Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Wilder Ranch, CA
October 29, 2005

Take me to the video. Snow in the Sierras this week marked the end of a great summer of riding for me and I was a bit saddened. But I hadn't been to Wilder Ranch near Santa Cruz in nearly two years and I'm in the process of replacing all my old lipstick cam videos. So I decided to head west to take advantage of the coastal "Endless Summer". Larry (BigLarry) and Marshal (29erchico) joined me for what would turn out to be a great ride. Larry has now lost 40 lbs and he is getting faster and faster on the uphills. It was a bit cool and foggy at the start, but just right for the initial half hour of climbing. Later in the day the sun came out and the temperature was about a perfect 70 degrees. 

The state park starts on the coast and several fire roads go up several miles to a ridge. But between the fire roads are several deep ravines with great singletrack through dark redwood forests. So all day we climbed fire roads, zoomed down the singletrack through the redwoods, and then climbed back out. The guys were pretty patient and never questioned when I made them do the Enchanted Loop and Old Cabin three times each. Since Marshal did whatever I asked, we reciprocated by following him down the north side of Wilder Ridge, a steep singletrack on which we probably went between 25 - 30 miles per hour at some points. However, since that took us down to nearly sea level again we had to climb back up Zane Gray and up the south side of Wilder Ridge. That was not easy late in the day. From there we turned around and went all the way back down Wilder Ridge to the starting point. We also went out a little bit on the trail above the ocean to get a few photos. 

I've obviously improved in the past two years because the climbing wasn't that bad, things I used to think were difficult or impossible seemed almost easy now, and I was a bit surprised when Larry said we did 28 miles and 4,000 feet of climbing. Thanks for a great ride guys! Below are a few photos. It was nearly impossible to get a decent photo, even with flash, in the darker areas. I usually don't like to post my mistakes but this is all I took since we were moving very quickly for the video. But the lighting was excellent for the video, so be sure to watch that.

Click on an image to enlarge it

Marshal	Larry	Marshal	Marshal	Larry
Larry	Larry	Marshal	The Pacific below	Wilder Ridge
Marshal	Wilder Ridge	Larry	Larry	The Pacific
The Pacific	Larry	Marshal	Me Courtesy Larry	Me Courtesy Larry

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