August 6, 2005
South Butano Fire Trail
Old Haul Rd.
Alpine Rd.
I started as I usually do from home near downtown Sunnyvale at an hour earlier than usual so that I might beat some of the heat of the day. At 800 the traffic was light, and I made good time down Sunnyvale-Saratoga Rd. to Saratoga (490ft) and was warmed up by the time I started the climb on CA9 to Skyline Blvd. at Saratoga Gap (2610ft). On the way up I stopped to take a picture at one of the few places one can get a good view down into the valley and of the Diablo Range on the other side.
When I got to Skyline Blvd. I noticed that the Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge cyclists were coming from the left on Skyline Blvd. and turning down CA9 toward Boulder Creek, the direction I was planning to go. I stopped briefly in the warm dry air, already in the mid-70Õs F, for a short break before commencing the descent to Waterman Gap (1270ft).
I had plenty of company on the road. I thought of taking a video of some of the faster cyclists behind me pedaling madly to find a draft in my wake, but I decided IÕd rather keep my full attention on riding the bike, especially with other cyclists on the road ahead.
At Waterman Gap I continued straight onto CA236 toward Big Basin. This section of CA236 is particularly pretty as it winds along a wooded ridge of mostly young redwoods and madrones. On past rides IÕve noticed that the larger redwoods generate their own weather under their branches.
At China Grade Rd. I turned right and began a short but steep climb up to Trays Ranch. Just past Trays Ranch I saw a coyote cross the road. He looked back at me from the upper hillside but ran off before I could get my camera.
After Trays Ranch the road climbs more fitfully, and even goes down a couple of times. The last time the road drops near a large sandstone outcropping just before the end of the pavement where a junction of sorts exists.
To the left next to a large cut log the Basin Trail goes into Big Basin. Straight ahead China Grade Rd. continues for a short distance to Johansen Rd. and the road to BSA Camp Curry. To the right a road (Gate 12) descends into lands that used to belong to Santa Cruz Lumber land (now Redtree Properties) and leads eventually, if one were to take it, to other roads in the Butano Creek watershed, North Butano Ridge and Pescadero Creek County Park, or Gate 10 Road that leads down to Old Haul Rd. along Pescadero Creek.
Unfortunately, all of them are illegal for travel. And while I was able to explore these areas a number of years ago without coming across any obstacles, the owners of these lands have more recently erected higher fences and gates and set out patrols.
To the right of the Gate 12 Rd. was a sign for a new trail, The Basin Trail, that connects Pescadero Creek County Park with Big Basin, an easement through Redtree Properties L.C. that, according to the signage, allows only foot and horseback travel although offers some hope of an alternate route for bicycles. Further inquiry into these alternate routes revealed that the way I had come on the state highways was in fact the bicycle alternate and that the owners of Redtree as a condition of the easement expressly forbade bringing a bicycle, ridden or not, through their land and required the posting of special radio-equipped trail patrols to enforce this ban. It seems the owners of Redtree took a special exception to bicycles, and that violation of this prohibition would jeopardize the status of the easement.
While I applaud and support those involved during the fifteen years it took to secure this easement (Sempervirens Fund, California State Parks, etc.) and other land and easements for public use, I canÕt help but be disappointed that the grudging generosity of Redtree did not extend to bicycle travel as it would allow one to get from Portola State Park to Big Basin in a much shorter distance on roads closed to motor vehicles and that the only other practical way for most people to enjoy the trail now was to drive the car an hour to one of the trailheads and hike it out and back, any loop route on foot being too long for all but marathon trail runners.
I continued on China Grade Rd. toward Camp Cutter. Coming the other way were several carloads of families, probably picking up their boys from the camp. I saw several small faces peering at me from behind the tinted windows of the SUVs that passed in clouds of dust. At Johansen Rd. I continued toward Camp Cutter.
Shortly after starting the final descent into Camp Cutter I turned off the main road to a faint dual-track road that veers off to the left and becomes the South Butano Fire Trail. ItÕs easy to miss this when traveling west.
South Butano Fire Trail descends gradually through a young redwood forest along a ridge separating Gazos Creek from Butano Creek (and lower down, Little Butano Creek and Butano Creek). In the first couple of miles the trail descends through what appears to be a smaller logging operation, although most evidence of logging along the road seemed to be quite old. Through this area only one spur veers left and up to a more recent logging area.
The last time I rode uphill through here a few years ago I saw signs of recent logging activity. No great effort seems to have been made to keep out the public, but the road shows little signs of use: no tire tracks and plenty of leaves and other duff lying about. In spite of the apparent disuse of the trail, or perhaps because of it, the road is reasonably smooth and easy to ride.
After about two miles the trail appears to pass alternately into and out of Butano State Park for the rest of its length down to Cloverdale Rd. Although the trail was mostly shady, the temperature was 88F and dry as a desert. At about three miles from the Camp Cutter road the trail passes the Olmo Trail, which descends to the left down a ridge separating Gazos Creek from Little Butano Creek. I stayed on South Butano Fire Trail that went down to the right, sometimes steeply, past a few old growth redwoods before stopping after a short climb at a small clearing in the trees where I witnessed an extraordinary sight.
