Los Gatos to Santa Cruz round trip

Los Gatos to Santa Cruz and back… taking the scenic way.

We started at Alma Bridge near Lexington reservoir, rode the rollercoaster road around the reservoir and ended up on Old Santa Cruz highway near Holy City. Not sure what’s so holy about this town – the only things in sight were a large number of secluded homes, of two types: either rich looking mansion affairs, or semi-deserted shacks guarded by barbed wire and angry dogs. Nevertheless, the Old Santa Cruz road offered a smooth and gentle climb.

Then we hit Summit Road, and we later took the Morell cut-off – during the latter my mountain bike skills came in handy: this thing was a pothole-infested, gravel and sand all-over-the-place bumpy affair! But fun.

Soquel-San Jose road then: a smooth, fast and gorgeous descent towards Santa Cruz. We didn’t spend much time in the beach town but headed back along Glen Canyon road and later Glenwood drive, after crossing highway 17 using the Scotts Valley overpass, until we were confronted with our true test of the day: Mountain Charlie road, featuring a number of lactic acid inducing steep pitches. Bumpy and grueling as it was, it did bring us back to Summit Road, for a fun descent back to the Lexington reservoir, retracing our first miles of the day…