Author Archives: Jack Rawlins

North Rodeo Gulch Road

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Distance: 11 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1045 ft

I run the risk of having too many Santa Cruz rides in Bestrides, but this one is charming, different from the others, and hard to find on one’s own.  It’s not a great ride, but it’s a nice little one.  It’s officially N. Rodeo Gulch Road, and South Rodeo Gulch Road is directly across the street from its southern end, but people (and most maps) just call it Rodeo Gulch.

For Santa Cruz, It’s a dry landscape

How is it different from the other SC rides?  First, there are almost no redwoods.  The scenery is very good, but it’s not OMG awe-inspiring like the others.  The ecosystem is dry, so the woods are eucalyptus and great, gnarly oaks.  And it isn’t all along a creek at the bottom of a canyon in the dark—you work your way up a gulch and break out on the top of a largely open hill where there are (unheard of in SC) clear skies and actual vistas (not impressive vistas, but vistas).  And it isn’t all up and down—the top of the hill and the first miles at the southern end are essentially flat.  You won’t even rack 100 ft/mile.  Consider it a recovery ride.  Yet you’ll do enough work to feel like you rode your bike.  If you want more miles, this is Santa Cruz so it’s easy to add on (see Adding Miles).

Begin at the intersection of N. Rodeo Gulch Road and Soquel Drive.  Soquel is a big, very busy main artery, but there is a big dirt turn-out perfect for parking at the very beginning of NRGR.

Ride north on NRGR.  You’ll climb gently for a few, moderately built-up miles.  Traffic is an issue, but once you clear the metropolis (in a couple of miles) you should have the road largely to yourself.   Note the marvelous oaks on your L at the very outset.

In about 2.5 miles you leave the creek (Rodeo Creek, I assume) and start climbing noticeably,  working your way out of the gulch and up to the hill top, a pitch that lasts about 1.5 miles and will get your attention (you’ll even be at 11-13% for a short while).   Once on top, roll along the essentially flat hill top for about a mile.  What vistas the ride offers are here, views of the two broad scrub canyons on either side of the ridge and a few glimpses of the Bay through the trees (easy to miss).  In the last 1/4 mile of the ride, the road drops steeply down to the dead-end at Mountain View Rd./Laurel Glen Rd. (the road changes its name at the intersection).  If the intersection looks familiar, it’s because you ride through it on the Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie ride.  The 1/4-mile drop to the intersection and subsequent climb back out after you turn around have no virtues, so if you want to skip them I won’t think less of you—just turn around when the road makes an obvious move to plummet.

The oaks in the Gulch are mighty. I think it’s an oak.

The ride back has a very different character, which is why I encourage you to ride the road both ways.  Saunter across the hill top, then enjoy a very nice serpentine descent marred by imperfect pavement.  The last 2.5 miles of slight downhill are an ego-boosting delight.

Lovely eucalyptus on the southern climb

Adding Miles: If you want to ride NRGR as an out and back, then continue on, start at the north end so you end up on Mountain View Rd./Laurel Glen Rd. instead of Soquel Drive.  Then you’ve got good riding in either direction (see the Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie ride for routes).  If you’re looking for a small loop, you can loop Rodeo Gulch from either side, riding either Branciforte Dr. > Mountain View > Rodeo Gulch or Soquel—San Jose > Laurel Glen > Rodeo Gulch.  I prefer Branciforte Dr. to Soquel—San Jose, but I prefer Laurel Glen to Mountain View, so there you go.  Either loop involves you in some typical urban connecting, but the area’s bike lanes are good.  If you’re looking to extend our mapped ride by just a bit, I suggest NRGR>Laurel Glen to the end of LG, then return.

Paul (below) suggests Hidden Valley Rd., a sweet little 3-mi. out and back off NRGR, as an add-on.

For riding further afield, see the introduction to the Monterey Bay area in Rides by Region for a list of the good roads in the Santa Cruz area.

Oaks at the south end of N. Rodeo Gulch Road

Felton Empire Road/Empire Grade

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Distance: 23 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 3260 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)
(A Best of the Best descent)

(Note: This route was left undamaged by the fires of 2020. The burn boundary is roughly Empire Grade—expect substantial burn evidence on any route north of that road.)

This ride is in Bestrides because of 3.7 miles—the length of Felton Empire Road.  Since few Bestrides users are interested in going for a 7.4-mile ride, I’ve added some worthwhile miles to make a day of it, but it’s those 3.7 that really matter.

There are two roads that run parallel north/south through the region northwest of Santa Cruz: Hwy 9 and Empire Grade.  Hwy 9 is a beautiful road but the main artery through the region and is very heavily trafficked with no shoulder—to be avoided except when necessary as a connector.  Empire Grade is much less developed and much less busy, and is a staple bike route for Santa Cruzans, but it’s tamer, bigger, and straighter than the real Santa Cruz back roads and thus lacks that sense of being IN the redwood forest that makes SC riding so special.  It would be a great ride anywhere else, but it’s not near the top of my SC ride list.

Felton Empire Road

These two roads are connected by three roads of interest to cyclists: Felton Empire, Alba, and Jamison Creek.  All three are short (3-4 miles), steep, windy, and gorgeous.  Felton Empire is fairly steep, and Jamison Creek and Alba are very steep (slightly under 10% average).  Locals insist that Jamison is steeper than Alba.  If you want a vertical challenge, go for either one.  Hint: Jamison Creek is shorter (3 miles to 3.7 miles), but it begins with about a mile of low-key climbing so it packs all the hurt in the last 2 miles.  JCR has recently (as of 5/24) been repaved, so its surface is pristine (thanks, Alex).  I think both roads are too steep to be fun descents, but YMMV.  So if we’re looking for a ride that’s rewarding up and down, the choice is Felton Empire, a testing but totally rideable climb and absolutely as good a descent as there is on this Earth.  Since there is a fog line between Boulder Creek and Felton, Felton Empire Road and Alba are wetter, therefore lusher/prettier, than Jamison Creek.

