Neil and Phil's Muddy Santa Cruz Trail Riding Trip

Neil at the Demo Forest trail map. 

This Thursday, Neil and I headed down south early in the morning to ride the famed trails of Santa Cruz. We were itching to get out on a proper ride and had been watching the weather all week, waiting out a rain storm for a chance to hit the dirt. There was no rain in the forecast Thursday, but with the storm the day before it looked like we’d be hitting the mud instead. That was fine by us. Some of the most grin-inducing rides we’ve ever had have been in the sloppiest conditions imaginable.

We decided to ride Soquel Demonstration Forest State Park (A.K.A. Demo Forest), which we prefer to the trails above the UC Santa Cruz campus because of the abundance of jumps, steep berms, and other trail features it offers. We drove through the San Jose morning traffic, pulled onto Highway 17 through the Santa Cruz mountains, then drove down a little country road, eventually parking on the side of the road in a secluded section of the woods. Stepping out of the car, we realized everything in the forest was dripping wet, we were surrounded by puddles, and it was breezy and overcast. We thought this should make for some interesting trail conditions.

One of the few flat sections of trail.

Phil and Tyler's November North Bay Camping Trip

Tyler's Surly Krampus and Phil's Budnitz No. 3, just before heading over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin.

Tyler and I, two of the newest members of the Cycle Monkey team, are big fans of bike camping. We often spend downtime at the office dreaming up fatbiking trips and road tours to tackle someday. But for a more immediate thrill, we headed out into the North Bay on a recent weekend for a bit of Rohloff-equipped bike camping. We were excited to get out for a full weekend before the weather got wet, and had been looking forward to the mini-tour since we had planned it just a few weeks before.

The plan was to take the BART train from the East Bay to downtown San Francisco before pedaling over the Golden Gate Bridge and north to Samuel P. Taylor State Park. The park has a popular campsite in a big redwood grove, and the ride there has some of the most beautiful and varied scenery that the Bay Area has to offer – rolling hills, dense forests, waterfront bike paths, and ritzy neighborhoods were all on the route.

Joining us was Cycle Monkey friend Bishnu, who is the roaster at our local coffee shop and quite an experienced bike tourer himself. Tobe, one of the mechanics in our Monkey Lab, was to join us later that night at the campsite. Our motley crew had quite a range of bike styles, packing lists, gear-carrying setups, and pedaling paces, but we all had the same goal: getting outside the city, packing on the miles, and simply enjoying the weekend.

The whole squad: (from left) Tyler, Bishnu, Tobe, and Phil.