Archive for May, 2010

Sick Mountain Biking in Santa Cruz

Friday, May 14th, 2010

By Skittles

Our friend Val, cruisin' a bridge on her Bionicon on the trails behind UCSC.Following the Sea Otter Classic, we made our way north to find out what everyone at the race was talking about: the epic-ness of the Santa Cruz mountain bike trails. And OMG were they sick!

We had to take this picture for Kelli, who thought this trail didn't exist!Most of the trails we rode started with long long long climbs to be followed by bomber downhills. After one epic ride, both David and I were wishing we had some plush full suspension bikes to cruise the trails on! Lucky for us, our friends Ryan and Val, let us demo some of their awesome Bionicon bikes that have a unique feature that let’s you adjust your geometry on the fly!

Some great meals with some great folks.  Haley and Troy - you guys rock!Our biking adventures in Santa Cruz wouldn’t be complete without some of the new friends that we were lucky enough to make. Troy, Haley, Johnny and Ashley all came into our lives after meeting some of their mutual friends while we were on the road. Thanks for showing us the goods in SC guys!

So, Johnny is a production engineer at Fox Racing Shox.  Look at all those beautiful forks!!For anyone in the SC area, you need to check out these awesome trails: Magic Carpet at UCSC, Enchanted Forest in Nisene Marks and the Top of the World!

Group Rides

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

by Dave
wednesday night ride at UCSC with the folks from Santa Cruz Bikes and Fox Forks.So, we have established that SC has some sick trails… well they also take their social riding to a whole new level. Our friends Troy and Hailey invited us on their wednesday night group ride. We left his house, rode across town, picked up two more guys, swung through the beer store, and loaded up our jersey pockets and camel backs with frosty cold brews, then embarked on a 45 minute, 2,500 foot, nauseating, climb to the summit of the UCSC campus. As we crested the summit, onto a big grassy meadow, we were met by about 50 other riders… all drinking beer! Laurel and I were miffed by this… we usually just drink a beer with the guys when we get back to the parking lot AFTER the ride!
The sun was getting low in the sky, and temps were dropping quick, so we hastily passed out samples of cycling salve for everyone to help heal their saddle sores and rock scrapes (gotta work, even we were playing!) We put back a cold one, and embarked on the gnarliest, most technical down hill of our lives! We both made it out, mostly unscathed, but it sure would have been nice to still be riding that plush Bionicon from last week!

Pinnacles

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

by Dave
Laurel in the Bear Gulch CaveOn our way back to Santa Cruz (yes… going back - we love this town) from the Wildflower, we took a quick detour up to Pinnacles National Monument. Massive monoliths, spires, sheer-walled canyons and talus passages define millions of years of erosion, faulting and tectonic plate movement. Pinnacles also offers some climbing, so we thought a day hike through the Talus Caves might give us the opportunity to swag out some climbers with our hand salve. We choose not to climb ourselves, as unanimous advise from our friends was that the rock quality was dangerously low, and even drilled bolts sometimes failed. The hike was pretty cool, and topped out at a big lake for the dog and I to swim in. We didn’t actually meet any climbers, but we did see the SAR (Search and Rescue) team blazing up the trail on our way down in response to a climber fall!