Soquel Forest

So, me and my 15 year old daughter will be riding the Soquel Forest area in June. Are there any suggestions for an easy 10-15 mile loop? She loves down hill and is capable. Any helpful loop ideas would be great!!

Mike P

 

oh man. went there a couple of years ago when the new flow trail opened up. There's a bunch of loops but to get to the good stuff, (flow, braille downhills) you have to climb up. the easiest/shortest way up is sulfur springs...A great ride for first time is to go up sulfur springs/fireroad climb then do either flow trail down, then back up springs and then come down braille. Braille is fun tech/chunk, vs Flow.. to different great downhills in ewok forest like setting...
can add more miles by going up different ways.. once your at the trail head, it will be full of locals.. they can give tips...have fun! In Santa Cruz, next to the Santa Cruz factory is also a great place to ride.. called wilder ranch state park ?? enchanted loop ...

 

There's also a shuttle you can take from Aptos. Still some climbing involved. http://shuttlesmithadventures.squarespace.com/

You start near the Soquel demo forest, but actually come back down Nisene Marks. It's a pretty long ride down and theres plenty of single track options under the trees. I tried to ride around the demo forest and then come back down and almost died from cramps. Ended up wasting the shuttle and riding down 10 miles of fire road. So I don't recommend trying to do both unless you have the legs for it.

 

It's been too long since I've been up in Soquel/Demo Forest, but last time I was up there was before the flow trail was built and open. That being said, Braille is a blast!!! All the times I have ridden this area, we have parked off the Soquel Creek I believe off Highland St??? We pedaled up the road and hooked a hard hair pin right turn and then met up with dirt and continued on to Aptos Creek I think. I recall looping the trails twice to get two descents, but I cannot remember the other trail we descended besides Braille. Have fun if you have more days to ride up that way...try to find someone to show you around some of the UCSC trails.

 

Soquel/Demo Forest is a blast and the new Flow trails they have built are hooty-hoot! When we were there 1-1/2 years ago we looped the Flow trail(s) twice, easy to climb back up and ride again.
There is a good climb in and a good climb out so just be prepared for that; I want to say the climb back to the parking lot is abut 800-900 feet on the fireroad.
Wildwood along the coast and behind Santa Cruz University are also supposed to have some fun trails but we have not sampled those yet.

 

Thank you all for the info! I will put it to good use.