Bike Touring home

Day 3 was a rest day so we sat around resting. It was amazingly warm in capitola - not like the drizzle of the previous day.

Day 4 was the return route home. So I had planned this route to take the easiest way over the santa cruz mountains. There was the short and steep way and the roundabout way. So roundabout way through Soquel we went. It was really scenic and had very few cars but it was a looong hill climb. Felt like forever even though it wasn't necessarily that steep. Along the way we passed by Pema Osel Ling which I had only heard about because it came up as a possible wedding location. If you thought Nestldown was remote, this place is really far from civilization.



At the top, we finally got a break at the Summit store and I was famished at this point. The salami sandwich was perfect and we talked to some mtn bikers who had just come back from the Soquel demo forest which was nearby. Now was time for all the downhill I was imagining in my head but we made another stop at Nestldown since we were heading down on Old Santa Cruz Highway. Unfortunately, the picture I wanted to take at the front was not possible because the sign that said Nestldown was gone. Probably because of the season.

From there, it was a nice downhill until we got to the highway 17 intersection. This is where I miscalculated. I didn't realize we could have gone around lexington reservoir on the east side and assumed the fastest way was on the west side. So at this junction, we were debating whether to go on Highway 17 (scary scary scary) or go down this dirt trail on the right (sort of equally scary b/c it was steep and skinny). C convinced me that Highway 17 wouldn't be so bad and it would be short so that's the way we went. I tried to ignore the fact that we were so close to traffic and we went on and pedaled quickly off the highway as fast as we could. Okay, at least we survived. Anyhow, next was the Los Gatos creek trail on bumpy gravel and then after much meandering through los gatos and saratoga, we were finally home. That was the longest day of biking and I was even starting to worry if we would get home before it started getting dark.

And now we are back to sitting on our asses for the holidays. Well until ski season. woohoo.