Our manager Scott once sent an email outlining some of the finest scenic roads around San Jose, Morgan Hill and Santa Cruz. Piyush wanted to try them out with his brand new tires. We planned to do a relaxed afternoon ride.
The highlight of the trip was the amazing roads as shown in the map: http://tinyurl.com/5dypfv
It was hard to believe we got out of the urban jungle and was out in the country in almost no time at all. We took CA-85 south till just after CA-17 at Los Gatos blvd exit and the fun started right away. Shannon road, Hicks road, McKean road, Watsonville road and then Hecker pass / Mt Madonna, with hardly any traffic made an excellent ride.
We had donuts at a small shop in Santa Cruz before taking CA-17 back to home around 7:30pm. Big mistake ! Most part of the 17 was a parking lot, and splitting lanes was a pain. Nonetheless the 140 mile trip is definitely worth doing any day.
At home Piyush was eager to download movies from his new bike cam, but it turned out that he left the SD card at home after testing the camera before the trip. Poor guy.
Pictures: priti’s flickr set
Video: will be uploaded soon
Rumour is Honda will launch VFR (with latest V5 engine) by this year end or early next year. Am sure it will cost a bomb and will be out of reach for most of us
This is a great route. I have been to Hicks once and loved that road.
CA17 is indeed a pain to ride. Skyline and 9 are becoming cops den. If you dont mind goaty roads on the huge ST1300, (not sure if you have done this) next time you can divert to bear creek, come to boulder creek town, take left onto big basin (Hwy236). There are several short hikes/trips which can be done at the Big Basin. My fav for a getaway in 1 day. You have then 2 options. detour back, take Jamison Creek (moderate goaty) and take empire creek down to CA-1 OR you can can continue 236 upto 9 take alpine road and do pescadero onto Pescadero Beach.
Just before touching Pescadero, you can take Stage Road too, good sharp turns, and get onto Tunitas Creek Road, this is a goaty road too. This leads upto Skyline and you can drop down to Kings Mountain Road on to Woodside. Kings Mountain Road is clean with good turns. The park is great too for short hikes.