Henry Coe State Park, looking for routes

[B_Bock]

Hello fellow bikepackers. I'm planing to do a bikepacking trip in Henry Coe. I'm looking for a route for three days, two nights in April. This will be my wife's first bikepacking trip, although she is an experienced touring cyclist. I would like to plan something with minimal mileage and good camping. Any info on good trails, dirt roads, camping spots and water supply would be appreciated.
Blake

[MattL]

The riding in Coe is hard, but I expect you've figured that out. I like entering through the hunting hollow entrance and spending the first night at the small pond on Mahoney Ridge. Filtering water is a little more work there due to soggy banks, but there's usually water.

If you have no car to retrieve, it's fun to exit the park via the road descent down Dunne St into Morgan Hill.

For really accurate data in water call the park or consult the Pine Ridge website right before your trip.
http://coepark.net/pineridgeassociation/planning-your-visit/water-resources

[Tractor]

I was just in Coe a few weeks ago, and I camped at the campsite at the main entrance after riding from Sunnyvale. There is water and some snacks, soda, etc at the visitor center. There were plenty of first come first serve spots if you want to keep that as a backup option if you cannot find something in the backcountry.

I am not sure if you are planning on riding from the Bay Area, but there is a beautiful route through the foothills using McKean road and Shannon road.

[JamesM]

I'm heading to Coe next week and looking to ride into HQ from Fremont BART. Any suggestions appreciated, maybe using in part the paved Coyote Creek Trail?

thanks!

[Sean Allan]

Blake,
I likely have the Coe 100 route in a GPX. Hard riding out there, but 30 mile days might be just fine.

[JamesM]

Just to follow up on my search for a route from SF to Coe - I rode Caltrain as far as San Jose, and then jumped on the HWY 87 Bikeway South to Santa Teresa Blvd all the way to Morgan Hill.  Santa Teresa is a long, straight and mostly flat road with a nice tailwind and wide shoulder. Loved this route! I took a different route to return - full write-up of the trip is in another thread: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/bikepacking/henrey-coe-ca-trip-report/

[ec_duz_it]

Here is that 100 mile Coe route I believe.  I have never ridden it, but I hear it is hard. Over 20K of climbing over 98 miles.  Damn, that sounds tough.  It might take Blake a full 12 hours!

http://www.strava.com/activities/90175912  

[B_Bock]

Here is that 100 mile Coe route I believe.  I have never ridden it, but I hear it is hard. Over 20K of climbing over 98 miles.  Damn, that sounds tough.  It might take Blake a full 12 hours!

http://www.strava.com/activities/90175912 

Ha. Only 22,000 ' of climbing in 100 miles! We ended up going to the park in April,  but ended up doing day rides. Plenty of steep grades. By the way the wild flowers were going off and the California state plant -also known as poison oak- was in full bloom.

[audios89]

Just make one I did a few weekend loops trying to follow ridge-lines as much as possible.

Northside (hardest): https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14271925
Southside: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14273269
South to North Loop: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14274249

[dirty4130]

That 100 mile route looks nuts!  Is that route pretty much just optimized for efficiency, or was it made to link together the best single track portions.  Seems like a lot of it goes on roads instead of trails.  I'm looking for a two to three day route with as much singletrack as possible.