At the top of Felton Empire you can go three ways, and they’re all good.  But two of them, Ice Cream Grade (straight ahead) and Empire downhill (L), are part of the Bonny Doon/Empire Grade ride, so I’ve mapped this ride to go R, uphill on Empire, to its end, then back.

Start in the small, pleasant town of Felton.  Felton Empire Rd. is steep from the get-go, so I strongly suggest riding around the back streets of Felton for a while until your legs are ready to work.   Note the wonderfully-named Gushee St.

Felton Empire Road

Head up Felton Empire. It’s never steeper than it is at first, and, while there’s a lot of 8-10% stuff, there isn’t a single moment of “I’m not sure I can do this.” The scenery is just grand. FER is, as the name suggests, the connector between moderately busy Empire Grade and Felton, so you’ll see some traffic—major traffic on weekends and holidays, enough to dampen one’s spirits. Look off to your R to see how steep the drop-off is.  I think there has been major clearing of understory, for fire control, in recent years—at any rate, the trees are intact but the mood has gone from lush to a bit stark (as of 9/25).  Still very good, though.

Felton Empire Road

At the top, you really have two choices: do the ride as mapped, or do a loop that includes Ice Cream Grade, the upper end of Pine Flat Rd., and a leg of upper Empire, in either direction. If you aren’t planning on doing the Bonny Doon ride, consider doing the loop, though the area north of Empire Grade was hit hard by the fire.  You can go either way—clockwise gives you a sweet descent and mild climb out on Ice Cream, and counterclockwise gives you a mild descent and a significant climb out.

Assuming we follow our map, go R at the four-way and continue up Empire Grade to its end. EG seems pretty ordinary after the wonders of Felton Empire, but it’s really totally fine. It’s mostly mild to moderate climbing, with nothing seriously steep but some substantial overall elevation gain. As you ride north, it gets smaller, prettier, and quieter. Just before the Alba intersection, you start descending, and most of the rest of the road is moderately down, so if you’ve had your fill of climbing, turn around at Alba. Otherwise, go to the end, which is a gate separating you from what looks like some sort of prison.

Felton Empire Road

Empire Grade (and its brother to the west, Pine Flat Rd) is merely fine going up but a hoot coming down, a fast, largely straight ripper with wide, mild curves you can take at speed and the occasional roller you can power up to keep your legs awake. You can stay on it all the way to Santa Cruz and prolong the fun, but we’ve got something much better in mind.

Turn L onto Felton Empire and prepare to be transported. This is descending as good as it gets. It’s very fast and it’s never straight, but the curves are deliciously banked and the sight lines are outstanding, so you can carry a lot of speed safely. If the Disneyland Matterhorn bobsleds were run on bikes, this would be it.  The fact that you’re riding through Eden only adds to the joy. Get to the bottom, get off your bike, and try to fathom what you’ve just experienced.

Shortening the route: Ride up Felton Empire and back down.

Adding miles:  See the Monterey Bay discussion in the Rides by Region chapter for a survey of roads in the Santa Cruz area.  Since it’s the same conversation for all 6 of our Santa Cruz rides, I’ll do it once there and leave it at that.

In Santa Cruz, even the poison oak is beautiful

Ward’s Ferry Road

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Distance: 34 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 4840 ft

A general word of warning about riding in the Southern Southern Gold Country: every back road I’ve ridden south of Jesus Maria Rd. has had stretches of pavement ranging from poor to comically horrible.  That includes every Bestrides ride in the area—Ward’s Ferry, Old Ward’s Ferry, not so much Priest-Coulterville—and others like Dogtown Rd.  If poor pavement bothers you, ride somewhere else.

This is a classic “drop down into a river canyon, cross the river, and climb up the other side” ride.  Thus it’s a lot like Mosquito Ridge Road, but not as good, because the road surface is often poor and the rock strata are only fair, but it’s a dramatic canyon, and the road surface is at its best when you need it the most, which is on the steep descending and climbing near the river.  The primary appeal is the solitude and the narrowness of the road—traffic averages 1-5 vehicles per transit (16 miles), and the road is often precisely one car-width wide, so you have to pull off onto the hillside to let the rare car pass.  No centerline, no fog line, no shoulder, no guard rails—just a little ribbon on pavement between cliff and drop-off.

The ride’s unique feature is the bridge across the Tuolumne (“TWAH luh mee”) River, which is either a work of art or an abomination, depending on your taste (see photo below).  From either side of the canyon there are some spectacular views of the river and road below you, so you can look down on where you’re heading (or where you’ve been), which is something I always love.  It’s usually ridden in one direction only, as part of several possible loop routes in the area (see Adding Miles), and it’s certainly easier that way.  As an out and back, it’s serious work—4840 ft of gain in 34 miles.  There are no 15% killer pitches, just a lot of 7-10%, and there’s a lot of variety in the pitch, so no endless grinds.

This is a slow ride and possibly a hot one, so unless you are reprovisioning in Groveland I encourage you to take a third water bottle and drop it at the bridge for the climb back to the car.

You could start the ride at either end, but it’s better from the north, because if you start at the south end the ride begins with 7 miles of descent, then 3 miles of tough climbing on cold legs—from the north you begin with 6 miles of rollers as a warm-up.

