What's required to make it one of the all-time greats?
Good climbs
World-class views
Fun descents
Decent roads
Few cars
Good eats
This ride checks all those boxes and then some.
I have two locations where I recommend to start this ride.
You can start from the town of Woodside -- There's a park-n-ride parking lot just off 280 at 84. OR, if you'd like to add a few extra warm-up/cool-down rolling miles, you can start on Canada Rd., at the junction with hwy 92.
The ride is a fairly simple loop that takes you over a wooded ridge, drops you down through picturesque villages, and provides a bike-friendly lunch stop before leading you up the beautiful California coastline where you will turn inland for an amazing climb back through the woods and finally descending back to Woodside. I've discovered a few "add-ons" or alternates that make the ride more interesting if you care to mix it up a bit.
Here's the route with all the bells and whistles thrown in:
To shorten the ride, you can start in Woodside and eliminate the Canada Rd. out-n-back portion. Also, once you descend Pescadero Creek Rd., you can roll straight into the town of Pescadero for lunch and skip the little southern loop on Butano Creek / Cloverdale Rd.
Once you hit Pescadero, plan to stop at the biker friendly deli/grocery store for lunch: Arcangeli / Norms Market. Just around back of the store is a little grassy area with picnic tables, a water spigot, and an outhouse. Just about everything one would need in a reststop. The store is known for their artichoke bread. They bake some tasty sweets too. But I usually go for a nice sandwich from their awesome deli menu.
As you leave Pescadero, you head north on the lightly traveled Stage Road to San Gregorio. There's one last little rest stop opportunity at the General Store. Further up Stage Rd. you'll dump onto Hwy 1 for a short distance before you begin your climb back inland, up and over the ridge. You can keep it simple, and turn Rt., directly on to Tunitas Creek Rd. (previously used on the Tour of California), or you can continue up Hwy 1 a short distance to Verde Rd. (my preferred route) as I show on the map above. You'll turn Rt. from Verde Rd. onto Lobitos Creek Rd. (pass the Lobitos Crk Rd. Cutt-Off). It's a super sharp Rt. turn onto Lobitos Creek Rd. and might be easy to miss.
Most of the time I'm enjoying myself too much to take pictures, but I recently snapped a few from the climb heading back up the ridge after leaving the coast. I think these are mostly from the Lobitos Creek Rd. portion.
Once you drop back down to Tunitas Creek, and resume your climb back over the ridge, you enter into a beautiful redwood forest. My pics from that portion of the ride didn't turn out because of the low light conditions. The Tunitas Creek climb is long and beautiful through a dense redwood/fern forest. Once you reach the summit, where Tunitas Creek meets Skyline / Hwy 35 -- you've basically finished all of the real work. Careful as you descend back into Woodside. And if you decided to log the extra miles of Canada Rd. -- Congratulations for finishing the whole enchilada!
This truly is one of my favorite bay area rides. If you are visiting and looking for an amazing adventure that shows off the beautiful California coast and coastal range mountains -- this is it!
