Thursday, December 31, 2009

King's Mountain Road ride

With a break in the weather this morning, I rode a favorite local ride, a 35 mile loop to Skyline and back by way of Kings Mountain Road through Woodside. KMR ascends it's way up spectacular redwood forested scenery past Huddart park, the road is good and not too traveled as much on weekday mornings. I had prepared for chilly weather wearing multiple layers. When the sun came out going up Sand Hill road I was thinking I might be overdressed, but once on KMR it got cooler and especially on Skyline where you could see fog at the coast.

At Skyline you can go west on via Tunitas Creek Road to the coast or head south along Skyline.
I hadn't been riding much with the cold and wet weather recently so headed south along Skyline. Dropping down via Hwy 84 at the intersection near Alice's Restaurant and the Skywood Trading Post store. 84 is a fun and fast downhill with good pavement but can be extremely busy on the weekends. From 84, I cut back along Portola Road and past the site of the first Saw Mill in San Mateo County built in 1847. Many of the roads to Skyline were originally logging routes. It was great to get out again and I look forward to many more rides in 2010.
Kings Mtn Road/Skyline Ride Map

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Rain, cold and winter riding

Here in California the weather tends to be pretty good for riding with only a couple of months of the year that really feel like winter. Still it can get very cold and wet with storms coming from the Northwest. This week has had unsettled weather, a perfect time for working on bike projects.