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Coe MonsterCross (Sunday 3/11)

6K views 47 replies 21 participants last post by  Leopold Porkstacker 
#1 ·
How better to celebrate daylight savings time than by taking on a big ride on Sunday?
Ratpick and I bring you the Coe MonsterCross - 100ish miles, 10k ft of climbing, 60% pavement, 40% dirt.

Wheels rolling this Sunday 7am ('sleep is overrated') at the Starbucks in downtown Campbell (right near Tread Bikes). Recommended: CX bike (or light mtb), decent fitness level, self-sufficiency, and a sense of adventure. It won't be easy, but it sure will be fun and memorable, and Ratpick and I will do our best to provide in-ride entertainment.
 
#27 · (Edited)
Finally! Coe Monstercross! Recap

Dirk mentioned his desire to do this route to me well over a year ago and I was immediately hooked. He did it solo last year in the agonizing heat of summer but somehow I managed to convince him (with much harassment) to have another go.

OK, I don't think it really took that much convincing :)

In the recap below, videos are linked to text, photos embedded.

So, at 7am (still 6am to our pre-DST bodies), just pre-sunrise, we met up in downtown Campbell and rode out. A farmers' market was setting up but other than that, we pretty much had the streets to ourselves making it a very pleasant cross-town warmup ride to get to the base of Quimby.


Quimby Rd (12 mi)

Although quite chilly at the start, it was already warming up just enough to remove layers for the Quimby climb. I've only done it once before on a very hot day.


I was still figuring out what pace we would be riding, still unsure whether last year's fitness was fully recovered. We had a very casual pace up Quimby which suited me just fine for a big, somewhat unknown ride like this!


Quimby threw its usual increasing pitch at us as we neared the summit, but at a comfortable pace it wasn't a problem. I was previously unsure how the CX bike would feel on steep climbs, but so far, it impressed me!

Mt Hamilton Rd (15 mi)


On the way up Mt Hamilton Rd, I was curiously eyeballing the trail parallel to the road in Grant Ranch. Another adventure for another day... We talked a lot about other potential "monstercross" adventure possibilities!

Bogdan was carrying a lot more water than Dirk & me (dammit, I've become a weight weenie!) and was slower on the Hamilton climb. There was fog coming in and out around Lick Observatory and the temps dropped rapidly as we climbed. Dirk did a couple of sprints to warm up and we decided to lift the pace to generate some warmth. And so we powered to the summit and retreated to the warm foyer to wait for Bogdan. I spotted a familiar logo (I joined Quadzilla recently):


Lick Observatory (26 mi)

We warmed up, ate and lingered, probably too long, at the top. We were pleased that over half of the climbing for the ride was already behind us!

But progress was needed, so back out into the cold we went and began the bomb down the backside of Mt Hamilton. The road was a bit sketchy, with (ice-breaking) sand in some corners, bringing back unpleasant memories of my first road bike crash where I slipped out in dirt at the 2-mile marker.

But with bigger tires and disk brakes, I felt very fast. I'm getting more used to the CX geometry for road descents (it's not quite as nimble as my road bike, but actually more stable in the corners). Descending with disk brakes was so awesome - I'm pretty sure I'm going to get disks on my new road bike when the time comes.

I caught up to and got held up by a trio of Harley riders, somewhat spoiling my fun, but in pretty quick time we were crossing Isabel Creek.


Dirt! (40 mi)

So many times I've ridden San Antonio Valley Rd and looked longingly at this gate and the fire road behind it that leads down to Coe goodness. Finally, I get to jump it and ride it! Dream come true.


I was in amazing spirits at this point - ran right through a few muddy puddles just for the joy of it!

The wildlife was seemingly very unused to human presence here. The cows would bolt from us, suicide squirrels were everywhere, but the really awesome sighting was a large herd of (I believe) Elk! They were incredible. It felt like we were on some kind of safari!


The road itself is quite flat for a while, a very easy CX ride in very un-Coe terrain. I soaked in every moment of it.


There were more fences to be hopped and eventually, the road inevitably began to climb into more familiar territory (for me).


