I am biking from Willow Glen to Salinas in early November, and would like advice about the best way.
I'm leary of 101, and was thinking along the lines of Uvas Road to Hecker Pass, through Watsonville, to CA1 and then 183 to Salinas. I've gone down to the end of Uvas road a number of times, and I'm comfortable going from Willow Glen up 9 to Summit, but I'm unsure if Hecker Pass Road (156) is suitable for my biking. I've also been thinking about going straight down to Soquel (Summit to Soquel-San Jose Road) and then down CA 1 as well.
Any advice/info on these routes would be appreciated. I'll be leaving early AM, aiming to arrive enough before 2 pm to shower on a Friday.
Thanks,
Chris
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brecheenj
October 6, 2011 - 4:41pm
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Hi Chris, This sounds like a
Hi Chris,
This sounds like a great ride. I've never ridden to Salinas, though I've ridden over Hecker Pass Rd (152) to Watsonville a couple times with gear, but it's also been early in the morning to avoid as much traffic as possible. I've always felt fairly comfortable. There is no shoulder. On the descent, I've taken the lane until a car comes behind me, then I try to find a safe place to slow down and let the car pass me safely.
Another option is to turn up Redwood Retreat Rd. to Mt. Madonna Rd, but Mt. Madonna Rd is a dirt road. The first part is fairly steep, but then the grade mellows. This will take you to Mt Madonna Park and intersects with Summit Rd. It's a beautiful, quiet ride through the trees.
Good luck,
Jen
lanstin
November 8, 2011 - 7:52am
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Ride report
Hecker Pass was indeed lovely and not too scary. I pulled off the road way a few times on the ascent to let wide vehicles pass. Watsonville to Salinas was interesting. The wind was with me, and it was a Friday, so the fields were full of busy people gathering the strawberries and plowing fields with the tractors and so on. CA-1 was probably more nerve racking than Hecker Pass as there was no break in the flow. I got to see that cool oil plant up close. I was a little late for my meeting, but only a little.
Overall, I got to see San Jose, rolling hills in the country, a bit of the SC mountains, the lovely Monterey bay, and the flat Salinas Valley.
thielges
November 10, 2011 - 1:22pm
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There's no really good route but at least there's a route
Hi Chris - Your intuition is right about 101. It is actually not a bad route except for one problem: the bridge over the Pajaro River (on the county line). That bridge has no shoulder and the sight lines are not long enough to to see whether there's a big enough gap in traffic to safely cross the bridge. Maybe some day we'll get a wider shoulder or a separate bike bridge over the river. Other than that 101 is flat and safe to ride from Gilroy to the Betabel Y Rd. interchange.
Hecker Pass Rd. is the next obvious crossing though I do not recommend trying that during a weekday commute because you end up taking the lane for parts of the ride and the traffic is heavy.
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