To the south I could see the ridge on which Olmo Trail runs and the ridges south past Big Basin. I knew that south of that was open sea for many miles. But through atmospheric refraction due to the warm air over the cool ocean I could see, as if Monterey Bay did not exist, the Monterey Peninsula and some of the higher peaks of the Santa Lucia Range including rather strikingly, Carmel Peak (4417ft) in the Ventana Wilderness, that normally would not have been visible from this location.
After admiring this unusual view I continued on to the abandoned airstrip constructed across an unusually wide and gently sloping section of the ridge, as if some errant road crew had prepared the ground for a four-lane highway from and to nowhere. Here I met a few other cyclists who had climbed in the opposite direction and had stopped in a small patch of shade to rest. I asked one of them to take a picture of me riding up and down the old airstrip.
From the airstrip to the west the trail descends on nicely packed and graded crushed sandstone. The surrounding land to the west has the same dry, crushed sandstone look and is the result of irresponsible clear cutting long ago, where the topsoil had eroded leaving only rock and plants like chapparal and manzanita that survive on less water than redwoods. The upside is that this crushed rock makes for a smoother, more consistent surface for biking. The more open terrain allows for wider views of the surrounding lands, and I stopped a couple of times (1, 2) to enjoy these views before I entered the lower forest.
The lower forest was cooler and greener than forest further up the trail. Since the road had few curves I was able to descend through this section more quickly. As I left the lower forest I broke out to a sweeping view of the upper valley along Cloverdale Rd. The last mile of the descent took me along a hillside of oaks and grasses before the gate at Cloverdale Rd.
Once on Cloverdale Rd. I rode north into a stiff headwind, then up Pescadero Rd. and stopped for a snack at the Loma Mar Store. After a short break I continued on Wurr Rd. to the trailhead for Old Haul Rd.
Old Haul Rd. connects Memorial Park with Portola State Park and offers a third connection to paved roads by way of the Bridge Trail to Camp Pomponio Rd., the road that connects Alpine Rd. with the San Mateo County Jail.
Old Haul Rd. starts with a few steep ups and downs before gaining the more gradual right-of-way of the old railroad that hauled logs to the sawmill further up the creek. While Old Haul travels near the bottom of a canyon never far from Pescadero Creek, it is every bit as beautiful as the South Butano Trail that spends most of its time on a ridge. Along the way Old Haul passes by redwoods, some old growth, although most of these are old stumps, a small grove of birches, and crosses a number of small creeks that flow down from north Butano Ridge that lies to the south.
I rode all the way to the gate at the east end of Pescadero Creek County Park before retracing my steps to the trail that connects into Portola State Park. From Portola State Park I took the main road north and up out of the cool redwoods and into the unshaded heat of the hot afternoon sun. A couple of miles up from the park I found a good spot to take a panorama picture that shows the Pescadero Creek watershed and north Butano Ridge rising to the south. I continued uphill on Alpine Rd., crossed Skyline Blvd. to Page Mill Rd. and then turned left on Alpine Rd. (east) that is dirt for the first two and a half miles of its descent.
I remember the first time I rode up Alpine Rd. east when it was still open to the motoring public back in the 1970Õs. The road was graded, but the traffic made it loose and dusty, and all the plants and trees on either side were covered in dust from the passing traffic.
I last climbed Alpine Rd. last December and found it at that time to be muddy at one particular hairpin curve, although today the mud had hardened, leaving ruts and dust.
Descending Alpine Rd. is generally easier (for me) than climbing, but today I found the road to be more overgrown, rutted, and generally neglected than it was in December. It is as if the powers that be have given it up to mountain bikers to play on until Nature reclaims it with a slide, a washout, or overgrowth, making the road impassable for good. The road needs more work than what a few volunteers with picks and shovels can accomplish in a year of weekends. Nowadays Alpine Rd. east is more like a trials trail than a road. Perhaps I was spoiled by the smoothness of the other dirt roads I took this trip.
A smooth track has been worn where cyclists travel, but the grade to either side is covered with debris, ruts, Scotch Broom, or fallen trees. What the road needs is a couple of passes with a road grader and a layer of drainage rock in the mud-prone areas. Fixing the existing washout would be expensive, but the dusty, erosion-prone bypass trail that used to be forbidden is now the only way through, and it wonÕt last indefinitely
Even so, Alpine Rd., excepting the bypass, is one of the easiest grades from the valley to Skyline, and during the dry season the ride up or down Corte Madera Creek canyon makes the trip worthwhile. It would be a shame to lose this route.
Once I got to Portola Valley I took the most direct route home and arrived a bit earlier than I had on previous weekend rides.
Ride stats:
distance: 83.3 miles
climbing: 7730 feet
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©2005, Bill Bushnell
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