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.

We got on the bikes about 10 a.m. and climbed up a fire road to the top of the ridge, where we took a fun, tight, and twisty path down. The first few swoops and berms got us excited, and we picked up the pace to hit the rest of the trail at speed. That plan didn't quite come to fruition, as we quickly realized the mud took away much of our traction and control. As the trail got steeper, braking became more tricky. When we tried to scrub off some speed in the straight sections our tires would lose traction and slip out. We took a few spills down the hill when our front tires failed to hook up, but luckily no fall was too painful. We got to the bottom of the trail and regrouped, deciding this would be a bit of a different Demo Forest ride than we were used to. No problem, we would just have to be more aware of our speed and the angle that we took into turns.

After the first descent, we started a long slog up a fire road to the top of the ridge and started down Ridge Trail. Demo Forest trails are for the most part straight up and straight down, and any fun descent means a fire road grind to get back to where you started. Ridge eventually turns into Sawpit Trail and becomes more technical and challenging singletrack. There were no muddy slide-outs this time, but the challenge became the roots and logs we had to pedal over. After the rain they were as slick as ice, and we had a few close calls when our front tire would clear a log but our rear tire would slip.

Some of the slippery logs required us to put a foot down to get over.

The trail had a few “roller coaster” sections where we’d be zipping downhill and be hit with a quick steep climb. Neil’s Rohloff-equipped 6.5"-inch travel 29'er from Priority Cycles handled these conditions well. The Rohloff hub can be shifted at any time without having to pedal, so when a sudden steep section surprises you and you don’t have time to pre-shift, it’s not an issue. The hub can shift into any gear at any time, so Neil just quickly twisted his shifter in the middle of a hill and pedaled on. If you’ve ever been stuck in the wrong gear on a steep hill and avoided shifting because you were worried about breaking your derailleur, you know how big of an advantage this can be.

Neil checking for a stiff link in his chain.

The Rohloff hub also excelled in the muddy conditions. Because the whole shift system is housed within the hub shell, mud wasn’t able to clog up the drivetrain. On a conventional drivetrain, mud would normally get caked in the derailleur’s pivot points, pulleys, and jockey wheels, causing unreliable or sticky shifting.

At the bottom of Sawpit, we started the climb up another fire road to reconnect with Ridge. We were expecting a normal climb, but this particular trail just kept going and going up the hill. The gradual slope turned into switchbacks, which turned into steep pitches that we couldn't keep traction on. Soon we were ducking under trees and struggling to keep track of the overgrown trail. Five minutes later, we were bushwhacking it up the hill, carrying our bikes on our shoulders and occasionally slipping backwards on the pine needles. The trail was nowhere to be found, so we decided to just hike in the direction of the top of the hill.

Rest stop at the top of Braille Trail, after our bushwhacking adventure.

It was a total trudge as we slipped on wet logs and pine needles the whole way up, but somehow we managed to reconnect with Ridge right at the start of Braille Trail. This trail has the reputation of being one of the most fun sections of singletrack in the whole forest, and it certainly lived up to its reputation on our run. By this point, we had learned to better deal with the sloppy conditions and were more comfortable keeping speed through most of the trail. A few of the log drops and jumps turned out to be dry enough to ride, so we let loose and made the most of the trail features.

Neil is so fast, he looks like a blur... or the iPhone is no good at action shots

Blurry Phil jumps out and over a log. This was one of the most fun jumps in the whole forest.

At the bottom of the trail we climbed back up to where we’d parked and made it to the car completely exhausted from all the climbing, hiking, and bushwhacking we’d done. The 25 miles we had ridden felt like much longer, and the car was a welcome sight. Our muddy Demo Forest experiment was deemed a success, but we also look forward to coming back to ride the trail in dryer conditions.

-Phil

We'd love to hear stories and see pictures of your Rohloff and Schlumpf equipped bikes in action! Send them to adventures@cyclemonkey.com