Suminder is back in town, although briefly. We met up for lunch at his place on Sunday and post-lunch rode down to Santa Cruz. On the way there we took the mountain roads: Page Mill, Skyline and Hwy 9. As usual, Page Mill and Skyline were a lot of fun. This was really the first time I rode Hwy 9 (all the way) and was a little disappointed. The initial sections of Hwy 9 (close to Skyline) were beautiful. Wide sweeping turns with great tarmac and very little traffic. However, after the Big Basin stop sign, the road turns left and the traffic picks up. Hwy 9 then hits the towns of Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond and Felton, before getting into Santa Cruz. Traffic was pretty heavy and it wasn’t much fun cruising through the stop signs, traffic lights and such. The other issue was that a lot of sections of Hwy 9 were wet. Suminder almost lost control at one point, but recovered safely without a a fall.
On our way back we rode the freeway: Hwy 17 to I880. Boring but a quick and efficient return.
Sujit Kirpekar 