Santa Cruz mountains in January

[Krampus Snail]

Technically, the Butano Fire Road is not legal over its entire length. There is a small section that is prohibited to bikes. 

Gazos Creek Road is paved for a few miles starting from the coast, but then it turns to unpaved. It's not like Gazos Creek is a paved road from the coast to Big Basin. Most of it is dirt, or rather, on the coast side, sandstone.

[sam.pederson]

Sure but you can take Olemo all the way to big basin, then down johannson into basin. Totally legal.

Either way are cool, but I think going through Butano gives you more dirt, always my objective.

[sam.pederson]

Hey Krampus, are you local? Let's ride.

[Krampus Snail]

The problem is at the Big Basin end, not at the coast end. If you start from the coast, whether you take Olmo Fire Road or Butano Fire Road, you end up on Butano Fire Road a bit after the landing strip campground. If you continue, you have to go through a section of private property before you get to where the Boy Scout camp turnoff is. That private property section is prohibited to bikes. I'm not telling anyone what to do or whether to ride it, but as a matter of information it is private property and the owners do not allow mountain bikes.

[sam.pederson]

Yes I know the part you are talking about. It's paved right

[Krampus Snail]

I've never ridden that section, but I'm pretty sure it is not paved. I can't figure out why it would be paved, since you have to go on dirt to get there. It belongs to a lumber company, I've been told.

[Jilleo]

I've ridden Butano fire road from Cloverdale to China Grade. At the time I was not aware of the restrictions, but you are correct that shortly after the Boy Scout Camp there is a sign explicitly forbidding bikes.

I've also ridden McCreary Ridge in Big Basin. That is a fun singletrack, very steep at the top as it rolls along this narrow ridge with fantastic views on both sides, and Waddell Beach in the distance, then winding through the forest with some tight hairpin turns. I was somehow certain it was open to bikes when I took my friend there in July, but alas, at the Waddell Creek junction there was a no bikes sign. Sigh.

I included Gazos Creek Road because it is my favorite descent in the region. You start up on a sandstone ridge, fly past this crazy tree house, and descend into an enchanted redwood forest on a logging road. The loggers threw down a bunch of loose gravel on the steeper sections sometime recently, and it is decidedly a less fun descent right now. Past the gate, it's a nice gradual paved coast to Cloverdale Road.

Saratoga Gap/Skyline/Russian Ridge is a fun trail system. I consider these and Steven's Creek Canyon my local trails as I live near Steven's Creek Reservoir in Los Altos/Cupertino (I've never been able to figure out my city, actually. My address is Los Altos but it seems everything surrounding us is Cupertino. Weird.) Anyway, I've ridden them quite a bit. They're great to include on an increasingly more ambitious loop. Possibilities.

Thanks for the discussion. I'd like to plan a longer tour this coming June, and hope to spend the spring training with longer rides and overnight tours. I don't mind stealth camping as much when I'm by myself and can hide away easily, and that's good info about Castle Rock SP. If any bikepackers in the region are making any plans, let me know.

[Jilleo]

Also, I can't help but share this route. It's a 50-kilometer trail run I did earlier this year through Portola and the upper edge of Big Basin. It's 95% singletrack, probably 85% off limits to bikes, but it would be a most amazing mountain biking loop. I'm too much of a rule-follower to ever poach these trails, and actually I'm pretty happy running where I can't ride. But with the exception of Skyline to the Sea it is very uncrowded, and very scenic.

http://www.strava.com/activities/110531804

[ec_duz_it]

I have never ridden in Henry Coe SP.  I only heard about it from a friend of mine.  You can really spend 7 days riding there without leaving the park?  That sounds fantastic.

As long as I travel faster than 2 MPH, the scenery is great, and I get some singletrack, I am happy.  The only big ride I have ever quit was Stagecoach, because I was frustrated with the amount of pavement riding involved.  I know a lot of folks love that route though, so I guess I am in the minority.   

This 50k loop looks very tempting.  Are the rules of the trail enforced?  I can't wait until my Aunt invites me to their Santa Cruz family beach house again.  Not enough free time and too many trails to ride! 

[sam.pederson]

Erin,

Yes, Henry Coe is huge.

The guy from dry cyclist (http://www.drycyclist.com) did eight nights there.


Jill:

I was reading your strava backward. Now that you say you are going down Gazos, your route makes a lot more sense to me. It drops you only a couple miles south of the Olemo Fire Road in Butano where I suggested you climb.

The only thing I suggest you consider is that the wind typically blows North to South. Therefore all sections where you are near the coast (even including the stage road) might get crazy windy. Especially the coastal trail near Half moon Bay. That's why bike tourists almost always go North to South along Highway One.

FYI: The Olemo fire road from Big Basin (at the top of Johansen fire road, top of Big Basin) is legal. I was told of this route by a Ranger at Butano, for the record. I recently rode from Butano (where I had camped) up Olemo, to Butano Ridge, then down Johansen. The illegal part is just past where you connect to Johansen (which is on your right).

It's absolutely ridiculous that this section is illegal. Only reason is that it's private property, and the lumber company does not want liability. Many people ride (and hike) this. It's a short bit and paved. If you keep riding through it (I'm not advocating you do that, but just saying), you'll connect back to Big Basin in short order.

