Big smiles in Big Basin
Leaving our enclave in San Juan Bautista called Hacienda de Leal, we headed into the mist and past seemingly endless berry fields of Castorville toward the coast. We rode though a wee bit of dirt, tested ourselves on every kind of tarmac and railway crossings possible. We touched the ocean briefly in Santa Cruz before heading up. Up the infamous Empire Grade.
Empire Grade is a long, punishing climb into the strata between Santa Cruz and the sky. It never seems to end, and gives double digit digs on already tired legs. But oh so worth it for the most technical descent of the trip, down into Boulder Creek. A road that cal trans has forgotten. Luckily we only suffered another flat, and perhaps a rattled tooth filling or two.
Lunch was at the Boulder Creek Country Club, but alfresco outside catered by Sam and TJ. They did such a wonderful job, we wanted to stay all day, but still had another 4,000 feet of climbing to do before we could enjoy that last downhill into Palo Alto.
Big Basin is a perfect ribbon of tarmac amongst the old growth redwood forest. Midweek, it's sparsely populated and with the raging fires north of us distracting the populace, we were in heaven as we sped through the perfectly crafted and banked turns. If there ever was a descent described as 'butter', this was it.
The fire situation has been a distraction only on the periphery, but it became real for us as we started weezing the smoke filled air and perhaps foreshadowing the next days' adventure. We did enjoy the descent down Page Mill road into the smokey metropolis of Silicon Valley.
