Spring into Summer on a Sunday in Santa Cruz!
Details
Hello Fellow BARC members,
Let's ride in Santa Cruz . This ride is one that a friend and I have ridden often and enjoy, so I thought I'd share it with you.
Give yourself extra time to get to Santa Cruz to account for weekend traffic and please do not put yourself in a position where you feel you have to rush. Research/plan your drive accordingly knowing we plan to roll as close to 10 AM as possible.
We will start in Downtown Santa Cruz at the parking lot at Depot Park by the roundabout at the intersection of Pacific Ave. and W. Cliff Dr. It is a pay parking lot and SCPD does ticket people.
We meet in the parking lot and head North on W. Cliff Dr. on our way to Natural Bridges State Park. We'll ride through the park to the Delaware Ave exit and onto UC Santa Cruz Science Campus and to the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, where we loop around the campus. Exiting at Shaffer Rd on our way out of the campus, to the bike trail going north on Hwy. 1 to Wilder Ranch State Park. After going into the park, we will head out to the Fern Groto Beach Trail-it is not paved, and we’ll ride a loop along an unpaved trail with beautiful vistas of the Pacific Ocean. Arriving back at the park headquarters. We will ride back to Hwy. 1 along the paved bike path and back into town via Mission St to Natural Bridges Dr to the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail, dropping us onto Bay Street, which we will follow to W. Cliff Dr. to Beach St and onto the Santa Cruz Wharf where we can enjoy lunch at Stagnero's! There are plenty of restaurants or bring your own lunch.
After lunch we will continue the ride, off the wharf and turn on Beach St. past the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk going over the bridge at the San Lorenzo River. Following E. Cliff Dr. to Seabright Ave. to Atlantic Ave. we will then be able to see the Santa Cruz Boat Harbor. Riding along the west side of the harbor to Arana Gulch Open Space Park. Over the Hagerman Gulch Bridge and exiting the park onto Frederick St. to Windham St. to Ocean View Ave. through Ocean View Park taking the bike trail from there across E. Cliff Dr to the Santa Cruz Riverwalk Trail. We will cross the river at Riverside Ave. (or we can simplify the route and simply come out of Arana Gulch to Broadway, crossing the river at Laurel St and picking up the Riverwalk there- we can discuss this once we are in Santa Cruz or at lunch) and then picking up the Santa Cruz Riverwalk trail on the other side of the river and heading back to our end point along the Beach St bike path to the roundabout at Pacific Ave. and back to the parking lot.
There are some short climbs on this route but nothing hard and/or long.
Distance: 19.8 miles
Pace: 8-12 mph when rolling on flat terrain (slowest on West Cliff to enjoy scenery and mingle with other path critters...)
Spring into Summer on a Sunday in Santa Cruz!