Hello all, this is my mtb ride from this morning in Soquel Demo forest in Santa Cruz. The shot below is from the top of the climb looking over Monterey Bay.
The bike is a 26" 2010 Santa Cruz Blur LTc, Fox 36 fork, newly installed 11-46 Sunrace cassette. Photos taken with a Samsung Galaxy S8.
The ride was 18 miles and a tough 3,100 feet of climbing. (I say tough because one of the climbs is 1.1 miles averaging a 11% grade, a few of the short steep sections is close to 20%. Ouch)
GPS data from a Garmin Vivoactive HR. Look at the elevation profile, some mountains here!
The first part of the climb up from the parking lot runs along a creek which is green with ferns, moss and redwood trees.
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Almost to the top, we see a glimpse of Monterey bay through the trees.
On a fire road climb up, I noticed these banana slugs on the side of the mountain. The University of Santa Cruz mascot is the banana slug...
These things are pretty big at 5-6 inches and very bright.
At the bottom of the 'flow trail' taking a break. It's about 10am and at this point, sweated quite a bit... (Back in the Santa Clara valley, it was 91* f today)
Every year the redwood trees grow a bit more, you can easily see the new growth on this young redwood.
When climbing out, I was passed by a 60 year old mtb'er who road a uphill wheelie with no hands... I chatted with him for a minute before he took off. I attempted to follow, but nope... my legs/quads said 'no mas', they were burning pretty bad after 3,000 feet of the climbing that I had done previously.
Back at the parking lot,,,,whew... There are large redwood trees everywhere.
So I ordered a Pesto Chicken Pizza for a post ride lunch.
