The restorative beauty of wild lands is one of the great treasures of our region. These deep, tree-studded canyons are not in the foothills of the Sierra mountains—they're basically in San José's backyard.
With the promise that today would be one of our first “warm enough” days, my ride buddy agreed to ride through some redwoods.
Warm enough not to shiver in the shade. Cool enough not to siphon off too many vehicles desperate to escape the traffic jam they create on the way to the coast.
The rutted sections of Highland Way are worse than I've ever seen. As in, several places where you need to hunt for strips of pavement between gaping holes. Outbound, I committed a few particularly gnarly spots to memory for a safe return trip. Not surprisingly, the worst stretches are under the trees (which compounds the challenge of seeing them).
The Soquel Demonstration Forest was a particular draw today—busier than I have ever seen it, vehicles lining the road well past the trailhead. Those trails would be far too busy to enjoy them.
No problem for us; we stayed on the “road” and managed to cover 31 miles with 2,480 feet of climbing.
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