Soquel/San Jose Road

[bluesjr]

A fun short cut to page mill is Altamont behind foothill college.

Yeah, I know that area a little from my bicycling days. I was on page mill last week looking to take Moody back to Foothill college, and had to stop twice to ask where the hell it was. Missed it going up, did a U turn about half way up page mill, then missed it coming back down again. Ended up taking Altamont. At least now I know where (some of) the rich people live. Nice area. Feels like a long way from the 'burbs.

Next time I'm on skyline heading south, I think I'll just keep going past four corners, continue on to summit rd, cross 17, and back towards the reservoir via old santa cruz rd.

Btw, if anyone ever finds themselves in downtown Los Gatos on a mt. bike (or on foot), you can take Los Gatos Creek Trail to Lexington, a good family path where the kids won't get run over.

 

[bluesjr]

Took the santa cruz hwy/summit/san jose road over to Capitola today. Pure riding bliss, once I turned off hwy 17. In some ways I like this even more than Skyline. Man, we are lucky to live in the bay area!

 

[YanaBanana]

Took the santa cruz hwy/summit/san jose road over to Capitola today. Pure riding bliss, once I turned off hwy 17. In some ways I like this even more than Skyline. Man, we are lucky to live in the bay area!

+1

I also rode this route from Los Gatos to Capitola today!

After about 1.8 miles on 17 form Los Gatos, take the Bear Creek Overpass to get on the East (Lexington Reservoir) side of 17 and meander through the (paved) tight twisties of Old Santa Cruz Hwy to Summit Rd, then scoot East past the General Store and hop on San Jose-Soquel Rd (or Old San Jose Rd) all the way to Capitola.

(If you want to skip the tight - yet paved - Old Santa Cruz twisties, just hop on Summit from Hwy 17.)

San Jose-Soquel Rd is really nice with smooth sweepers, and a posted 40mph limit, but easily ridden a tad faster as long as you watch for the driveways and deer. (In other words, no surprising decreasing radius turns.)


Yana

 

[Aluisious]

Mmm, went to Cycle Gear to get some brake pads and decided the quickest way home was a little detour through Davenport for hot chocolate

San Jose Soquel was wonderful, Bonny Dune was wonderful, Empire was wonderful, Jamison Creek was...better than a poke in the eye with a hot stick, 9 was smooth and fast and no one got in my way until after the light on the way down. Riding in the evening is awesome, most of the squiddies are done and all the beach yuppies are too tired to be on the interesting roads, they're all fighting to see who can park on 17 first.