Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve (Los Gatos)

(This map courtesy of John Blenio)

OTE Ratings: O2/T3/E9
Distance: ~10 to 15 miles?
Time: 2 to 4 hours
Climb: 1500' to appx. 3000', which feels like 6000.

Description

Climb. In the sun. About 75% of this ride has no technical challenge whatsoever, only muscle challenge. Much of it is in the sun. Quite steep. Then steeper. Dry, bush-covered hillside, mostly manzanita. This year, there is actually water in some of the streams. A few spots with nice views out over the Valley. Did I mention that it's in the sun?

Actually, it's not *quite* as bad as that, but the first time I went there, I was shown this area at its absolute worst, weatherwise (hot), boring trailwise (*all* dirt road), and crowdswise. I've since been shown better routes in here, which raised the "O" rating from its initial nadir. It's still among my least favorite rides, though, so take the biased descriptions with a grain of gatorade powder.

Directions to the start

Masochists will want to start at the overpass where East Los Gatos Road crosses over highway 17. The rest of us would start at the top of the Lexington Dam. Come to think of it, only masochists will do this ride, so ignore that last.

The ride

Go up from Los Gatos, up the dam, then go left onto the road that goes around Lexington Reservoir (Alma Bridge Road). Shortly after you pass Limekiln road, you'll see the bottom of "Overgrown" trail (there is no sign). The only sensible thing to do here is turn around and go home. Oops, I mean take Overgrown up 3 or 4 miles (climbing ~1200'), past a gate (the actual Sierra Azul OSP boundary), then further up to a junction, then go back down Overgrown. All of the other choices are in the sun, are only dirt roads, and are too steep to be fun to climb. Riding down them is ok, but not particularly special.

Well, actually, there is one other fun way down, called "Moody". Get there by turning right at that junction, climbing just a little bit more, to a peak with a nice view if it isn't too smoggy. Continue down the main fire road for another few hundred yards, and spy a rocky singletrack that climbs off to the left. Go up it, then lower your seat for some seriously steep, rutty downhill sections. This singletrack drops you back out onto a fire road that then descends back to Alma Bridge Road. Now go home.

Masochists' route: stay on Alma Bridge Road, up to the top of a slight rise, where a dirt road and a gate go off to the left. This is Priest Rock Trail. Go on up that, and you have an opportunity to climb, in the sun, for the next hour or two. At the top, there is a road to nowhere that goes off to the left, but you (once you've mostly recovered) get to go on downhill for a ways, to a four-way junction. To the left is "Overgrown", a fun singletrack descent, with a fair amount of poison oak, but not too much of it sticks out into the trail. The other choice adds about an hour to the trip: bear right and you will go downhill some more, cross a couple of creeks, and then climb climb climb some more, on a fire road that Dave calls "technically steep", up to near the highest point in this OSP (around 2800 feet elevation).

Left onto a narrower, but not quite single, track is the only non-dead end here. You do some fun down-and-up swoops, to test how well you "do momentum", and then some quite steep downhills, until you find the top of the trail/road from Kennedy Road. Bear left, and you get to descend some more steeps, to the aforementioned junction. Turn right here, to go on down Overgrown.

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