The north (sunny) side of the canyon

At the north end, you can pick from any of a number of starting places, and they all give you about the same ride: the town of Sonora (which is practically a city), the intersection of Ward’s Ferry Rd. and Tuolumne Rd. (there’s a large dirt parking area there), or the town of Tuolumne.  I’ve started in Tuolumne, not because it’s a charming town flush with vitality (it isn’t), but because Yosemite Rd., the first few miles of the route, is a bit better surfaced than Ward’s Ferry and thus a mite more pleasant.  Ride out of Tuolumne on Main St, which turns into Yosemite, and follow Yosemite (there’s one surprising L turn at an intersection) until it dead-ends at Ward’s Ferry Rd.  Go L on WFR.  You will soon meet a small sign that inexplicably says “Ward’s Ferry Road closed,” which you can ignore, and a large sign that says, “Caution: steep grades, narrow one-lane road, no turn-outs”—in other words, cycling heaven.

Looking down from the north side on the Tuolumne River Bridge and Ward’s Ferry Rd climbing the south canyon wall in the distance

Immediately after that Sign of Doom, you drop 2.6 pretty steep miles to the Tuolumne River.  By some miracle (and in violation of all logic), just when the pitch gets steep the road surface gets pretty good, and stays that way until the worst of the climbing is over.  When you begin to get glimpses of the river ahead of you, look over the drop-off—there are great views of the bridge crossing the river below you, where you’ll be in 8 minutes.  As you round the hillside and see the river downstream, note the log flotillas along the river bank, awaiting the log drive—a rare sign since the California logging industry died.

At the river you encounter Graffiti Central.  The bridge has become a kaleidoscopic, ever-changing graffiti artists’ canvas, almost all of it good-natured and pleasing to the eye, once you get over your environmentalist knee-jerk outrage.  There are even spray cans left along the sidewalk so you can sign the guest book as it were.

Tuolumne River Bridge: bridge or art installation?

On the other side of the bridge, 7 miles of climbing awaits.  The first 3 are demanding but not vicious.  You climb to another, smaller bridge across a tributary, do one more steep pitch, and the rest is moderate.  At the intersection of Deer Flat Road and Ward’s Ferry Rd you can go either way.  WFR is smaller, a bit more interesting, with more climbing and a rougher road surface.  DFR takes you more directly to town, and I’ve mapped it that way.  When DFR dead-ends on Hwy 120, go L for a kilometer or so into town.

Groveland is a busy place, because it’s on a main route into Yosemite.  It offers a nice Michoacano restaurant, a pleasant city park with good bathrooms, and the self-proclaimed oldest bar in California, the Iron Door Saloon (the Magnolia Saloon in Coulterville claims to be “California’s oldest operating saloon,” since 1851.  I’ll let them duke it out) .  The supermarket is fifty feet down Ferretti Rd on your L at the far end of town.

Ward’s Ferry Rd between the two bridges, looking north from the south canyon wall

On the ride back, when the descending begins the road surface goes to hell, but don’t despair—remember, as soon as the pitch gets steep the surface gets good.  Some of the descending is very good, but there is absolutely no place to get around on-coming cars and no way to see them coming, so be cautious.  About the time the descending gets good, you’ll meet the Ward’s Ferry Rd./Theil Rd. fork, and if you’re like me you’ll go L, rocketing off onto Theil Rd. in error.  Luckily a “not a through road” sign will alert you to your mistake immediately.

Keeping everybody safe on the south side

On the far side of the big bridge, you’re looking at that 2.6-mile stretch of what is now serious climbing work.  This is the only stretch of road on the ride that is fully exposed to the hot summer sun, and on a sunny July afternoon it’s a griddle.  Try to schedule the ride to not be there then.  The view of the bridge below you is more rewarding now, because you know what you’re looking at. 

When you’re back at the aforementioned “caution” sign, the worst of the climbing is over, but there are still 6 miles of mostly up to go, so don’t burn all your matches on the steep stuff.

Shortening the route: Ride down to the river and turn around.  Both sides of the canyon are equally rewarding.

Adding miles:  Locals ride Ward’s Ferry Road as part of a loop, but that usually involves riding a substantial leg of Hwy 120, which I wouldn’t do in the summer, since it’s heavily trafficked with cars heading to and from Yosemite.   But there is one leg worth riding.  If you look at a map of Hwy 120 just west of Groveland, you’ll see a 4.5-mile stretch that looks like spaghetti, and a straighter 1.7-mile cut-off called Old Priest Road.   This little pocket is the stuff of cycling legend.  Old Priest Road averages a mind-boggling 17%, which means much of it is well over 20%.  It’s reputed to be the steepest climb in the Sierra.  Since Hwy 120 has the same elevation change in over twice the distance, it’s a more reasonable 7% or so, which makes for a fantastic descent (if you’re willing to dodge the cars).  All of which means you can ride up Old Priest and down 120, and satiate your climbing and descending jones in a little over 6 miles.  I wouldn’t go near Old Priest on a wet or icy day, and I wouldn’t consider descending it ever.

The north half of our route goes right past our Old Ward’s Ferry Road Et. Al route.

Three miles west of Groveland is the “town” of Priest Station, just a cafe, and the trailhead for our Priest-Coulterville Road route.  So you could ride from the oldest bar in California to the other oldest bar in California in 13 miles.

San Juan Canyon Road

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Distance: 22 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2700 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)

Bestrides has three rides in the Hollister area, San Juan Grade Road, Lone Tree Road, and this one.  This is the best of the three.  It’s a conventional climb-out-descend-back ride through varied, dramatic, and beautiful  terrain (in the spring), with a mountaintop, a simple State Park, and a stunning view westward at the turn around.

