The Team Sherpa Blog

As we prepare for our upcoming Death Valley backpacking excursion, gotta bide the time hitting the local mountain bike trails along Skyline (Hwy 35) in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I’ve been itching to hit up El Corte de Madeira Creek Open Space Preserve - better known to locals simply as Skeggs. Skeggs, because the place to park is at or near Skeggs Vista Point. That and it just sounds cool. Kinda like the word acaiaca - I could tell you what it means, but I mainly just like the way it rolls off the tongue.

So, Saturday I picked up my buddy Cyrus and we hopped on I-280, passed the southern portion of Stanford’s incredibly large campus, and wound up Sand Hill to Portola through 84 and up to Skyline. For some reason, I thought 84 was Skyline and hung a right - ended up driving through downtown Woodside. Looked like a training was going on at the local firehouse. Man, if any of you guys are firemen out there, that is one “hardship” post: protecting gargantuan estates outside of Silicon Valley. The relatively dinky, normal post-ww2 single family homes down in my neck of the woods are pushing a cool million. I don’t even want to know the cost of the homes we passed heading into Woodside. Suffice it to say, I don’t know how I will ever be a home owner in this area. No matter. So long as I can have easy access to these local trails and the climate of the SF Bay, all is well.

Cyrus and I met up with Curt, Brent, and Robb at Skeggs. We have pics from this point on. (Click here.) They were just finishing mounting Curt’s front tire. In order to fit the three bikes in the Accord, Curt had to dismantle both tires off of his yellow wonder to fit in the trunk and the other two bikes went on the roof rack. I opted for the hitch-mounted rack rather than roof rack for my Civic and began taking Cyrus and my bikes down. Within five minutes we were on the trail. Brent and Curt had been there once before awhile ago, but couldn’t recall much of the area’s trails. This was Robb, Cyrus, and my first time. So, we spent some time at the maps, attempting to figure out the best route. We ended up with a 9 mile session. Most of it was through shaded redwood with some fast single track and double track. Little moguls found their way in the middle of the downhills and I was able to get a little more air on a few of them than I had anticipated. There was also a bit of technical rocky terrain to navigate. But, the killer was the amount of ascent. Man, outside of doing the complete Toad’s loop in Tahoe, I have never climbed so much! Luckily, the bike’s suspension locks out completely, but the mud didn’t help matters. The gound was also strewn with broken branches and the occasional fallen tree from the storm the prior weekend. The session was a blast, though. There were even a few minor crashes - though we’re bummed none were caught on camera. Best one was when Cyrus took a dive over his handle bars (better known as an endo) towards the end of the day’s ride. In this case, he was grateful for the mud as it broke the impact of his right shoulder.

Looks like we’re heading to Death Valley weekend after next. Made my way to REI and picked up a map, water purification system, and backpacking stove. The ceramic Katadyn backcountry ceramic water purifier is a pretty nifty piece of equipment. My favorite feature is the hydration pack adapter that lets you hook up directly to the hose of your camelback and fill up the hydration pack through where you would drink. Also, picked up a JetBoil stove - highly recommend it for backpacking. Of course, I had to run through the exercise of boiling a couple cups of water and made some herbal tea. Took two minutes to boil. Spent the majority of last night analyzing the National Geographic map of Death Valley National Park and figuring out the best routes. We’re either going to do the 26-mile Cottonwood-Marble Canyon Loop or the 8 mile (16 miles total) Indian Pass out and back. Depends on whether we have to worry about flash floods / rain. I want to do Telescope peak, but don’t have an ice ax nor a crampon. Guess it’s too early in the year for 11,000+ ft elevation hikes without snow gear.

Also, I walked to the store tonight for some random household items. So, I grabbed the Sherpa cap and shirt and Ecco boots and headed down the block. Figured might as well start breaking the gear in. The Xpedition boots are phenomenal - light and hug my feet. I was tempted to walk to the grocery store with the overnight pack, but restrained myself. Soon enough.