Santa Cruz Mountains Coastal Loop

Bill Bushnell - June 12, 1994

At 7:15a Ron Porat, Ed Miller, and I set out from my place in Palo Alto, CA. We cruised up Embarcadero Rd. through a corner of the Stanford campus and up Sand Hill Rd. to Portola Rd. We turned right on Portola and left on CA-84 and continued all the way to San Gregorio. Tom Lawrence joined us at Sand Hill Rd. and Santa Cruz Ave.

I seldom ride up the eastern side of CA-84. The ascent is about 1000 feet in 3 miles, an easy climb, and early on a Sunday morning traffic was light. Skylonda was at the boundary between fog and sun, and as we began the western descent to San Gregorio, we rode through wet patches of roadway underneath dripping, fog-soaked redwoods.

As we came out on the open, flat run for the last 4 or 5 miles to San Gregorio, the heavy fog turned to drizzle. Everything was wet, and the temperature was a chilly 57F. We stopped for a water break at the General Store shortly after its opening at 9:00a before heading out the last mile to the coast.

We turned left and began the 40-mile ride south to Santa Cruz. Caltrans have recently resurfaced CA-1 between San Gregorio and Pescadero with new, smooth asphalt and have widened the shoulders in both directions. The first few miles south while wet was smooth and swift. The strong wind blowing from the northwest helped, too. Were it not for the traffic, CA-1 would be a more comfortable alternate to Stage Rd. about a mile inland.

Ron took a long, strong pull at the front of our line from Bean Hollow Beach all the way to Ano Nuevo. We stopped at the preserve parking lot to shed our wet-weather layers as we had just come out of the fog into the bright, warm sun. From the viewpoint near the pit toilets, we could see the fog bank, marked by a definite boundary, like something out of a science-fiction story involving the Bermuda Triangle, hanging ominously about 1 mile off the coast.

We continued south past the cliffs at the southern end of Big Basin State Park, past Waddell Beach, and past Big Creek Lumber. On the long downhill past Scott Creek Beach I reached a record 48 mph maximum speed, and sustained a speed in the 40’s for a fair distance. A tuck and a tailwind helped.

We arrived in Santa Cruz at 11:30a and decided to continue straight to lunch rather than detour uphill through the UC Santa Cruz Campus. We had planned to take lunch at the all-you-can-eat $6 buffet at Guaranga’s, but when we arrived they were closed. Rather than retrace our busy path on Water and Mission Streets to the Saturn Cafe we continued down Water for a few more blocks and ate at the Staff of Life deli. The food here is good, but the portions are smaller.

After lunch we returned west on Water St. to Branciforte and joined the 1994 Sequoia 100-mile route over the two “walls” of Isbel and Carbonera. Instead of taking El Rancho and La Madrona, frontage roads to CA-17, we turned left at the top of Carbonera and rode the scenic road through the Pasatiempo golf course and development and exited at Sims Rd. We turned left and then right on Graham Hill Rd. and then left just past the stores onto Pipeline Rd. through Henry Cowell Redwoods.

(FYI: I did not route the 1994 Sequoia Century this way for three reasons, one of them political, the other two safety: (1) We could not route some 450 cyclists on the private road through Pasatiempo, (2) the Pasatiempo/CA-17 overpass is very dangerous on the overpass because the exit ramps from CA-17 both northbound and southbound do not stop, and (3) I did not want cyclists making a left turn off of Graham Hill Rd. onto Pipeline Rd.)

After taking a break at Henry Cowell Redwoods we continued through Felton and climbed Zayante Rd. to Summit Rd. After regrouping at the top we turned right on Summit Rd. and left on Bayview and descended the steep and tortuous route through Redwood Estates on another series of semi-private roads. We continued downhill on Old Santa Cruz Highway and made our final descent swiftly on CA-17 into Los Gatos rather than mess with Alma Bridge Rd. and the crowded, dusty footpath alongside Los Gatos Creek.

We returned to Palo Alto on the usual flat route through Saratoga, Cupertino, and Los Altos, returning home just after 5:00p.

Ride stats:

distance: 118.2 miles

climbing: 6390 feet

total time: 9:58

riding time: 7:32

average speed: 15.7 mph

maximum speed: 48.0 mph

index: 144

irp: 14.4

mirp: 19.1

cd: 54

An article on indexing can be found here.

©2004, Bill Bushnell

Please do not publish or distribute for profit without permission.