Wilder Ranch

Riding in Santa Cruz

May 29, 2005

I finally felt that I was ready to try Wilder Ranch again (tried it a few years ago with Russ, and it was sandy.. bleh). So the group (consisting of myself, our tour guide Michelle, Rose, and Kirk) made it out to Wilder Ranch on Memorial Day. After about two miles of climbing the Wilder Ridge Loop, we took the Twin Oak Trail. Everyone was so excited to see singletrack, especially after some of the hard fireroad climbs up.

We spent some time on the Eucalytus Loop, deciding where to go next. We continued up the Eucalyptus Loop until we reach the top for a break.

See those Eucalyptus trees up there? That looks like a nice stopping point for lunch, after I take more pictures of the trail and the view.


While in the Eucalyptus tree grove, we took a break and acted like bumps on a log.


We continued after our break to the Old Cabin singletrack. This is my favorite part of Wilder Ranch so far, sweeping S-turns and beautiful forest.. Ooooo.. which is great fun going down, but up it was really hard (especially since my rear derailleur cable had stretched completely so shifting was impossible..)

After Old Cabin, we continued to the Wild Boar trail (which was a bit overgrown..)..


We connected with the Engelsman Loop to get back to the parking lot. The Engelsman Loop is really steep and curvy, once you get towards the bottom.



To get back to the parking lot, you have to WALK your bike through the ranch area (nope, it's not just called Wilder Ranch), and we met the gardener dude (I think his name is Joe). Really nice guy, even let me take a picture of him. :-)

Route taken: Wilder Ridge Loop (maybe did 2 miles of this loop) to Twin Oaks Trail (1 mile single track) to Eucalyptus Loop (snacked at top [maybe 2.5 miles of this]) to Old Cabin (.75 mile single track, woods) to Wild Boar (.25 mile single track) to Engelsman Loop (downhill 1.5 miles), which is approximately 8.5 miles.