The image of Hollister is hot, dusty, dead flat agricultural fields and a culture stuck in 1955.  Some of that is true.  Hollister is hot and dry in the summer, and cold and dead in the winter, so I would try hard to schedule my riding for late spring (April) after some rain, when the grass is green and the area is momentarily a gorgeous, lush garden.  The town of Hollister and the surrounding agricultural valleys (Santa Ana Valley and San Juan Valley) are pancake flat, but they’re surrounded by small, rolling hills rich with meandering roads offering ideal riding contour.  The three Bestrides rides from the area all have substantial climbing.  As to the culture, Hollister is not especially hip, but it’s a pleasant, easy-going town, and San Juan Bautista 6 miles away is a small Old California treasure with a grand Spanish mission and adjacent historical State Park well worth an afternoon.

Hollister in April would be a cycling mecca were it not for one thing: the road surfaces in San Benito County typically vary from poor to awful.  This ride is the best in the area, and it’s still poor.   If they’d repave the road, this would be a Best of the Best ride.

The elevation numbers (2700 ft in 22 miles) suggest a fairly hard climb, but the climb is actually harder than the numbers suggest.  There is little elevation gain in the first and last miles, so the bulk of the 2700 ft is gained in a 3.5-mile stretch, which translates to lots of 8-11% stuff.

Fremont Peak State Park, your destination, seems to be largely unvisited, so the traffic is next to nothing—both times I’ve done it, on beautiful weekday midday in spring, I saw perhaps 6 cars in the 22 miles, and there was one car in the Park parking lot.

Park on The Alameda (a street) just south of Hwy 156 in the town of San Juan Bautista (“St. John the Baptist”), which happens to be the exact same spot from which we begin the San Juan Grade Road ride.  As I said in that ride, a quarter mile or so down The Alameda is a loose three-way intersection without street signs.  Take the very wide, crappy-looking road to the left, 100 ft before the other two forks separate.  There is a sign reading “Fremont Peak State Park 11 miles” pointing you in the right direction shortly before the turn-off.  Ride to the end of the road at Fremont Peak State Park and ride back.

Nothing better than this

The ride up divides neatly into three equally rewarding sections.  The first (the first 6 miles or so) is through drop-dead gorgeous oak canopy.  There’s some of this on the San Juan Grade ride, but this is better.  The climbing starts out flat and slowly increases to moderate.

The second section is significantly steeper.  At first it continues through the canopies; then it breaks out of the woods and climbs an exposed and dramatic ridge spine. All told, you’re in for about 3.5 miles of steadily steepening pitch, until the last mile or so contains some truly hard stuff.  There are grand views of the San Juan Valley behind you and the dirt trails crisscrossing the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Area on your L.

Section 3 is a complete surprise.  Two miles from the end, the road summits, and the rest of the ride is an absurdly sweet little roller coaster with no work and no overall elevation gain through more of that oak canopy you thought you had left behind for good.  This little leg is as sweet as cycling gets, and it’s over far too soon when you roll into Fremont Peak State Park itself.  At the big circle intersection, go R and climb a slight rise to the official parking lot.

Looking down along the spine with San Juan Bautista in the background—click on it to appreciate

The entire park includes two picnicking areas with tables, a plaque detailing the fairly ignoble history of the peak and John Fremont, a billboard map, an “observatory” that apparently gives some sort of tour infrequently, and a short hiking trail to the actual summit, which I didn’t do.  But you don’t have to do the hike to get the view.  Looking west from the main parking lot by the billboard, the views are actually quite poor because it’s overgrown, so ride 100 ft down the little paved road past the picnic tables (if the road you came in on is 12 o’clock, this road is 11) to the secondary parking lot—from there you can see Monterey Bay quite clearly.  The two smokestacks of Moss Landing are just visible if it isn’t cloudy.  It’s quite a vista.

Leaving the valley, the land begins to roll

The descent going home is at first a disappointment.  After the 2 miles of roller coaster, the 3.5 miles of steep is steep enough and the road surface rough enough to make the riding rather hairy, since the turns are tight, the road is narrow, and the drop-offs are exposed.  Once off the steep stuff, the surface improves (somewhat, though it’s a problem throughout the ride) and you can get off the brakes and have some 25-30-mph fun.  It would be marvelous if the road surface were better.

After the ride, I suggest you devote the rest of the day to exploring San Juan Bautista.

Shortening the route: Ride the first 6 miles and turn around.  Of course you’ll miss the roller coaster and the vista if you do, but it’s still a lovely ride.  If you want to do no work at all, drive to the park and ride the roller coaster out and back (4 miles).

Adding miles: Do the two other Bestrides rides in the area, San Juan Grade Road  and Lone Tree Road.  San Juan Grade and San Juan Canyon Road begin from the same spot.  Lone Tree Road is a short car trip away.  For other Hollister-area riding,  see the Adding Miles section of the San Juan Grade Road ride.

San Juan Grade Road

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Distance: 18 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1700 ft

A few words about riding around Hollister generally:

First, the image of the Hollister area is hot, dusty, dead flat agricultural fields and a culture stuck in 1955.  Some of that is true.  Hollister is hot and dry in the summer, and cold and dead in the winter, so I would try hard to schedule my riding for late spring (April) after some rain, when the grass is green and the area is momentarily a gorgeous, lush garden.  The town of Hollister and the surrounding agricultural valleys (Santa Ana Valley and San Juan Valley) are flat, but they’re surrounded by small, rolling hills rich with meandering roads offering ideal riding contour.  The three Bestrides rides from the area all have substantial climbing.  As to the culture, Hollister is not especially hip, but it’s a pleasant, easy-going town, and San Juan Bautista is a small Old California treasure with a grand Spanish mission and adjacent historical State Park well worth an afternoon.

Second, the road surfaces in San Benito County vary from poor to awful.  You just have to live with it (or ride somewhere else).  The one exception is our San Juan Canyon Road ride, where the surface is OK.  If for no other reason, that makes San Juan Canyon Road the best ride in the area.  I’d do it first, then this one, unless you don’t want to work.

