This page is still under construction.
See also my page with pictures of two bike trips I took with a friend last summer. One of them was my annual bike trip to Half Moon Bay, which I'd done alone the previous two years. Here's what I wrote on my interests web page about the first trip:
I bicycle to work two or three times a week when the weather is good (which hasn't been often, recently) and am planning a trip to visit a friend in Half Moon Bay if there is ever a weekend with no rain. (3/14/95)Yes, the weather in the Bay Area has been bad all four of the last winters.
I finally was able to bike there last weekend! This was April 22-23. It was a wonderful trip, 23.5 miles and around 3 hours each way, and I'm looking forward to doing it again soon. It was good timing, too, since it's supposed to rain again this weekend. (4/28/95)
The first time I went to Half Moon Bay I knew nothing about what route to took there, so I just took what seemed like the most direct route over the Santa Cruz mountains, which was Kings Mountain Road up and then Purisima Creek Road/Higgins Purisima Road on the way down. My bike map marked Purisima Creek as "dirt", and I didn't realize this meant it was a mountain bike trail! Going down this road was just terrible--I was on a hybrid bike with no shock absorbtion, and when I wasn't going over tree ruts at high speed I was trying to get through thick mud from the recent rains. The only nice thing about the route is that Higgins Purisima is a very pretty descent to Highway 1. On the way back I took the same route in reverse but it was much nicer that way--I could walk up the dirt trail, and Kings Mountain road is an exhilerating descent, still my favorite.
In 1996 I revised the trail by going down Tunitas Creek Road instead of Purisima Creek. This was something of an improvement as Tunitas Creek is paved, but it is not paved very well and a very bumpy and unpleasant descent. Again I took the same route back, and again it was much better that way.
Finally in 1997 I found what may be the ideal route: Old La Honda Road, now my favorite climb, to go up the mountain on the way to Half Moon Bay, and then Old La Honda followed by La Honda Road on the way down. This is a long slow descent, not especially exciting but at least well-paved. Then the trip back takes the tried and true Tunitas Creek up and Kings Mountain Road down.
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