Routes SF -> Santa Cruz -> Diridon

[Liam Pulsifer]

Hey all,

I'm playing around with the idea of a quick weekend bike trip (credit-card camping style) some time this fall with a few friends. The tentative idea is to start in SF and head down to Santa Cruz mainly via Hwy 1 (with some potential small detours, e.g. Stage Road to Pescadero) and stay the night there. I was thinking in order to make this a one nighter and not repeat too much road, we could head over the mountains on the second day and end up at San Jose Diridon to take the Caltrain home. That ends up being about ~125 miles total from my basic mapping on RideWithGPS.

Anyone have similar routes, advice, roads to take or avoid, etc.? I've been searching around on Reddit and getting a lot of conflicting advice. Of course, if anyone's interested in joining up, please feel free to shoot me a DM.

Best,

Liam

[Jacob Coblentz]

Hi Liam,

Over MLK weekend this year, three friends and I did this: 

Day 1:

SF --> Pescadero --> Alpine --> Alba --> Santa Cruz

https://www.strava.com/routes/3315400182984819684

Day 2:

Santa Cruz --> Mt. Madonna --> Mt. Umunhum --> San Jose Caltrain 

https://www.strava.com/routes/3315400249944544092

Obviously lots of ways to cut this shorter, doing Mt. Umunhum on tired legs with bags was a choice. Happy to answer any questions. 

Jacob 

--
http://sf2g.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SF2G" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sf2g+uns...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf2g/1207992a-737a-491a-9bdb-10b547bb97c6n%40googlegroups.com.

[Matteo Scandolo]

Hi Liam,

If you want to camp in pescadero here are a couple other options I'd consider:

- go down the 1 up to San Gregorio (use the first part of Stage Rd), then up the 84 to La Honda the take Pescadero Creek Rd (make sure not to take West Alpine). This is a nice detour through the redwood for some change of scenery 

- (more climbing and some dirt) just south of Half Moon Bay take Higgins road to Purissima Creek trail up to Skyline, then come down from either the 84, West Old La Honda or West Alpine. Then you can ride the 1, stage road or the previous detour.

For day two to can ride Grazie Creek road down to the 1, then climb Bonny Soon road to Empire Grade, then 236 through Big Basin State Park to join the 9 up to Skyline and come down via Page Mill into Mountain View. Day 2 would be a big day, so I'd probably try to camp at the KOA in Grazie Creek to save some mileage.

Enjoy the ride! It'll be beautiful nonetheless 

Matteo Scandolo

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf2g/CALZzSD9xMJZdL%2BgFWPVj0dkJg-aTGtapoZqH1uO%2B54OMk2TTOQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jon-William Murphy]

I've done a zero-nighter around 4 times where you blast SF -> SC no deviations off HWY 1, hop on the bus that goes from SC bus terminal to Diridon (Max 3 bikes?) and take Caltrain home. It's so fun. 

But it would be more fun to stay the night there and cruise up into the Redwoods through Big Basin or something the next day.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf2g/CAF1PgT%2BruT7C7QED34BeHR%2BV__N%2BUUXeJxb35X-6dQfAtSoMsw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Guilherme Germoglio]

The 2014 spring classic route is a great way to get to Santa Cruz from SF (https://www.strava.com/activities/119313549/overview), but I don't know what changed in the meantime. 

For the way back, it is hard to compete with Mt Madonna. 

[Leslie]

ALC Day 1 was SF to Santa Cruz - 

https://www.strava.com/activities/14667413396 / https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45230297

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf2g/3a17b14f-c27f-4d13-a31e-218ee95be497n%40googlegroups.com.