I wanted to ride from my home in the Bay Area to Santa Cruz by way of Watsonville to visit my son, who lives and works there. I've done it many times before -- the Almaden Valley is really beautiful this time of year, and Hecker Pass is a fun ride, with decent twisties and spectacular views of the Pacific to the west -- but this time I decided to take a long cut on a side road down out of the hills. Granted, the first part down (Mt Madonna Road) is only one lane and not all that well maintained. But I've ridden such roads many times. How bad could it be?
Well, that depends. On whether or not you turn left to go west or right to go east on Mt Madonna Road off of Pole Line Road.
I turned right because I was following Google Maps and it wouldn't misdirect me, right? I swear it said to turn right!
But that was exactly the wrong way to go. First, because it routed me east, away from Watsonville.
But more importantly because it put me through a half mile road from hell. Steep grades. Switchbacks. One lane. Unpaved gravel badly eroded by winter storms. I couldn't maintain any decent speed because that risked dropping the bike if I hit one of the channels too hard. But going slow required a lot of effort to maintain balance so as not to drop the bike. Not to mention gravel is precarious in the best of conditions, and steep grades with sharp turns isn't anywhere near the best. Plus, I had to maintain awareness of any cars that might be coming up the road (I counted about five or six as it turned out). With the road itself demanding a lot of attention that, too, risked dropping the bike. Bottom line, pretty much everything I had to do risked dropping the bike.
So why did I keep going? Why not turn around? Well, executing a U-turn on a steep, gravel road carved with water channels is not something to look forward to. In fact, (wait for it) doing so would risk dropping the bike. Not to mention the drop-off on one side of the road was kind of forbidding.
Bottom-line, this was a matter of choosing from a small number of really bad alternatives. Sure, one has to be less bad than the others. But which one?
The climax came when I encountered the worst rain-carved channel yet. Deep enough that I couldn't imagine traversing it without dropping the bike. I'd noticed it barely in time to be able to make a tight turn to get around the head of it, sort of.
Shortly after which point, however, the gravel ended and I got back my beloved pavement. Wonder of wonders and joy of joys! In fact, I was so relieved I didn't realize until a couple of miles had passed that I was clearly going the wrong way. In fact, to get to Watsonville I was going to have to go through Hecker Pass westbound again.
But I couldn't just ride 152 down out of Hecker Pass, of course. So I went back up Pole Line Road to Mt Madonna Road. And this time turned left, west, toward the ocean, and Watsonville.
And the ride downhill? Beautiful. Fabulous scenery. All that I'd hoped for.
What a difference 180 degrees makes
.
Well, that depends. On whether or not you turn left to go west or right to go east on Mt Madonna Road off of Pole Line Road.
I turned right because I was following Google Maps and it wouldn't misdirect me, right? I swear it said to turn right!
But that was exactly the wrong way to go. First, because it routed me east, away from Watsonville.
But more importantly because it put me through a half mile road from hell. Steep grades. Switchbacks. One lane. Unpaved gravel badly eroded by winter storms. I couldn't maintain any decent speed because that risked dropping the bike if I hit one of the channels too hard. But going slow required a lot of effort to maintain balance so as not to drop the bike. Not to mention gravel is precarious in the best of conditions, and steep grades with sharp turns isn't anywhere near the best. Plus, I had to maintain awareness of any cars that might be coming up the road (I counted about five or six as it turned out). With the road itself demanding a lot of attention that, too, risked dropping the bike. Bottom line, pretty much everything I had to do risked dropping the bike.
So why did I keep going? Why not turn around? Well, executing a U-turn on a steep, gravel road carved with water channels is not something to look forward to. In fact, (wait for it) doing so would risk dropping the bike. Not to mention the drop-off on one side of the road was kind of forbidding.
Bottom-line, this was a matter of choosing from a small number of really bad alternatives. Sure, one has to be less bad than the others. But which one?
The climax came when I encountered the worst rain-carved channel yet. Deep enough that I couldn't imagine traversing it without dropping the bike. I'd noticed it barely in time to be able to make a tight turn to get around the head of it, sort of.
Shortly after which point, however, the gravel ended and I got back my beloved pavement. Wonder of wonders and joy of joys! In fact, I was so relieved I didn't realize until a couple of miles had passed that I was clearly going the wrong way. In fact, to get to Watsonville I was going to have to go through Hecker Pass westbound again.
But I couldn't just ride 152 down out of Hecker Pass, of course. So I went back up Pole Line Road to Mt Madonna Road. And this time turned left, west, toward the ocean, and Watsonville.
And the ride downhill? Beautiful. Fabulous scenery. All that I'd hoped for.
What a difference 180 degrees makes
.
. Thanks for pointing it out to me, i’m going to have to take that one of these days. 
!
.