San Juan Grade: very pretty country (in April)

San Juan Grade Road is an relatively easy (1900 ft in 9 miles of up) climb and descent over a low pass, then a return climb and descent back to your starting point in the town of San Juan Bautista.  It’s a “highway” in name only, since it’s a back route to Salinas (on various mapping sites it’s labeled “Salinas Highway,” “Hwy 3,” or “Salinas Road”) and almost all traffic takes the modern multi-lane.  In 22 miles I saw 9 vehicles.  

The wooded north side

The north and south sides of the summit pass are about equal in climbing effort but radically different in character: the north side is mostly wooded, through very pretty, riparian oak forest with a very poor road surface (see above); the south side is all fine vistas of open,  rolling grasslands dotted bucolically with picturesque cows and of Salinas in the distance, with a surprisingly good road surface, viz., it’s not terrible (there’s a distinct line across the road where the surface suddenly improves).   It’s still bad enough to put a slight damper on the otherwise swell descent.  Descending the north side is borderline misery.  Both sides serpentine pleasantly, not a moment of the climbing is strenuous, and the scenery is consistently charming and human-free (in April—see above).   A very pretty little ride.

Looking south from the summit, with Salinas in distance

Begin exactly where our San Juan Canyon Road ride begins.  Park on the Alameda (which is a street)  just south of Highway 156.  Ride south on the Alameda.  Immediately you hit a three-way intersection, where the wide San Juan Canyon Road (the route for our ride of the same name) takes off to the L, then in 50 more feet a small road (which will turn to dirt) goes straight and the obvious main road curves to the R.  There are no street signs.  Take the road to the R and stay on it until you reach the intersection of it (now finally signed “San Juan Grade Rd”) and Crazyhorse Rd. in 9 miles.   It’s uninterrupted climbing, then a little rolling, then uninterrupted descending (the sawtooth elevation profile in the Mapmyride map is bogus).  At the intersection, turn around and ride home.  Now go check out the mission, the State Park, and the town of San Juan Bautista.

Shortening the route: Ride to the summit, check out the vistas to the south, then turn around.

Classic contour on the south side of the summit—click on photo to really see it

Adding miles: Our ride is a leg of a popular local loop that turns R onto Crazyhorse at our turn-around and works its way around to School Rd. and back to your starting place.  Crazyhorse isn’t especially good riding, but School is, a charming, very small back road clinging to the sidehill and giving you fine views of the hills to the north while it follows the Five Rules of Dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.

Bestrides has two other Hollister rides, San Juan Canyon Road and Lone Tree Road.

School Road

About 8 miles to the east is Cienega Rd. (“see EN uh guh”), the most popular bike route in the area, an easy, charming, and pretty (in April) meander through riparian oaks and small, unpretentious farms I would do as an out-and-back (18 miles one way), but locals do as a loop, returning on Hwy 25, which is reputed to be good.  Heading south away from Hollister, Hwy 25 is also good.  But Hwy 25 is the road to Pinnacles National Park, and since they upgraded Pinnacles from a National Monument the traffic must have gotten worse.  A longer ride that’s reputed to be worth doing is Road J1 from Paicines to Panoche.

Looking north from School Road

San Francisco’s Wiggle Loop

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Distance: 18.4-mile loop
Elevation gain: 1100 ft

A Best of the Best ride

This ride is one of the best rides in California and a Bucket List ride if there ever was one.  Like the Golden Gate Loop, it’s more a cultural experience than a bicycle ride.  It takes you on a non-stop Greatest Hits tour of most of San Francisco’s iconic landmarks—a rolling introduction to almost every spot on a visitor’s to-do list.  You’ll experience about ten of the City’s most charming neighborhoods.  You could easily crank out the route in under two hours, but you don’t want to do that—ride slow, look around, take it in, stop often.  Bring a lock, money, and walking shoes, put on your puncture-resistant tires (this is, after all, a city), and schedule as much time for the ride as you possibly can—five hours at a minimum.

Prepare for sensory overload.  In 19 miles you will ride by, among other things,

The Ferry Building
The Embarcadero
The Exploratorium
Telegraph Hill
Coit Tower
Pier 39
Fisherman’s Wharf
The Maritime Museum
The Hyde St Pier of Historic Ships
The Hyde St. Cable car turn-around
The Buena Vista Cafe
Aquatic Park
Fort Mason
The Marina
The Marina Green
The St. Francis Yacht Club
Crissy Field
Fort Point
The Golden Gate Bridge
The Presidio
Sea Cliff
The Legion of Honor
Land’s End
Sutro Baths
The Cliff House
Ocean Beach
The Great Highway
Golden Gate Park
The Panhandle
The Painted Ladies
Market Street
City Hall
The Opera House
The Asian Museum

Any one of these is worth from an hour to a full day.  Good luck budgeting your time.  Since most of the landmarks are familiar images, I’ve used the photos in this post to show some of the less familiar sights along the route.

So how’s the riding?  It’s mostly flat, with two noticeable climbs (as you pass the Golden Gate Bridge and ascending to the Legion of Honor).  Yes, SF is famously hilly—17 streets in the City top out at 30% or more, but none of them is on this route.  You ride over roads, broken pavement, sidewalks, bike paths, bike lanes, glass, and lots of trolley and cable car tracks, and ride through hordes of pedestrians and tourists.  It’s a bit chaotic and nervous-making at times, though there are stretches of near isolation.  Best of all, SF is perhaps the most bike-friendly city in the United States, and thousands of cyclists are following this route in bits and pieces on any given day, so it’s well-marked and blessed with bike lanes—I wouldn’t encourage you to go otherwise.

