Mt. Madonna Rd.

Bill Bushnell — Saturday, September 5, 1992

Starting at the beginning of the Los Gatos Creek Trail at about 8:00, there are five of us on today’s ride: Rick, Jules, John, Steve, and me. We ascend the trail to the dam and ride around the backside of Lexington on Alma Bridge Rd. Since some of us aren’t crazy about riding on any more dirt, we decide to head up Old Santa Cruz Hwy instead of the more adventurous trip through Aldercroft Heights and beyond.

About 1/2-mile before Summit Rd., Steve’s derailleur manages to shift beyond his largest cog and entangle the chain and derailleur in the spokes. One of the most severe cases of “chain suck” I’ve ever witnessed, the jam manages to pull his rear wheel out of the dropouts (bending one of them) and to force it against the backside of the bottom bracket, locking up the wheel. With a skid and an “Oh, SHIT!”, he comes to a stop, and with his shoes locked helplessly to the pedals, he falls to his left and lands in the middle of the road with an undignified thud. Fortunately, we are still climbing, so we aren’t riding very fast. He seems a little shaken, but he has only a minor cut on his knee.

His bike didn’t fare so well. We all pull off the road to a wider turnout on the other side. John turns the bike upside down, and surveys the damage. I guess Cannondales don’t have much clearance between the inner chainrings and the chainstays. The paint is chipped and the aluminum gouged where the chain has forced its way through the gap. The chain also managed to wedge itself tightly between the inside of the right crank and the fixed cup. After struggling for a few minutes, John manages to free the chain. Since the dropout is bent we adjust the limit screws to keep the derailleur from making a repeat performance. After we get the bike rideable, Steve decides to turn back and take his bike into the shop for a more complete repair. Since he didn’t want to spend all day riding, John decides to turn back, too. This is probably a good idea since Steve might have had another mishap on the way down.

So now we are three. At Summit Rd. we turn left and continue the ride. Since it is still early in the ride, we don’t stop at the Summit Store. We continue on Highland Rd. up over the big slide of last winter and on to Eureka Canyon Rd. We stop at the “four corners” intersection for a snack and then we head down the hill. Eureka Canyon Rd. is one of the most beautiful in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Traffic is very light in part because of the slide on Highland Way and the “Major DISASTER ahead” signs at either end discouraging through traffic but also because the road doesn’t connect to a very populous section of Santa Cruz County. The road is twisty and descends gradually through a dark, cool redwood forest before coming to Corralitos at the bottom of the hill.

We stop and eat snacks on the lawn across the street from the Corralitos Market and Sausage Company. While we are resting a group of cyclists with the Almaden Cycling club comes by. They are on a three-day excursion to San Juan Bautista and back, and they had just come over from San Jose the way we will be going back.

We chat with a few of the riders. They tell us that we’ll have to ride on a graded gravel road if we take Redwood Retreat Rd. We also talk about taking Hicks Rd. up and over its summit and of maybe trying Loma Almaden Rd. They warn us about the Yosemite Sam types up near the top of Loma Almaden who harass anyone trying to pass on the road. One of the Almaden riders told us he knows some people who have managed to get all the way to the top of Mt. Umunhum without being challenged.

After spending about an hour we start up Browns Valley Rd. and then turn right on Amesti Rd., then left on Pioneer Rd. and right on Green Valley Rd., then left on Casserly Rd., and then left on (finally) Mt. Madonna Rd. Mt. Madonna Rd. from Casserly to Hazel Dell Rd. ascends gradually, but after Hazel Dell, the road begins a relentless, often shadeless two-mile, 10% grade climb.

Both Jules and Rick stopped a couple of times on the way up. Jules apparently has trouble in heat, and after a morning of cool, comfortable temperatures, the air is now hot and windless. I sweat a great deal on the way up, and I’m sure this contributes somewhat to my feeling dehydrated on the trip back to Los Gatos.

At the top of Mt. Madonna Rd., I stop and rest on one of the “root benches” at the foot of the big old redwood tree standing stubbornly in the center of the intersection of Mt. Madonna, Summit, and Pole Line Rds. It appears from here that the entire descent of Mt. Madonna Rd. on the east side is gravel, and if Redwood Retreat Rd. is also gravel, that means we’ll have a long way to go on gravel roads, something I don’t think Jules or Rick will be too crazy about.

