Tour of California - NSMB style.

5 PM Friday, March 13 - let's get the hell out of here! Even though the weather is looking good and the snow might melt away in a week or five, there's threat of another cold front coming down to hit with a Pacific low. More skiing on the the way, and cold, lousy weather in town. You can forget about riding any half decent trails around here.

Sixteen hours later down the I-5 - Wow, that was a long haul driving! The therma-rest in the back of the Jeep is a great place for napping while your wife is driving up and over the Oregon mountain passes. There's snow at 2500 foot elevation in the Mount Shasta area that I nicely slept through at 3 AM.

The plan is to go visit Dorothy's cousin Chris who works for Specialized in Morgan Hill, California. He's got a small apartment in San Jose, which is 40 minutes south-east of San Francisco.

Chris tells us to bring XC bikes for bay area riding. After all, this is the home of the Epic and the Stumpjumper.

Who knows what the trip will bring, but the sun and green grass is looking might fine!

And there is promise of some vertical off in the distance.

i can't even begin to add up how many tall cans this road trip would cost if more shuttlewhores were en route

Fack, I'm already jealous.

i can't even begin to add up how many tall cans this road trip would cost if more shuttlewhores were en route

Down south, they're called tall bottles, and yes, there was a brewery involved.

i can't even begin to add up how many tall cans this road trip would cost if more shuttlewhores were en route

A couple kegs would work.

OMG…you are driving to the "Motherland" of MTBing……awesome. Maybe you should make a picture post a day? Kinda like a blog what it is like in Douchebagistan? J/K….. sounds awesome.

that's a great idea Mic!

unfortunately, I'm already back at work, but I am going to tease you guys on a daily basis for the next week.

Although ski season is barely half over I am eager for the next installment - especially pictures of DOrothy smiling while riding and Sven having a snooze somewhere

nice, I hope you got a tour around Specialized, that'd be cool

nice, I hope you got a tour around Specialized, that'd be cool

unfortunately missed out on that. appearently, it's a pretty boring office and visitors can't go into the "good" areas.

but we did see a new prototype going out for a test ride. Nothing we'd be interested in on the shore though - the wheels were too big and light. I was threatened with a loss of employment (not my own though), if any more info leaked out.

Although ski season is barely half over I am eager for the next installment - especially pictures of DOrothy smiling while riding and Sven having a snooze somewhere

I promise not to disappoint.

Saturday, Noon. Arrived in San Jose and dumped some stuff out of the Jeep.

Saturday, 2 PM - The Soquel Demonstration State Forest is a popular ride in the hills between Morgan Hill, CA (home of the big red S) and Santa Cruz, CA (home of the even bigger SC). At the top of a short road climb, we get to the trail head of Ridge trail, which feeds into several options Chris takes us down.

I swear we didn't put the Obsession: Bikes sticker on the trail head. Must have been one of James's relatives who works for Specialized down here.

The trails are a little on the wet side, but mostly smooth singletrack through leafy forest. A couple log rides and the occasional jump over a small log didn't interfere too much with the fast singletrack that reminded me of Janets Jungle on the SSC, but without the built up stunts. This being our first downhill ride in the last 3 months that wasn't covered in snow, we didn't stop for many pictures.

For the map lovers (and for future reference):

A couple miles of uphill lead to less than a mile of downhill. This isn't shuttlewhore territory. We rode Ridge to Braille, and the other recommended trail was Saw Pit, but having just driven 16 hours straight, pedalling up a second lap wasn't in the books.

yeah for smiling D pics!

SDF ride.

Bring back alot of memories.

Used to be my weekend destination when I used to live there.