By the way, the Wiggle itself is a zig-zag bicycle route through a 17-block stretch of town just before our route returns to Market St.
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North Fork Siuslaw Road

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Distance: c. 45 miles out and back
Elevation gain: c. 2830 ft

This is another ride leaving Hwy 101 and following an Oregon river upstream.  It’s different from our others (Gardiner to Eugene, Elk River Road) because the North Fork of the Siuslaw River is big, and the land around it is that wide, open flat marsh/meadow unique to big Oregon river mouths.  So for the first half of the ride you aren’t in forest or canopy—you’re in full sun, with trees on your L and the marsh/meadow on your R.  After 12 miles, you leave the river and the ride becomes conventional, lovely western coastal Oregon forest.  Like our other Oregon coastal river routes, it’s an easy ride—in the first 12 miles you’ll climb 350 ft.  Not a life-changing ride but a very pleasant,  charming day on the bike.

By the way, Bestrides has another ride on the same river, but way upstream on another fork: the Siuslaw River Road ride.

Park at the intersection of Hwy 126 and North Fork Siuslaw (pronounced “sigh-OO-slaw”) Rd, which is called just “North Fork Road” in Googlemaps and on the sign here, though you’ll see the full name on a street sign in a mile or so and locals seem to use the long name.  There is a dirt turn-out a stone’s throw down NFSR.  Ride to some point or other, then turn around.  We’ll discuss options later.

In the beginning, the ride is all about the river

As I said, for the first 12 miles the terrain is open river meadow—at first very wide and flat, with a lot of water, then gradually narrowing and becoming a bit drier and more rolly, as the terrain changes from marsh to hay farming meadow to cow/horse ranch.  Stop at Bender Landing County Park, a few miles in, for the only close-up view of the river you’ll ever get (very pretty), or if you forgot to go to the bathroom.

Soon the river is far right with expansive meadows between you and it

One perk on this ride is blackberry vines.  On my ride in early August they were just coming ripe.  Look at milepost 5 and just before milepost 11—if they aren’t ripe there, they aren’t ripe anywhere on the route.

At mile 12 you get to Minerva, which is an intersection and a house (not even a “Minerva” sign).  North Fork Siuslaw goes off to the R (signed), and I think turns to dirt.  Anyway, we’re going straight, onto Upper North Fork Rd (according to the sign), or 5084, called “Upper North Fork Sius Rd” on mapmyride.

Above Minerva, you’re soon back in the canopy

Immediately the ride changes.  The road is smaller, a little steeper, and a lot less trafficked (I saw 2 cars in 16 miles).  You’re now following a creek that is a mere trickle (you won’t notice it), and you’re back in the Oregon Coastal Forest, as gorgeous as ever.

When to turn around?  There is no obvious right answer.  You don’t have to turn around at all—at about 18 miles in, the road changes its number from 5084 to 5082 and its name from Upper NFR to Big Creek Rd (oddly, all this is clearly signed at the change-over), and you can ride Big Creek out to Hwy 101 and take the highway back to Florence, Hwy 126, and your car.  Or, you can ride to the summit (which is the way I’ve mapped it), if you like summitting.  If you choose this option, note that almost all the elevation gain in the route is in the couple of miles before the summit (it’s still only c. 5%).  Or, you can turn around at about mile 17, where there’s a distinct falling off in the scenic beauty—there are two signs reading “Narrow winding road 2 1/2 miles,” 2.5 miles apart, and the fall-off is around the second of the two.

The ride back may or may no be effortless.  The prevailing breeze on the Oregon coast in the afternoon is on-shore, so expect a headwind all the way home from Minerva.

Shortening the route: Turn around whenever you want.  The ride gets steeper and more wooded as you go.

Adding miles: The only good riding nearby that I know of is our Sweet Creek ride, a few miles down Hwy 162, but I don’t recommend riding to there because Hwy 162 is classic hectic big-road shoulder riding, with a headwind coming back to boot.  A drive to the north, Yachats (“YA-huts”) River Road is a short, mellow ride through a pretty, manicured landscape until its road surface turns ugly and the pitch gets very steep—you’ll know when.  A drive to the south is our Gardiner to Eugene ride.

Elk River Road

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Distance:38 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1790 ft

This, like many of the Oregon rides, was suggested by Friend of Bestrides Don.

Is there such a thing as a perfect ride?  Elk River Road is as close as it gets—a beautiful, essentially flat out-and-back roll through my beloved Southwest Oregon coastal rain forest on a good road surface with little traffic and just enough pitch to make the return ride a brisk romp.  Add a spritely rock creek along the entire length, an optional ride to a lighthouse for character, and free snacks in the form of wild blackberries.  Most of the road is on National Forest land, and the road turns to dirt at our turn-around point, which means there aren’t many people up there except campers in the undeveloped campsites along the road.  Once into the Forest, I met 5 cars on the ride in (in 12 miles), on a lovely August Saturday at midday.  The only drawback is…nope, can’t think of any.

This ride is a lot like the first 40 miles of our Gardener to Eugene ride—both gorgeous, canopied forest on a basically flat road along a pretty river—so which should you do if you can’t do both?  GTE is longer, it’s flatter (so there’s no sense of downhill if you ride back downstream) and straighter, it doesn’t turn to dirt (so you can through-ride it), it’s not in National Forest so it’s a little more developed, and the scenery has less variety.  The Elk River canyon is narrower and steeper, and thus the river does more tumbling that the Smith does.  Overall, Elk River Rd is a more dramatic, more intense ride.

Begin at the intersection of Hwy 101 and Elk Creek Road and ride east until ECR Y’s into NF 5325 and NF 5201, which both immediately turn to dirt (there’s a small sign with the road numbers before the Y); turn around and ride back.  The road is a consistent 1-2% pitch.  Mapmyride’s elevation gain is nuts.  RidewithGPS says you gain 975 ft on the ride out, for an average climbing rate of about 50 ft per mile.  Towards the end there are a few short 4-5% pitches.  In other words, no hard work at all, but just enough pitch to let you do stretches of the return ride at 18-20 mph.  The road surface is consistently good—there are a few major cracks, but they’re all longitudinal so you ride alongside them rather than over them.

