Butano Fire Road (south ridge)

Bill Bushnell — Saturday, April 4, 1992

On this ride I cajoled my friend, Frank, into trying the off-road portion of this ride. Frank doesn’t much care for riding off-road. He gives the following reasons:

“My neck gets sore.”, “The road’s too bumpy.”, “My bike gets dirtier.”, “I can’t ride as fast on the downhills.”, “I don’t have as much control.”, and “It takes too long.” It was the last reason he repeated to me while we pedaled home from La Honda as the sun was setting. Fortunately, (for me), Frank rides virtually the same bike as mine, and if I can handle the unpaved road on my RB-T, so can he.

I start the day by riding from Foothill College up to Palo Alto’s Foothills Park with some friends who work at Xerox PARC. They’re going to do a hike and then ride down. I prearrange to meet Frank at the park entrance where we begin our long ride.

The ride up Page Mill is relatively uneventful. At the steepest portion just below Shotgun Bend we pass an older fellow taking a break from the climb. Later up on Skyline he catches up to us. He’s 60 years old and 190 lbs, but he’s doing the Western Wheelers “Climb Page Mill” “D” ride. We tell him that he’s about 10 minutes behind the group. Apparently they’re going north on Skyline to Kings Mtn Rd., and then they’re going to do it all over again! They should come on our route. It’s about as long, and more interesting than climbing Page Mill Rd. twice.

We continue south on Skyline, stopping at the fire station to refill our water bottles and eat half a lunch. The air is clear, cool, and a little breezy. The sun is warm. It’s a great day for a long ride. We continue to Saratoga Gap and then head south toward Boulder Creek. At Waterman Gap, we head straight on CA-236 and continue to China Grade Rd.

We turn right, heading uphill. The road is paved and somewhat steep for 3/4 mile but then becomes less steep as it winds up through the cleared forest. After reaching the top, the road drops for 1/4 mile to the Gate 12 Rd. junction. The pavement ends. We stop and eat the remainder of our lunch on the big log by the side of the road. On the south side of the road is Big Basin State Park and on the north side is unincorporated San Mateo County.

We haven’t seen other cars since we left CA-236, but while we’re eating, a couple cars of hikers park and hike up the trail behind the log. A pickup truck drives up Gate 12 Road, and another pickup truck comes driving up the road we’re about to head down. After taking too long a break we continue, on dirt now and for the next 10 miles.

The road is packed dirt here. It seems there is frequent auto traffic coming and going to BSA Camp Cutter. In about 2/3 mile we reach the turn-off for Johansen Road. Someday I’ll have to try that one. While we briefly stop, we meet some mountain bikers coming up Johansen Rd. They’re amazed when they hear we’re riding our “road” bikes down the Butano Fire Road. They’re going as far as the Olmo Fire Road and then returning to Gazos Creek Rd. We continue straight, passing a sign warning “Private Road—No Trespassing”. There are no houses in the area—no signs of development, so we continue anyway. In about 1/2 mile we reach a three-way fork. The main road goes straight and down, presumably to Camp Cutter. I almost head down before I realize my mistake. The left fork cuts over to Johansen Rd., and the middle fork is the Butano Fire Road. After lifting our bikes over a thin cable stretched across the road, we start heading down.

The road, covered with branches and other debris, descends rather steeply here and is not so smooth. Someone has dug small holes in the middle of the road and placed wooden red-tipped sticks in them. I wonder who and why. After going up and down several times, the road levels off and becomes more constant. We pass a couple pull-outs with some old, rusty picnic tables. Who uses these? In about a mile we reach the Roy Linden Memorial Trail and then shortly the junction with the Olmo Rd. The Olmo Rd. goes to either Butano State Park entrance or to Gazos Creek Rd. just up from Cloverdale Rd. The Olmo Rd. would be a more challenging ride: it has several steep up and down sections. I’ll save it for next time.

We continue mostly down now through a somewhat older forest. Frank is grunting and sighing. “My neck is getting sore.”, he complains, “I can’t maintain traction. How many more uphills are there?” We come to a 1/2 mile climb which ends at an old abandoned airstrip. It’s an eerie sight. The idea of a runway on top of a mountain so far from civilization strikes me as odd. Jobst tells me that this was used by the CDF for airtankers at one time.

The road is smoother, with a surface of finely chopped rock. It heads down and then briefly up for the last time and then heads down at a nice, gradual grade. We make good time, though we watch carefully for the occasional rut crossing the road. We also take care around some of the turns as we’re riding slicks, not knobbies. At a saddle point with a nice view we fly past a group of mountain bikers. This is getting fun. The road is fairly smooth and straight now with a nearly constant grade. We come upon a couple of hikers, a couple of horseback riders, and a family who have just driven their Jeep Cherokee partway up the road! At about a mile from the bottom at a nice viewspot overlooking Cloverdale Rd. and the valley beyond, we stop and take a stretch and eat the remainder of our food. Just before we start up again, the group of mountain bikers we passed earlier zips past. We continue down.

Immediately the road becomes very bumpy. It seems as if horseback riders came up here while the road was still muddy. Now it’s like riding on an egg-carton. To complicate matters, we are buffetted by strong, gusty north winds. Finally we reach the bottom, and after passing through the small gate, we’re back on a paved road.

I thought it was a fun trip through the woods. Our wheels are still in true, and our derailleurs are still indexing. A little bit dusty, but no coats of mud. We start up Cloverdale Rd. 50 yards later we cross through some water running across the road. The amount of mud on my bike has just doubled. We pedal in a pseudo-paceline into a fierce headwind. Finally we come to Butano Cutoff and Pescadero Rd. Now the wind is helping us home.

Tired and hungry we stop at the Loma Mar store. We continue past Memorial Park and stop again to eat our food. Then it’s up Haskins Hill. We’re tired now, but somehow we manage to get over the top and down to La Honda on the other side. Again we have to stop for food. I should’ve brought more food. Frank didn’t even bring a lunch, just a bag of fig bars!

Fortunately, I packed my lights. I didn’t think the ride would take so long. My Gazos Creek ride was longer, but took less time. We pedal now with greater urgency. Luckily the traffic is light, but my Vistalite seems to be helping. Whenever a car comes up from behind, we hear the engine slow for a moment, and then when the driver recognizes what the flashing light is, the car passes carefully.

I thought about taking Old La Honda, but that would’ve been harder and would’ve taken longer. So, since traffic was light we decided to head back the quickest way. The trip down the east side of CA-84 in the dark is something I’ve never done before. There is just enough light to see the road, except when a car passes with its high beams on, or when we pass over a particularly dark section of road.

Finally we got home. This was the most difficult ride I’ve done, but I’ll probably be doing even more challenging rides later this summer.

Ride Stats:

distance: 80.2 miles

climbing: 7130 feet

total time: 10:00

riding time: 6:47

average speed: 11.8 mph

maximum speed: 35.5 mph

index: 108.7

An article on indexing can be found here.

©2004, Bill Bushnell

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