Mountain bike Soquel Demonstration forest in Santa Cruz, CA
Hello all, this is my mtb ride from this morning in Soquel Demo forest in Santa Cruz. The shot below is from the top of the climb looking over Monterey Bay.
The bike is a 26" 2010 Santa Cruz Blur LTc, Fox 36 fork, newly installed 11-46 Sunrace cassette. Photos taken with a Samsung Galaxy S8.
The ride was 18 miles and a tough 3,100 feet of climbing. (I say tough because one of the climbs is 1.1 miles averaging a 11% grade, a few of the short steep sections is close to 20%. Ouch)
GPS data from a Garmin Vivoactive HR. Look at the elevation profile, some mountains here!
The first part of the climb up from the parking lot runs along a creek which is green with ferns, moss and redwood trees.
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Almost to the top, we see a glimpse of Monterey bay through the trees.
On a fire road climb up, I noticed these banana slugs on the side of the mountain. The University of Santa Cruz mascot is the banana slug...
These things are pretty big at 5-6 inches and very bright.
At the bottom of the 'flow trail' taking a break. It's about 10am and at this point, sweated quite a bit... (Back in the Santa Clara valley, it was 91* f today)
Every year the redwood trees grow a bit more, you can easily see the new growth on this young redwood.
When climbing out, I was passed by a 60 year old mtb'er who road a uphill wheelie with no hands... I chatted with him for a minute before he took off. I attempted to follow, but nope... my legs/quads said 'no mas', they were burning pretty bad after 3,000 feet of the climbing that I had done previously.
Back at the parking lot,,,,whew... There are large redwood trees everywhere.
So I ordered a Pesto Chicken Pizza for a post ride lunch.
Super cool ride.
Is that an Enduro bike? Wouldn't it be better to use your hardtail when you have so much climbing to do? Does the suspension on this lockout?
The problem with green, black, grey bikes is that it is very difficult to get a nice picture of them. The bike tends to merge into the background.
If you couldn't keep up with a 60 year old, then that guy must be superman!
The bike is Santa Cruz's version of an all mountain bike, you can call it an enduro bike as it has 160mm of travel in the front and 5" of travel in the back. I can lock out the rear shock, it is a Fox RP23.
Going downhill at this place is best on a full suspension bike as it is rocky with tree roots, ruts, etc... Some of it is pretty gnarly. The people that wreck here need to be airlifted out by helicopter because the location is so remote. There are a lot of mtb accidents at this place.
Since the bike weighs in at 29.5 lbs, it is quite heavy to ride uphill. The 60 yo was in great shape for sure.
How much do you pay for this bike? Just curious
I hope your journey was very good thank you for sharing with us
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Cool