At first the landscape is wide, flat river-mouth valley with houses, but after the Fish Hatchery you enter the canyon, the “river” (really a small creek) gets wilder, the houses disappear, the traffic lessens, and the road serpentines more.  It’s like this to the end.  The woods are dense so you glimpse the river in fragments, but it’s always right on your L shoulder.  I spent much of my time hugging the L side of the road on the ride in, the better to see the water.  The scenery is surprisingly varied: maples, alders, conifers, bare rock walls, mossy rock walls, ferny rock walls, boulder-strewn cascades, wide, open pools.  If you’re there in August or after, there are wild berries along the road—delicious.  I found my surroundings so consuming that I ghost-pedaled much of the ride at 10 mph, just to take it all in.

I suggest you do your river-watching, berry eating, scenery-gawking, and photo-taking on the ride in, because the return ride is just brisk enough that you’ll want to attend to your cycling.

Adding Miles: The ride to Cape Blanco lighthouse, just north and on the west side of Hwy 101, is well worth riding though of a totally different character.  Also just north but on the east side of the highway is Sixes River Rd, which parallels Elk River Rd and thus gives you very similar topography.   It too turns to dirt.

Elk River Road

Scott River Road

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Distance: 55 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 4025 ft

The land surrounding the Marble Mountains Wilderness Area is a rich area for cycling.  Almost every small road is pretty, interesting, mostly car-free, not killer steep, and paved, at least in the main.  Loops are easy to construct.  The only drawback is there aren’t many communities up there, so you have to plan overnight stops carefully, unless you’re self-supporting.  The area is represented in Bestrides by three rides, Forks of Salmon, Salmon River Road, and this one, but they’re the tip of a very rich iceberg—see Adding Miles to see the big picture.

This ride is representative of the area: smooth-surfaced, lightly trafficked, very pretty, and surprisingly easy.  It’s one of the easiest 55-mile rides I know.  It accompanies the Scott River for its entire length, so it’s gently downhill going out and gently uphill returning, but the difference is negligible—I rode out the 40-mile version (see below) in 2 hrs and back in 1.5 hrs.  The only noticeable hill is the last mile or so descending into Scott Bar, our turn-around spot, so if you’re really into mellow you can skip that, leaving you with nothing but constant gentle rollers, just enough to vary the riding experience without ever making it laborious or tedious.  You could almost leave the granny gear at home. RWGPS’s elevation gain is inexplicable.

Begin in the town of Fort Jones, a pleasant little burg with several simple but worthwhile places to eat.  Ride out on Scott River Rd. through Scott Valley, a typical hay-farming region.  The road is mostly straight and flat, but it’s a pretty agricultural area, and if you aren’t familiar with Oregon-style hay farming you’ll marvel at the giant walking sprinkler systems.  The Marble Mountains serve as backdrop.  But honestly it’s just as interesting from a car seat, so if you want to drive to the start of the good riding, drive 7 mi. to the intersection of Scott River Rd and Quartz Valley Rd and start there.  There’s a perfect dirt turn-out for parking.

Irrigating in Scott Valley

Immediately after Quartz Valley Rd the river canyon begins, at first broad and almost unnoticeable, with the river hardly moving, but soon the canyon deepens and narrows and the water comes to life.  For several miles, you’re riding on the very lip of the river, with constant fine views of boulder-strewn rapids and deep pools perfect for swimming.   This is my favorite leg of the route.

The Scott River

All too soon the road leaves the river and climbs gently until the river is far below you, then drops back down to rejoin the river at Scott Bar, a community of a few houses, a post office, a ranger station, and an interesting historical marker 100 ft past the town proper—don’t turn around without checking it out.  Ride back to your car, marveling at how little work you’re doing despite the fact that the river is constantly climbing alongside you.

Above the river, with the Marble Mts in the background on a typically smoky summer day

This road is no one’s principal driving route.  The only significant community along it is Happy Camp, and Happy Campers when they want to go to the big city drive south on Hwy 3 to get to Arcata/Eureka.  I did the ride on a lovely Friday morning in August and saw 14 cars (once out of the busy Scott Valley).  Why the county keeps the road’s surface in such pristine condition I don’t know.  I saw deer, turkeys, herons, and a fox.

Shortening the route: Skip the first 7 miles, as discussed.  Then, turn around any time—the miles are pretty equally rewarding.

Adding miles: As I said in the beginning, the cycling riches nearby are extensive.  If you like riding in pretty valleys, you can take Quartz Valley Rd south and wander around until you get to Etna.  You can continue on Scott Valley Rd to Happy Camp.  From there you can ride northwest on Greyback Rd into Oregon and eventually to Cave Junction, or you can take the afore-mentioned Hwy 3 south and ride to Arcata, or branch off Hwy 3 to Forks of Salmon and pick up either half of our Forks of Salmon ride to either Etna or Callahan.  Just past Scott Bar you meet Hwy 96, and you can ride it east along the Klamath River all the way to Hwy 5.  It’s 32 miles of pleasant but not grand riding amidst rather stark terrain, slightly uphill all the way.  I’d call it the least exciting of the roads discussed here, the most developed, the biggest, the busiest, and the easiest.  From Seiad Valley you can ride Seiad Creek Road, reported to be an excellent ride until it turns to dirt.

There is a very big, multi-day loop that consists of Etna to Scott River Rd, SCR to Hwy 96, 96 west and south to our Salmon River Rd ride to the leg of our Forks of Salmon ride from Forks of Salmon back to Etna.  Obviously, much of the route is prime, since it encompasses three of Bestrides’ routes.  But the long leg on Hwy 96, while generally pleasantly scenic, is not great riding—shoulder riding on a big, wide highway with much traffic and car-friendly profile (straight, with long unchanging pitches).  It’s a good route for a touring mentality, but not for Bestrides.

