gate? I'll see how much Google Maps can show me.
Paul B. Anders
I just used Maps to check out the other direction, it peters out
before you get far enough. That "street view" feature is awesome,
makes me feel like I'm back there riding down those roads - except my
lungs aren't burning as much as if I were actually climbing those
grades! From what I could see on the standard sat view, it looks like
you could go back on Swiss Creek a long way without interference. The
section just beyond from the gate shown in Tony's reply is extremely
steep, one of the steeper paved grades in the Santa Cruz Mtns I
encountered, I would estimate it to be more than 20%.
doug....@gmail.com
yes, it goes through. I hiked McGill in the uphill direction twice in
the '80s. The first time, it could have been ridden, but the second,
one would have been holding the bike in one hand while crossing a
landslide and stepping carefully. It is better to do uphill, at least
your first time, so you know where it is and comes out - if you try to
find it from the top, you will end up going down driveways and
arousing dobermans and shepherds. On the other hand if you already
know which exact fork off McGill is the throughway and not a driveway,
then you could get through the dog-and-warning-sign area quicker.
To find it from the bottom, go to Lake Ranch from the saratoga side.
Walk around the lake on the North side. When you get to the northeast
corner of the lake, the dirt road leaves the lake pointed diagonally
away from the center of the lake, then it bends to the right and
becomes a pole-line, following the power transmission towers along the
south scarp of El Sereno, which is very steep here, being the wall of
the fault zone. The pole-line road then becomes cherry ave, or is it
sherry, which is splits off from montevina road about a mile from the
top/green gate. Anyway, the lower mouth of McGill is now hidden
behind the second power transmission line, or maybe the first. It is
on the uphill side of the road whereas the rest are on the downhill
side. You get to it within minutes of leaving Lake Ranch. There is a
fork at every transmission tower, leading to a tiny 50-foot long spur
which goes right to the base of the tower or around the side of it.
In this case obviously the fork is on the left. Take the fork and
proceed to the uphill side of the transmission tower, and look to your
left/uphill. Pick up a stick to brush the poison oak back and start
plowing through the overgrown trail and expect ticks and poison oak.
It seems very likely to me that this sucker hasn't been visited much
since the last fire in the area which would have been the last
lexington fire, on the other side of 17, but close enuf that at the
time the fire dept probably started prepping it by grading it for use
as an access road and fire break.
You won't find this kind of shit on Google. I grew up on that
mountain and know most every detail of it, except the NW shoulder
where the winery is, and a lot of them simply arent there on google
maps. after all the are a)vector not raster and therefore b)reduced
scale. The only site that is good for this stuff since topozone went $
$ was my own, topolabs, and it is here at home at the moment instead
of on the web, unfortunately. Hopefully not for long.
There is also a way to get from the top down to "the plateau" at the
end of overlook, an old trail which has decades-old-trees growing in
the middle, which AFAICT nobody knows about except myself and the pot
growers. The CAMP SOBs probably know it though.
I'm quite sure there is another way down, too, that I haven't followed
yet but puts you out at the cistern at the high point of overlook on
the Canon side of the plateau. Gonna be a -lot- of ticks on that one,
tho.
I used to ride montevina and find these other trails in the 70s on my
Bultaco trials bike after school. There was no such thing as mountain
bikes then and no open space district and montevina trail above
sheldon was overgrowing then and had been impassable by autos for
decades. I'm glad we have those things now so everyone can and does
enjoy the trail, but I will say it was kinda nice back when I was the
only user. - those days are gone and now a dirtbiker has to go to
freakin stonyford to ride (I believe you know the place). BTW if you
bushwack around near at the bottom of the meadows, 1/2 mile before you
come to sheldon, you can also find a way that puts you out in the
backyard of a classic 100-yr old monte sereno mansion off of fairview
ave off pennsylvania in los gatos, and another which puts you out on
Diane Oglevie's place, above the cats restaurant which she owns. The
mansion owner has an impressive collection of 1930's fire engines and
Diane's place is equally historic and beautiful, but naturally they
aren't crazy about folks popping out in their back yards, so having
gone those ways once as a kid and learning that that is where you pop
out, I don't go those ways anymore.
Those days are long gone and now a dirtbiker has to go to freakin
stonyford to ride. I believe you know the place. Now, you tell me:
How do i find the corridor from stonyford to pillsbury?
dkl