I'm getting quite comfortable riding this section now but it's still a relief to cross back into state parks land.


Soon, we were upon the climb up Bear Mountain.


It's not as bad a climb as it looks from a distance, but looking at it on approach kinda gets in my head everytime. It's actually well suited to climbing on a CX and I felt quite a surge of energy as the gate approached.


Bear Mountain (49 mi)

We celebrated the climb, surviving the hillbilly section, being half way, and the delicious descent to come.




This was our lunch spot; we lingered for for about 20 minutes enjoying the view. It was quite warm out this part of the park!

We left with great anticipation of the fun and sketchy descent of Bear Mountain Rd. Always fun, it promised to be huge fun on CX. Dirk had convinced me that disk brakes were a mandatory requirement for my CX specifically for this descent!!

The upper rollers were a good warm up and lots of fun. Momentum nearly always carried us [vid] from the top of one to the other with minimal pedaling.


Bogdan got a pinch flat near the top so stopped to change his tube. Dirk & I amused ourselves rolling down and back [vid] on the dip below.

Flat fixed, we ripped down the rest of Bear Mountain Rd. Bogdan killed the descent, with rim brakes!! I tried to stay close, enjoying watching his bike squirm around on the really steep parts of the descent. So much fun!

Bumpy and flat - The Narrows (51 mi)

After so much fun, we steeled ourselves for the coming miles of fairly flat trail, following the creek and then The Narrows. We knew neither of these trails would be "fun" on CX.


We got through the pebbly road ok, lots of creek crossings, some quite deep (Dirk demonstrated how to power through a deep one [vid]).

The Narrows was slow going due to the very bumpy trail surface. Dirk amped up the pace a bit and I tried to follow. The only comfortable bar position I could find was the uppers, so tried to stay there (my wrist was quite sore from the Bear Mountain Rd descent).


Los Cruzeros (55 mi)

Dirk had been egging me on to give a solid attempt at cleaning the Mahoney Wall on CX. I didn't think it possible, at least not with my low gearing of 36x32. But what the hell, I was definitely going to give it a try and see how far I could go!

Plan of attack was to go very slowly.. use minimal necessary power/torque to keep moving but not slip. It's so steep that it's virtually impossible to recover from a slip without dabbing.

So, straight to granny I went and on the first part of the wall, kept the pace slow and comfortable. Cleaned. Nice! I looked up and could see the very top - not so far, I thought.. I can do this. I heard Bogdan and Dirk succumb behind me which would normally give me the excuse I needed to bail, but something was pushing me.


So I kept turning the pedals over, trying to maintain my line. Soon the top was within reach - I couldn't believe it. Legs were feeling good. It was in the bag. Then I spotted a line of loose gravel in the road and, of course, as soon as I looked at it, I went right into it. Rear slip.. Done. So, so disappointed. I feel that would have been an accomplishment on par with cleaning the Cross Canyon Wall and possibly unique, at least for a while.

My legs were somewhat toast from the effort, though, and my head out of the game (Plymmer will totally get that) and I couldn't seem to muster the focus to climb Lost Spring Trail and dabbed. Dirk passed me and dragged me up the rest of that trail. We did stop for a water refill at the spring, but since the water wasn't flowing, Dirk put the minimum in his filter bottle just for emergencies.

We had a good rest at the top of the trail, ate and recovered. Now some fun fireroad action. The official route took us down Coit Rd, but I really enjoyed the diversion down Cross Canyon and Coit Springs that I did with Diesel, so I managed to talk the group into that route.

At the Coit Rd intersection, we ran into the group of teenagers that had been out there for 10 days, Monday being the final day. They looked clean and in amazingly high spirits. So impressed! They recognized Dirk from when he and Plymmer ran into them last weekend!

Up Coit to Cross Canyon. I know Bogdan would have preferred to avoid the additional climbing at this point but I was hoping the Cross Canyon downhill would be sufficient reward!

Cross Canyon/Coit Spring (58 mi)

And the descent was fun. I let the CX fly as much as I dared given the bumpy nature of the trail. The final steep descent down to Coit Springs was tons of fun, although the jarring really got my wrist aching. I finally succumbed and took some Vitamin I for the pain.