Afterthoughts: The Marble Mountains seem to burn every summer.  Check smoke conditions before planning a trip to the area.

Scott River

Leggett to the Sea

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Distance: 44 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 6030 ft

The position of Bestrides has always been, avoid Highway 1 like the death-trap it is. The traffic is constant, irritable, and staring out to sea, and there’s no room for you.  But all generalizations have their exceptions, and there are stretches of Hwy 1 worth riding:  the Chileno Valley Rd and the Muir Woods loops come to mind.  And this stretch of Hwy 1, the northernmost, while still busy, is more than worth your time.  It’s grand.  It’s a lot of climbing (only about 2 of the 44 miles are anything like flat), and there is only one break in the forest wall, at the turn-around.  But that one break is a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean, the forest wall is often primeval redwoods, and none of the climbing is brutal.  The road contour is perfect for descending—endless serpentining, curvy enough to be exhilarating, not so tight that you’re constantly on your brakes, all beautifully banked for speed.  And of course you can continue on from the turn-around point and ride as much of Hwy 1 as you want to.

There are two flies in this otherwise-blissful ointment.  The first is traffic.  It’s busy.  But it’s less busy than almost any other leg of Hwy 1, because most tourists are interested in the stretch between Fort Bragg and Big Sur.  And it’s nobody’s commuter route, so the drivers are not in a hurry.  The real problem is construction equipment: any wet winter causes damage along Hwy 1, so most summers there’s a steady stream of gravel trucks going to and from the construction site(s).  It’s not as bad as it sounds—there is little shoulder but room to pass—but if it bothers you you might choose to ride in the fall, when the construction is probably complete.  Even so, I did this ride midday on a Monday in July, the road crews were busy, yet I did long stretches of riding the center line in solitude.

The second ointment fly is the road surface.  It ranges from glassy to tooth-rattling chipseal.  When it’s rough, it definitely takes the edge off the descending.  When it’s smooth, there is nothing better.

There are no services on this ride, and a lot of climbing, so plan your water.  Since it’s mostly downhill for the first 18 miles, you can carry extra water without a performance penalty and drop it partway in.

If you prefer loops to out-and-backs, there is a lovely one at the end of Adding Miles.

Begin at the intersection of Hwy 271 and Highway 1, 40 feet down Hwy 1 from Hwy 101.  There is plenty of shoulder parking around the intersection.  You’re going to descend briefly, then climb a lot, so you might like to warm up on Hwy 271, which is relatively flat, and shows you downtown Leggett—just follow the unmissable signs to the drive-through tree and keep riding (more on Hwy 271 in Adding Miles).

On the climb

Back on our route, head down Hwy 1, descending .7 miles to a metal bridge and climbing moderately through very pretty forest for 4 miles to a blissful mile of plateau riding with fragmentary views of the Hwy 101 valley through the trees.  Then descend, sometimes mildly and sometimes vigorously, to the 18-mile mark.  At mile 14.5 on the map it looks like you’re on the coast, but you won’t see the ocean until the turn-around point at Hardy Creek.

At mile 18 you cross the (signed) South Fork of Cottoneva Creek on an unmissable bridge.  Google “Cottoneva” (also spelled “Cottaneva” on google and maps) for some interesting local history.  The maps and road signs call this spot “Rockport,” but there’s nothing there except the bridge—I don’t mean “no services,” I mean nothing.

View from the turn-around

After the Cottoneva Bridge you have a fairly tough 2-mile climb, then a similar 2-mile descent.  As you labor up the pitch, note the road surface—it’s glass, so the descent when you return is the best descending on the ride and worth the work you’re doing now.  Drop down the other side and a short climb takes you to the ocean.  Getting to the water would be a tough trek down a cliff, so don’t expect to cool your feet in the surf, but the views are typically breath-taking, unless it’s fogged in.

The ride back is a lot of climbing, and you seem to be with the majority of the traffic this way, but the pitch never gets nasty and there are two nice descents to reinvigorate you.  The 2-mile climb up from the ocean is the worst of it.  Don’t “just ride” the descent to Cottoneva Bridge—it’s the best 2 miles of descending on the route, so relish it.

You can rip these descents (this photo is looking uphill)

The usual weather warning for the Pacific Coast obtains:  Always be prepared for wind, cold, and fog on Hwy 1.  There can be a 40-degree drop in temperature from the start of the ride to the turn-around.

Shortening the route: There is no particular leg of this ride that stands out, but psychologically you’ll probably want to see the ocean, so drive as much of the route as you wish and ride to the sea.

Adding miles: From the turn-around spot you have 200 miles of Hwy 1 between you and San Francisco, all of it visually spectacular but plagued with traffic from light to ghastly.  The first 36 miles, to Mendocino, are particularly gorgeous, with heavy traffic only from MacKerricher State Park on.  If you can arrange a shuttle or you’re through-riding, the ride from Leggett to Fort Bragg is really a better ride than the one I’ve mapped because you don’t have to climb back up the hill.

At the trailhead, Hwy 271, which you may have ridden some of to warm up on, is 10 miles of very pleasant, fairly flat riding that parallels and crosses over Hwy 101—well worth riding.

Our Branscomb Road ride is only a few miles south of the turn-around on Hwy 1, which offers the possibility of a truly epic loop: Leggett to the sea, down Hwy 1 to Branscomb, up Branscomb to Laytonville, up Hwy 1 to Hwy 271, 271 back to Leggett—total 74 miles, with 17 miles on Hwy 101 to be endured:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38958997

This is a bucket-list ride for sure.