It's crazy town that they don't want bikes there considering that you're allowed to ride many miles of dirt to get to it. It's a PAVED logging road, of all things, that you aren't allowed on. A road that's used by a logging company (which used to clear cut) to haul out dead trees for sale. Personally I have no qualms riding them. The alternative, which I do, is to go way out of the way, Bomb all the way down Johansen to middle ridge to Gazos, and into Big Basin, then climb to get out. Lots of people do this entire route (past Johansen

BTW, I've never done any stealth camping near Santa Cruz. Funny, you seem to hesitate to ride illegal trails, for me, I'm sketched by stealth camping. It's actually quite illegal too!


To all:

I think that there's a very strong need to build LEGAL bikepacking routes through the Santa Cruz Mountains that we could post online for people to ride. I've been very inspired by Erin Carroll and what he's done with the TDLP.

I'm game to help you guys put this together.

I ride a lot of illegal trails, but I would NEVER post illegal routes online to share with random people. I might share routes with people, but there's a real value to building a LEGAL tour de Santa Cruz Mountains route.

[Krampus Snail]

I'm sad that Mike Buncic wasn't elected to MidPen. I ran into him the last time I did a bikepacking trip. He was riding, of course. When I brought up the idea of through trails, he knew immediately what I was talking about. Oh, connecting routes, he said, and named several candidates including a through trail from Los Gatos via Umunhum all the way to Demo on dirt which he said was feasible. Also I think he said it would be possible to go to Skyline via Monte Sereno. I was like, OK I'm voting for this guy, he's perfect, but unfortunately I don't live in his district.

[Krampus Snail]

That private property section is legal for hikers but illegal for cyclists. Beyond it, on the coast side, is a legal campground.

[Jilleo]

I didn't actually post an illegal route ... just an awesome running route and some wishful thinking. ;-)

For an overview of the best of Coe, I recommend checking out the Hard Coere 100. I've ridden ~45 miles of it and even that was a brutal route, with a few fun things thrown in: http://www.strava.com/activities/90175912

As for riding north on the coast, it's true that will be into the wind. Overall (time-wise) it's a pretty short section and in my opinion a small sacrifice for climbing and descending what are more often the better climbs and descents, which is what a clockwise direction allows. But it's plausible to ride in either direction.

I look forward to seeing what routes others come up with.

[tomikaze]

Howdy, glad I found this. Lots of good info for a bay area bikepacker like myself. If you end up on skyline there is a couple of new sections of trail recently opened. I usually stealth camp but the new sections go right past Castlerock camping, and Sanborn park camping. From hwy9/35, skyline trail is now open to bikes going south to Sunnyvale mtn(about 5 miles). From there you can pick up the brand new "john Nicolas trail" which will drop down to sanborn and continue to Black rd., which drops to Lexington res where you can head into "Sierra Azul" or over to demo/nisene. Lot of good routes suggested here, I'm working on a Skyline ridge to Canada del oro trip to do in the next month or two myself. Happy Trails

[Krampus Snail]

The trail from Sanborn to Black road is open to bikes now?

[Jilleo]

I was just out there two weeks ago and there was still a big no bikes sign posted at the trailhead of Black Road. But I found this today, and it appears a few new sections of trail have recently opened. Very cool! No if only they would open that PG&E fire road on the other side of Lake Ranch Reservoir connecting to Montevina Road and El Serreno. That would be a great connection for a majority-dirt loop.

http://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/SanbornGuideMap.pdf

[tomikaze]

They haven't changed all the signage yet, but they have paper signs advising on skyline side when I was out there. Soft opening was 2 Saturday's ago. Official public opening will be in spring.

[Krampus Snail]

Tomikaze, thanks a million times! I'm going to head over there today to check it out.

I'm gutless and get nervous about stealth camping, plus to me even portapotties are better than behind a tree, so I like to camp in established campgrounds. So I'll note that the Castle Rock campground off Skyline is legally accessible by bike: you ride down the dirt road off Skyline that starts at the entrance to the gun club. 

[tomikaze]

Anytime. For anyone putting John Nicholas trail on a route it is both a joy to climb and descend. Take special note of all the beautiful stone work on the switchbacks and bridge, all from rock quarried from Sanborn park.

[sam.pederson]

Yeah I don't stealth camp either. I always have enough trouble sleeping while out bikepacking (maybe because I'm so pumped from riding). But the other thing to consider is that the SC mountains are LITTERED with poison oak. It's everywhere.

Not to mention, very little water unless you're camping close to a stream (which means likely bushwalking through poison oak).

Jill, I wanted to mention another suggestion on your route. The Sequel demo forest section. I may be mistake, but it looks like you are advising people to climb up corral trail. That's a pretty gnarly climb for anyone, but even worse for someone who's on a loaded bike. A much easier (albeit slightly longer) way is to go down highland (by the demo parking lot), past camp loma (you can refill your water here if you need to, no other water around) and then up buzzard lagoon road, to the aptos creek fire road.

Might have your route wrong, but demo is a serious place to ride as you probably know. The climbs can be rough.