About ten minutes later, Jules and Rick arrive at the top, and five minutes after that, we start up Pole Line Rd. After filling our water bottles at the park facility we continue on Pole Line, stopping briefly so I can get a picture of the white stag at the deer farm, and again so I can ask the ranger for directions to make sure we are heading in the right direction for Hwy 152. After riding down two very steep but short hills, we arrive at Hecker Pass. Traffic is moderate, and the road looks safe enough. We joke about watching out for young teenagers driving Broncos and searching the back seat for cassette tapes before starting down the hill.

This is a fun descent. It’s only 1309 feet at the top and about 380 feet at the bottom, but the descent seems to go on forever and at quite a speed. I guess the breeze blowing over from Watsonville helps. The change in climate from the tall, cool groves of redwoods at Hecker Pass to the hot, dry, semi-arid landscape at Watsonville Rd. is quite dramatic, too. The sound of mariachi music drifts from the little cafe at the corner. It’s like riding from Washington State to Mexico in 10 minutes!

At Watsonville Rd. we turn left and head into a parching headwind. This part of the ride is not much fun. The temperature is in the mid- to upper-80s F, but with the strong headwind we’re working very hard to maintain 18 mph.

Knowing that I’ll probably need to stop and get water somewhere along the way, we pull into the parking lot at Uvas Reservoir. Surely there must be a faucet somewhere near the reservoir. We ride up to the picnic area but find no faucets.

I walk up to a family picnicking and ask, “Do you know if there’s any water here?”

With a chuckle, the man gestures grandly toward the reservoir with his arm, “There’s plenty out there, but I don’t know if I’d drink it. I think I’ve got some in the car.”

Without another word, he gets up and walks over to his truck. After searching for a while, he brings out a 51-oz. bottle of Arrowhead mineral water.

“How much do you want for it?”, I offer.

“You can have it.”, he says.

“Oh, thank you very much.”, I return.

This is enough to top off all of our water bottles, necessary for the long ride into the hot wind.

After thanking the man again for the bottled water, we continue on. For the next several miles, Jules and I trade off pulling for each other. Rick doesn’t seem comfortable following too closely, so he breaks his own wind while following some ways back. Somewhere between Oak Glen and Casa Loma Rds., Rick gets ahead of us, and by the time we reach the entrance to Calero Reservoir, I’m starting to get hungry.

“Hey Jules, why don’t we pull into this picnic area and take a break. I need to eat something.”, I say.

Rick is too far ahead to call out to. I hope he doesn’t backtrack for us. We ride down the long driveway past the white brick gate. I stop at the first picnic table, and Jules continues on to the ranger station to get some water. After starting on an energy bar, I decide to join him. Apparently, there’s no running water at the station house, but a bottled water machine dispenses chilled bottled water.

I’m still wrestling with the chewy, taffy-like bar when Jules decides he’d better go on ahead to make sure Rick hasn’t backtracked too far.

“Wait for me at Bailey Rd.”, I say.

“O.K.”, he says.

After another 5 minutes of chewing, I finally finish the bar and head back to the road. Bailey Rd. is not more than a half mile away, and when I reach the intersection, Jules is waiting, but Rick is nowhere. Oh well, I just hope he’s continued on ahead.

We continue riding past the jet ski launching area, and soon we pass Rick heading back.

“What happened to you guys? Did you flat?”, he asks, looking a bit annoyed.

“No, we just stopped for some water and to eat a bit.”, Jules says.

We continue on for another couple of miles until we reach Harry Rd. at the end of McKean Rd. We turn left and ride up to Hicks Rd.

“Well, do you guys feel like riding up over Hicks Rd.?”, I ask.

“No.”

“No.”

“Well, I vote no, too. That headwind has drained me.”

So we turn right and then left on Almaden Expressway. We stop at a shopping center about a mile down the expressway, and Jules and Rick go into the liquor store and each buy a bottle of Gatorade.

After a few minutes, we start again. We opt out of returning over Shannon or Kennedy Rds, we’re that drained. We take Camden to Blossom Hill Rd to get back to Los Gatos. Blossom Hill Rd. is dreadful to ride, and for about a half mile the road has only two lanes with no shoulder. Along the side of the road long sticky branches of poison oak reach out to brush against unwary cyclists passing by. My mind goes through the unpleasant scenario of a motorist cutting me off, forcing me into the glistening leaves.

It’s a good thing, maybe, that Steve and John didn’t continue the ride since Steve said at the beginning that he had to be home by 15:30.

Ride stats:

distance: 76.2 miles

climbing: 5180 feet

total time: 9:26

riding time: 5:29

average speed: 13.9 mph

maximum speed: 43.0 mph

index: 97

irp: 10

mirp: 18

An article on indexing can be found here.

©2004, Bill Bushnell

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