Last time through here with Diesel, he posed upon the Coit Spring rock with his bike and I suddenly felt the desire to do the same.


Descending the rest of Coit Spring Rd hurt until the ibu kicked in, and then we bombed down Coit Rd. Some very fast sections here (I hit 39 mph) and one surprise grade reversal that makes an excellent jump!

I was feeling a little sad that we were about to exit Coe, back onto pavement, at the Coyote Creek entrance, but my butt and wrist were pretty happy about it!


We did a quick circle of Hunting Hollow to see if anyone we knew was out riding.

I was out of water and pretty thirsty by this point so suggested that we stop at the Calfire/CDF station and refill. The faucet is right behind the gas station.


It was a good spot for a rest and to put our minds back into roadie mode! We continued up Gilroy Hot Springs Rd, enjoying the smooth surface, giving us energy and speed.


Harvey Bear (68 mi)

In a few minutes, we reached the Harvey Bear entrance. I asked Dirk to add this, again from my earlier ride with Diesel, knowing that it would be icing on the cake for a ride like this.


Great views from Harvey Bear but the highlight is the new Gaviota Trail. Unfortunately, it's popular with the equestrians and the trail surface is considerably bumpier than it used to be, but it's still huge fun.

There are sections that pretty much resemble a stretched out pump track, giving the opportunity to do some small jumps and, as Bogdan noted, use the backside of the jumps for acceleration. So much fun. I had a couple of near misses on some tight, blind turns but managed to stay on trail.

Soon, the fun was over, though, and we dropped down to San Martin Ave and back onto pavement.

The road to El Toro (76 mi)

It was about 6 miles riding to Morgan Hill downtown. We had begun to talk about the possibility of stopping for a beer before the long push back to Campbell.

Harvey Bear fun extracted the last of Bogdan's energy and he was suffering on the way to Morgan Hill. The beer stop we had been talking about as a possibility became a beer and food stop!

Dirk & I were both feeling pretty invigorated after Harvey Bear's roller coaster, so rode forward into the wind. We had started the wind prediction game very early on, seeing positive signs that the wind may be blowing northward. But once we dropped onto Foothill Rd, it was clear we were going to face a headwind, and the further we rode, the faster the headwind became.

At one point, I noticed a freshly dug drainage ditch beside the road was mostly rideable. I checked it out for a while then threw caution to the wind and (to Dirk's great surprise, I think) dropped in! It was fairly soft dirt but had good traction and it was quite fun!

Of course, getting out without stopping would be a challenge so I had to look for an opportunity to scale the side wall. A slightly grassy patch appeared and I used to it climb out, no dabbing. Fun!

Dirk wasn't going to let me have all the fun and dropped in for some playtime [vid] himself!


I had been congratulating myself on avoiding my run on pinch flats while riding CX in Coe. But that all came undone when I was playing around in dirt next to the road and failed to successfully jump up onto a driveway edge. My rear wheel landed squarely on the edge and I felt rim contact. I expected a flat, although it seemed ok.

Unfortunately, it did give me a slow leak and as we neared El Toro, I was almost out of air. I put all my weight on the front tire, beer gravity pulling me forward so I could change the tube with a brew in hand!

Funny moment: at the 101 crossing, Dirk took off in a sprint. My first thought was that he had memorized a Strava segment and meant to attack it. "I'm in on this", I thought and ramped up the power. He recommitted when he saw me coming but I played a card by jumping up onto the sidewalk causing him to think I'd given up.. maahahahaha :)

El Toro (83 mi)

El Toro was so welcome. I was definitely ready for a brew and now had to spend the time replacing my rear tube. Dirk ran in and got us beers.. aaaah.

I had my tube fixed and we thought about food. Bogdan was definitely in need of food, so Dirk & I figured we could probably fit in a 600 calorie snack from our 4,800 calorie ride!

It was a bit chilly outside, so we went inside and ordered a burger and fish tacos. So good. Restaurant food while on a ride tastes twice as good as any other time! And the beer four times as good!

