May 25, 2024
(Thank you to Jeff for taking most of these pics)
https://www.strava.com/activities/11498136848
For years, Jeff has been dropping (not so subtle) hints that he wanted to ride from Stanford to Santa Cruz and back. Somehow in 2024, the plans went from “we should do this sometime (sure bro)” to “we’re doing this, right?” to “let’s pick a date.”
In the build up, we managed to get in a Pescadero ride that actually went pretty well, all things considered. Then we went up Tam, got melted and ran out of food, then shivered our way through the fog on the descent. But we survived!
We settled on Memorial Day weekend for our trip. Our usual last ditch sag wagon driver Emily (thank you Emily) was out of town. But, we figured there were plenty of hotels in Santa Cruz if things went further south, right?
In the lead up to the ride, Jeff did some serious research on our route and found that one of the residential roads was blocked due to a landslide. We surveyed Strava and local newsfeeds and determined that we’d be able to traverse it if we dismounted. No biggie, right?
I coped with stress in the leadup to the ride by zip tying shot bloks to my bike. I was not going to run out of calories this time.
Jeff messaged me the night before with a news report of a 24% chance of rain in Santa Cruz. In late May?? No way. I checked my apple weather app (now with DarkSkies integration!) and it showed me 0% chance of precipitation in Pescadero and Santa Cruz, so I shrugged off my worries.
The morning of the ride, I woke up to a wet deck and a light drizzle. I told myself this would clear up as I headed south, and indeed it was a beautiful morning at Stanford. OK, awesome. We did our last gear checks and started off, gawking at the changes to campus and telling the usual old stories about grad school.
Things were great climbing up Old La Honda. Not too hot, and I was intentionally keeping my heartrate below 155 to stay below my lactate threshold. Slowly, though, we noticed that the conditions were becoming incrementally wetter and colder. When we hit the top, it was low 50’s and legitimately drizzling. We did a quick gut check and decided to push on down Old La Honda and 84. It was probably just a quick cloudburst at these higher elevations, right?
The back of Old La Honda was slick, but doable. I was mainly worried about the descent down 84. Usually I’m pushing 40 mph on those beautiful wide turns along with the cars, but the conditions here were legitimately wet. I took the descent conservatively and even Jeff opted not to bomb down like he usually does. We were too cold at the bottom to talk much, but we opted to start climbing up Pescadero Ave right away. It would clear up near the coast, right? Right?
We pulled into the gas station in Pescadero in pretty rough shape. Jeff’s immediate comment to me was “Dude, this is f**ed up.” I was drenched, but I was sporting a nanoair vest, a Houdini as a windbreaker, and full fingered gloves. As long as I kept my legs moving, my core temp was workable. I don’t know how Jeff survived without gloves, but he’s crazy. We headed inside and proceeded to make puddles on the floor and on the booth. We decided to shiver our way through plates of tacos and reassess.
At this point, it was still visibly raining outside and hovering in the 50’s. We didn’t want to pull the plug on the ride, but talked through the pros and cons of turning back and climbing up Tunitas. My argument was that a climb up a wet Tunitas would also be miserable, but Jeff countered that the next 35 miles along Highway 1 would be awful in the rain.
As we chatted, two kids (maybe 6?) were sitting across from me and visibly staring at the weirdo in bright, soggy colors.
The outcome of our Santa Cruz ride was on a knife’s edge. We talked through the strategy and timing and must have convinced ourselves both ways several times. A few things saved our bacon. I found a hot tea/hot chocolate dispenser and was able to stop shivering long enough to warm my hands and bring up my core temperature. Critically, we also found an electric heater and camped out underneath like a couple of soggy birds (Huge shoutout to the kind folks at https://www.yelp.com/biz/mercado-and-taqueria-de-amigos-pescadero for welcoming us. We tipped very generously)
30ish minutes later, our mood had shifted dramatically. The rain eased up enough for us to lift our spirits and we had the core temperature and calories to go on. We agreed that we’d check out a new stretch of road down CloverDale that headed south from Pescadero. With less damp clothes and steadily rising spirits, we set off on a gloriously smooth trip towards the 1. As the wind and rain abated, we cautiously planned on continuing on with the day.
By the time we hit Highway 1, it was obvious that we could continue on and so we turned without hesitation. The next 35 miles flew by with glorious views and a hefty tailwind. We were so in the groove that we decided not to stop in Davenport at Swanton’s Berry Farm. Along the way, we traded spots with a bikepacker who was quite frankly CRUSHING it and groaned at the sight of a CyberTruck owner camping in his monstrosity.
It was a little jarring when we reached Santa Cruz. The past couple of hours had been just the hypnotic hum of our wheels and now we reached the din of the boardwalk, complete with tipsy folks who thought nothing of wandering backwards into the bike lane. At least by now it was legitimately sunny, with blue skies!
We stopped at Beach Hut Deli.Jeff opted for the small sandwich because he’s weird but I put down 1000 calories. Highly recommended.
We set off North with full bellies and high spirits. As we were grinding up towards the fabled Mt Charlie climb, we began to feel a novel sensation: too…warm? The climbs were top notch! Not too much traffic, reasonable coverage, only a few steep patches, and a fantastic road quality. We ground our way up the mountain, taking up the forests and views along the way.
Even the landslide wasn’t too bad. 5 minutes of bike portage and we were on the way. (I celebrated at the top by not paying attention and nearly fishtailing on a patch of sand.) We hopped into some lovely descents and made our way down towards the reservoir.
When we finally reached the water, the bike lane dead ended and we took a hard right down to a bumpy dirt path. Over the next couple of miles, I rode half unclipped because I was certain I’d eat sh*t and fall over. Thankfully, I did not but we both were not fans of this section. “Kudos” to the bro who told Jeff “you need gravel tires.” Thanks, bro!
We proceeded off towards the Mt Eden climb with rising optimism that we’d finish! There was still plenty of light even after our rain delays, and we were moving steadily if not quickly. The only navigational mishap of the day occurred when Jeff’s GPS freaked out and admitted that we were about a mile off course. We quickly backtracked and got back on the unfortunately steep section that was the correct path.
The climbing was done for the day by the time we hit Steven’s Creek reservoir. Shoutout to the “strong bro” who was riding in traffic with no helmet. Great life choices there, BRO. Once we hit Foothill Expressway, we knew we’d make it back. I kept shoving food into my face and we finally rolled back into the Rains parking lot. Time to celebrate with Five Guys and Baskin Robbins!
My takeaways:
On rainy days, I’d consider taking something a little more waterproof than my Houdini. But it still did a fine job
I took too many calories this time. I had maybe 2-3 unopened shot bloks strapped to my bike. But on these longer expeditions I didn’t want to take any chances!
I didn’t bonk! I aggressively targeted hydration, electrolytes, and nutrition through the day. I must have taken in about 2x the calories that Jeff did, but I take a lot of fuel!
I didn’t cramp! I was pounding 3-4 these over the course of the day https://teamhotshot.com/products/hotshot-6-pack and was very pleased that my quads held up. I also think that keeping below lactate threshold on early climbs is key to having a good ride
