This year the kids declined to do any biking for Labor Day, and we ended up doing a hike or two instead. But for my birthday, I wanted to revisit Jamison Creek, a road I hadn't climbed for at least 15 years, so I booked a room at the Monarch Cove Inn, laid out a route and then invited Mark Brody to join Xiaoqin and I --- we'd taken the last room at the Inn but he found suitable accomodations in Santa Cruz despite their being a triathlon on that weekend. I'd always wanted to know how the Roadini handled as a credit card load touring bike, so rather than bring my custom Strong frame (which had the Ortlieb mount on it making it a pain to remove for just an overnight trip), I installed the Carradice Bagman on the Roadini and the Carradice Nelson Longflap, which unlike many modern bikepacking bags actually have a light attachment loop mounted. The Roadini had Conti Terraspeed tires on it, but I wasn't going on any challenging off road riding on this strip, so I installed a Michelin Power Cup 28 on the front Ritchey Zeta Wheel, and a leftover nearly worn out Vittoria Corsa NEXT 34mm tire on the rear.
Loading up with myself and Xiaoqin's minimal overnight setup, the ride felt heavier than I expected but on the other hand my overnight setup included a CPAP machine so that was to be expected. Mark Brody missed his train to Mountain View the night before so we couldn't get started until he arrived on the first train the next day, well after 9:00am. Eva would also join us for the climb up highway 9.
Xiaoqin headed up expecting us to catch her, but had forgotten that she was unloaded while both Mark and I were carrying a load. The climb up Highway 9 was easy though with the weekend traffic it could hardly be called enjoyable. At the top, we waited for Eva and then Mark. Mark had suffered from insomnia and did not have a good time up highway 9, so he wouldn't be able to join us on Jamison Creek.
Descending Highway 9 was fine. We were passed by 2-3 groups of cars but they occured at places where we could pull over. Once onto Highway 236 into Big Basin the traffic petered away and we arrived at the intersection with China Grade road having marvelled at how many trees had survived the fire with just charring at the base instead of burning. Mark was lagging, though, which meant that descending China Grade despite its washed out and bumpy ride was better than taking the extra 10 mile loop through Park HQ.
Arriving at the bottom of China grade, I waited for the others. The descent was scary, but if you pretended it was a mountain bike trail it's way easier than most singletrack at any beginner's mountain bike park. You had to be willing to stay off the saddle, however. From there it was only 3 miles to the bottom of Jamison Creek Road but we were out of water and stopped at the Golf Course just before the intersection to refill our water bottles. Once we saw the menu we ordered some food as well --- a salad split with Xiaoqin and myself to avoid overloading stomachs prior to a hard climb, and some Tacos for Mark to get him to Santa Cruz via Branciforte.
Climbing Jamison Creek was a bear and I wasn't looking forward to it given how warm it was. I was pleasantly surprised therefore, to find that it was almost completely shaded. It was still warm and my shirt and shorts were completely soaked by the time I was half way up, but it wasn't the scorcher it could have been. The steep parts near the intersection with Empire Grade road required getting up and standing on the saddle while breathing hard, and I questioned bringing the heavier bike for a few moments but once we got onto Empire Grade road the grade lightened up dramatically.
Empire Grade road is much like Skyline Boulevard, with swoopy curves, rolling hills, but with much fewer vistas than the latter. The traffic, however, was much lighter which made it a lot of fun. Once we descended past UCSC we were in Santa Cruz proper, where the route took us past the boardwalk and over the bridge. From there a road closure forced us off the route into some unplanned unpaved excursions but all was well. The hitch was the final block to the hotel where I'd gotten confused as to the street the hotel was on but two phone calls with the hotel manager solved the problem, and we found the place and were checked in.
After a shower and stretching we got dressed and went to dinner at Mijo's Tacos, followed by a short walk exploring the little cute hotels that looked very European on the beach. Then we went to Gayle's bakery to eat chocolate cake and buy secondary breakfast. (Monarch Cove Inn served breakfast but it would be anemic by cycling standards)
Eureka Canyon is a beautiful and lightly traffic'd climb through the redwoods to Summit Road. While the surface is bump and in many places falling apart, at climbing speeds that doesn't bother the cyclist much. The shade helped a lot and even at the top the sun wasn't bothersome. We had a quick snack at Buzzard Lagoon road and therefore skipped the summit store in favor of beelining to Los Gatos via the Los Gatos Creek trail. We even skipped Aldercroft Heights and the long way around the lake in favor of a dirt trail Xiaoqin had found earlier this. year.
After the ice cream Mark headed off to the San Jose train station while Xiaoqin and I made our way home. It was a great trip at over 100 miles in 2 days with almost 10000' of elevation gain. The Roadini more than proved itself a capable credit card touring machine.
No comments:
Post a Comment