Ride Report

Demonstration Forest
9-27-03

Alex's Report

Hello all,
Demonstration Forest, better known as "DEMO" was very cool. I missed the last outing here so I was looking foward to this one. I really liked Six Bit and Saw Mill. Steep and technical stuff to make you pucker up here and there some good long up hill grinds too. I was sweating so much that my camelbak was soaking wet! we road for 21 + miles while some others broke off at about 19 miles. all in all killer single-track and no injuries or breakdowns to speak of A GOOD RIDE . I'll be back to ride this one soon.

George's Report

Soquel Demonstration Forest, aka Demo is in the Santa Cruz mountains above Soquel. It butts up against The Forest of Nisine Marks and the trail we take actually dips into Nisine Marks for a couple of miles.

Getting there: We met Joseph, Matt, and I met up with Bruce at the Grant Rd Exit on 580 and we were ON TIME. Everyone was, that was unusual. A nice surprise was that fact that Alex decided to join us.

Demo is not that far of a drive from Tracy, it was just over an hour and contrary to what some people believed, there IS a shitter near the parking lot just past the gate. But bring your own water because there is none.

Along with the Trogs, Francis from MTBR and his buddy Ray were there to meet us. We had a good group, 9 riders. Anded we decided on the typical Demo loop.

Starting back and the bridge, continue up the paved road and take the first fireroad right. When you come to a green gate heading right, ignore it and keep climbing. soon you come to an intersection. This is where we split up our group for a bit. It's quicker to just keep climbing up the fireroad to the right but you'll skip a nice piece of singeltrack. Alex, Alex, me and surprisingly John decided on the longer loop. The others continued up the road and we shot downhill for about 1/2 a mile looking for the singletrack heading to the right. I knew where it was but I almost missed it. I hit the brakes hard and took the quick turn and began the nice twisty singletrack climb.

I've been on the trail a few times so I knew what to expect, specifically I was looking for the first stunt on the trail. It's a short downed log with a ramp leading up one end and a drop off the other. It's not directly on the trail so you can easily go around it like I did. But I stopped and waited for Alex so I could point it out to him. Instead of going around it, Alex rode up the ramp and too the drop off the other end. Nice!

The single track is nice and quite fast even though it is a climb over all. We popped up back on the fireroad and continued up to the closed green gate where everyone was waiting for us to regroup. The fireroad continues to climb and roll for a mile or so until you get to the big trail head sign for the ridge trail. This is the start of the singletrack downhill, some people lowered their seats. Wimps!

It was dusty and dry today. The singletrack is nice with a little bit of technical edge to to keep you pumped. There is one intersection on this trail but you need to stay on the main trail until it dumps you out on the Helicopter land. The locals were the first two down and I popped out third. I got to watch the rest of the Trogs pop out of the trees with big smile son their faces and then John with a wide eyed look of "Oh my!"

We stopped to BS and watch Francis fix his flat and discuss the size for Crank Bros mini pump and then continued on to the downhill. Stayed on Ridge until we got to the first intersection. Braille!

Braille is fast and steep with stunts, bridges, totters, and droppes. The top provides an option of riding across a 40 ft downed tree that acts like a bridge across a small gully. We watched as Francis and Ray rode across but we just looked, shook our heads and kept riding. Braille dumps you out on Hind Mill rd (fireroad which climbs all the way back to the parking lot. It's an easy middle ring climb.

So up we went until we reached the turnoff for Sulfur. Six of us turned off onto sulfur and 3 kept riding up the trail back to the cars. Francis and Ray had to get back home early so they left as we continued onto the grueling part of the climb.

The top of the climb brings you back to the the Helo landing area. Down the singletrack again but this time we went straight past the Braille turn off and stopped a bit at the picnic tables.

We had a couple choices. The next trail down is called Tractor.. now tractor is wide open fast singletrack, nothing technical, just let go of the brakes and let her rip. Lots of fun, but it's over really quick. I suggested we instead go down Saw Pit, then up Tractor and then down Braille again for some extra special loop.

It was a deal, we road past the Tractor turn off, and continued down Saw Pit. It's the most technical section. Lot's of drops and log piles, the trail gets really rocky for a short section but 99.9% of it is ridable. Down down down and we're back to Hind Mill again. At this point we lost a couple more riders who decided just to climb up the road back to the cars. So it was down to Me, Alex, Matt and Joseph to climb Tractor and hit Braille one more time.

Tractor is supposed to be 1.5 miles long but after climbing it, I just don't know. Matt decided to climb it entirely in his middle ring but failed at the very end. I just sat and spun easily in the granny for a long time but at the very end I just acquiesced and push the bike the last little bit.

One last time down Braille where I waited for Alex at the bottom, I was out of water so I told Alex I wasn't gong to wait for the other since they knew the way and we started the climb out. Alex took off and I just got thirsty. Some time later, I heard a voice on the radio where Matt had made it to the bottom and was on his way up. Now, was my head start big enough to beat Matt to the top? Well, no. But would it have been big enough if I hadn't waited for Alex at the bottom? We'll never know. But near the end of the climb, Matt bobbed his way past me and we all made it back safe and sound.

Dirty, tired, sweaty, and sore, but safe.

george