Santa Cruz Mountains Mini-Challenge

Today I co-led a ride for the club that we had previewed a few weeks ago. We had a surprisingly good turnout; fifteen riders signed in, with only one turning back after the first hill. I overheard one guy remark:

I tried to get my buddy to join me on this ride, but he said he wasn't doing anything that had “mountains” and “challenge” in the title.

Hey, what about the “mini” part? This wasn't the real Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge, which entails a serious amount of (steep) climbing. Our hills were much more mellow. Well, with the exception of a rather testosterone-fueled descent of San Jose-Soquel Road. Given no room to pass, I had to touch my brakes a few times to avoid running up the back of some of the guys (aerodynamic advantage). The speed limit is 40 mph, and I exceeded it by less than 1% - within the range of calibration error, wouldn't you say?

The ridge along Rodeo Gulch Road delivered a view of Monterey Bay that extended from Moss Landing to Pacific Grove. As we zigzagged up and down through the redwoods, our route came to resemble a three-fingered glove (for you GPS art-lovers out there). 4,445 feet of climbing over 49.4 miles (for the stats lovers among us).

Along the way I saw a juvenile California Mountain Kingsnake, sadly flattened in the middle of the road. The significant wildlife sighting of the day, though, occurred before I left the house: I was in my kitchen at just the right moment to see a very robust coyote dart across my neighbor's yard and head up the road. The road meanders a couple of miles uphill to an open space preserve, but it's all suburban lawns down here. Er, about that "lost pet" flyer ...