Santa Cruz- Safe Dirt Trails...?

If I take a trip back up north I will. I live down in San Diego now, but family is still in the bay area

 

Ahh good move. I'm planning on leaving the bay area soon.

 

I've been wanting to take a trip on Old Coast road on my motorcycle for awhile. I've heard there's good dispersed camping there.

 

Lived in Santa Cruz my whole life and never found an area that I wasn't worried about someone calling the police or coming out with a gun. We used to go around the Summit and Zayante when we were kids on dirt bikes and 4x4's but I would never do that now.

 

Old Coast Road is passable in / with a 2WD and decent ground clearance (Seen many a Subaru on there). If you want a chill drive, with some spectacular views (Great ones of Bixby Bridge), it's a nice drive. Not very challenging at all though.

 

There is no camping or any access to even walk 20 ft off the Old Coast Rd between Bixby and Molera. All private property. The dispersed camping areas are off the Coast Ridge Rd much further south, in Los Padres NF ... and they are indeed fine.

I have driven Old Coast when 4wd was definitely needed. After the recent storms it may be nearly impassable in spots, even with. But at the right time, it is 2wd feasible, though if you have to stop/restart on some of the looser grades, 4wd would be nice.

 

Yeah, I was thinking south. I didn't even know it went north.

 

Due to the recent weather, the roads going to Los Padres are going to be fucked! should be a lot of fun to go camping there this summer. Worth checking out for sure

 

Considering we cant even get over 17 right now, I would imagine those roads are trashed.

 

Woah, is 17 closed? Due to an accident or road conditions?

 

It may be semi open again by now, but has been closed multiple times due to mudslides with all these storms, yesterday had a full shutdown for most of the day. If it is open now its just one lane, all the back roads are suffering the same fate. Drought, followed by over saturation of all the hillsides + heavy wind, down it all comes.

 

Damn... That's crazy. I hope that is cleared up quickly and none of you need to make that daily commute. My step dad has a place off Bear Creek Rd, he is out of the country right now but I'll tell my mom to try and check on it.
Down in so-cal there's "Ortega Hwy" which is a mild version of 17, they had a sink hole and the whole thing is shut down.

 

Luckily I live and work on West Side, If I had to do that commute I would not stay living in SC, screw pissing away 4 hours of my day with a bunch of idiots that cant drive. Bear Creek was closed earlier, may be back open now depending on what part his place is at. There is a bunch of flooding in Felton and 9 was closed for a while too, along with some good sink holes off of summit rd. It has been an absolute mess, and tomorrow starts another 18 hours of rain (5" of rainfall expected) so I am sure it wont be the last.

 

Wow it's coming down hard! Hopefully everyone is ok up there.
His place is maybe two miles down bear creek from where it hits 9.

 

Westsider here too - stopped commuting over the hill a few years back. Hope all the locals are staying safe and dry.

 

You're definitely running the gauntlet driving anywhere between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties. I'm up there regularly towing people out taken out by slides, or running over big rocks, and tree limbs. Slides and limbs/ trees are everywhere, Chunks of road missing, low areas flooded with submerged pot holes, and dense patches of fog. Slides are happening faster than Caltran can clear them. If you MUST drive it, better make sure you have full coverage, and gap plus insurance. Doesn't matter how good a driver you are, or how long you've lived there, sooner or later your number will be up!

 

You get shot at?

Demolition forest is a great place to ride bicycles. There are roads everywhere. It will be a lot of elevation though.

 

Ride your bike on private property, you're taking the chance of getting shot at, or running into booby traps. Demo is legal, but other trails are not. The closer you are to the Los Gatos side, and Summit, the more psychotic the locals are. Although, there are some loonies on the Santa Cruz side as well.

 

Oh, I would have thought CA people would be less trigger happy than others. I can't say ive lived there in a while.

 

Not so bad on the SC side, but up around the Summit