Into the wind (83 mi)

The wind was blowing quite strong now, a direct headwind, of course. Bogdan was looking very recovered so we agreed to paceline with 1-2 minute pulls. It worked so very well! If anything, we were pulling too hard, keeping a speed of about 19 mph into quite a stiff wind. The pulls became more and more tiring so we tried to keep them a little shorter as time went on.

Unfortunately, my original flat turned out to be an actual puncture, not a pinch flat, and my new tube also developed a very slow leak. I only had one spare tube and didn't relish having to patch it. I figured I could get home with about 2-3 stops to reinflate so decided to do that.

As the tire deflated, some of my pulls became very difficult - that was the sign to me to stop and add air. It worked pretty well, as we were pushing so hard the rest stops really helped.

We reached the outskirts of San Jose as the sun began to set.


Bogdan had ridden to the start from home, so left us to take a more direct route home. Dirk & I continued on back to downtown Campbell, using the most fun streets along the way.

We rolled up to my car well into the dark night with 107 miles done! It seemed fitting to start and finish in the dark, using every available second of sunlight!

Fantastic ride.. can't wait to do this again next year!

 
#31 ·
Di

So many times I've ridden San Antonio Valley Rd and looked longingly at this gate and the fire road behind it that leads down to Coe goodness. Finally, I get to jump it and ride it! Dream come true.



The road itself is quite flat for a while, a very easy CX ride in very un-Coe terrain. I soaked in every moment of it.


There were more fences to be hopped and eventually, the road inevitably began to climb into more familiar territory (for me).


I'm getting quite comfortable riding this section now but it's still a relief to cross back into state parks land.

Can you give more info on this road. Is it legal? Is it signed? Looks like an awesome spring time trail.
 
#15 ·
Nice ride guys!! Who is the taliban guy standing near Dirk?
We decided to recruit one of the locals as a guide, in order to avoid being assaulted Deliverance-style... not sure that worked well, as he kept talking about squishy asses (see earlier posts in this thread) ;).

He went road bike all the way (and bombed at unbelievable speeds down Bear Mountain), though he cheated by using a steel frame and I also did notice a few grooves in his tires...
 
#16 ·
this is the bike that put a jihad on Henry Coe



the infidels included one Belgian (wind protection and tasty beer) an Aussie (left lane blocking technique and animal calls)

great ride. super fun. super tiring. my ass does hurt a little. (i won't mention that we found lube in Dirk's pocket late into the ride.) ;)

looking forward to seeing your pics, and video.
 
#35 ·
video

I can't add much to Patrick's excellent ride report, but I can add video (rainy days are good for something):



Hope you enjoy some of the Euro techno I added to help digest the shaky bits. If you consider riding this route or joining the next running, it should give you a decent idea of what to expect. Thanks much Patrick for encouraging me to do this again, it was a blast, and much more fun than the solo version (the parts I remember ;)). And Bogdan was a phenomenon on his Lemond road bike - he surely would have grabbed the Bear Mtn DH KOM if it wasn't for flatting.

The Coe MonsterCross was born out of a hairbrained idea to 'ride from home to Coe and back', and realizing that the sane route, San Jose > Morgan Hill > HQ > HH > back would be a tad too boring/underwhelming for my liking. Patrick's suggestion to include the Harvey Bear section at the end was a fantastic one, that place is CX heaven (except for the horsie postholes), with great views on the valley. Next time we could consider taking the Coyote Creek bike path/trail back into San Jose, though pacelining on Santa Teresa Blvd after a visit to El Toro was too much fun.
 
#40 ·
Hey Roy - you're correct, I haven't been up to Coe as much recently. I have been staying a bit more local in the hills of Toro and parks out in Carmel Valley..... and my trail mileage has backed off a bit. I save some energy and pull a few of these off once and a while.....Rae Lakes loop 7/30/11 - a set on Flickr and 2/19/12 Ventana Loop - Los Padres Dam > Big Pines Trail > Ventana Double Cone Trail > Puerto Suello Trail > Carmel River Trail - a set on Flickr .... I've got to get back up to Coe soon - I drive up, see your car..... leave 5 hrs later...see your car!!!! Another epic in progress ....maybe see you again soon. - G
 
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