Aptos to Demonstration Forest

Epic ride starting from Aptos, near Santa Cruz, climbing all the way to Soquel Demonstration Forest, doing a loop down Braille Trail and up Sulphur Springs Road, and returning to Aptos.

The "real" ride is about 22 miles. The rest is the flat part of the approach from Aptos. Some of this flat part may be eliminated if we can park somewhere further inside than I anticipate; I'm not too clear on what's the furthest place we can park.

Don't be fooled by the total elevation gain indicated on the elevation profile screenshot. That's a gross overestimate due to map inaccuracies and sampling error. My more reasonable (but conservative) guesstimate is the value below.

Distance 31 miles Total Climb 3500 ft Duration 8 hours

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Pipeline Trail

This is a new singletrack trail that has been recently built in Toro Regional Park near Salinas. You can read a little bit about it on this MTBR thread:

New Trail - Toro Park Monterey

In a nutshell, this is a 2.5-mile narrow downhill singletrack that follows close to the bottom of a tight ravine. The thread above contains a number of photos (as well as a YouTube video) that might give a good sense of what to expect. The ride as a whole is possibly the shortest loop in this park that would take us up to the beginning of Pipeline Trail and returns to the parking lot to finish the ride after that trail is over. I assume the climbing part will consist of a fire road, but I don't know for certain.

Distance 14.5 miles Total Climb 3200 ft Duration 4 hours

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Pope Valley Loop

This route is supposed to be a quieter version of an iconic wine-country road ride. While it starts out in the popular town of St. Helena in the nothern reaches of Napa Valley, the ride actually spends most of its time in the neighboring Pope Valley (and in the intervening range of hills), away from the hubbub.

Distance 39.5 miles Total Climb 3000 ft Duration 4 hours

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Bodega-Bay-to-Occidental Loop

This road ride should be one with a fairly favorable scenery-to-effort ratio. It should almost certainly be done in the spring months when the land is at its prettiest. Other than some great coastal cycling, the highlights of the ride include the two charming small towns that are mentioned in the title. Despite taking place around the Pacific coast, I think the route does an excellent job of minimizing the mileage on the busy roads of the area (namely, Highway 1 and Bodega Highway).

Distance 25.5 miles Total Climb 3000 ft Duration 4 hours

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King Ridge Loop

This road loop is a challenging one no matter which way you look at it. Its mileage might be the first one for me to cross the 50-mile threshold and even its total climb might end up as something of a personal record if it's significantly more than the 5000 feet that I'm estimating. In exchange for that, the ride provides more "backwoods riding" and seclusion than incessant, mind-blowing scenery, admittedly. However, I've taken the route from the book by a prominent Sonoma County cyclists who knows what he's doing. The last 10 or 12 miles of the loop descends over a road named Sea View Road and others that continue the same trend. I expect that portion of the ride to be climactic not only because of the views we could catch but also because of the sense of accomplishment of having left all of the ride's elevation gain behind.

Distance 50 miles Total Climb 5000 ft Duration 6.5 hours

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Annadel (Rough Go Trail)

Another ride in Annadel. The name of Rough Go Trail speaks for itself. It's described as a very technical trail. (So, it should be very worthwhile to try out.)

Distance 10 miles Total Climb 1200 ft Duration 3 hours

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