Pogonip/UC Santa Cruz/Henry Cowell State Park Ride Report

Crossing the road from the northernmost point of Wilder takes you into the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus. This is technically part of the campus, but there are no buildings, roads, classrooms or other signs of development here. Most of the developed campus is northeast of this point. While one could park on campus and ride here (and several students and faculty are on the trails), we have only gotten here by going through Wilder.

The "entrance" road is a continuation of the Chinquapin Trail from Wilder. This portion is basically level and uneventful, so we usually blast through here until we reach the water tanks, three very large but apparently unused water cylinders. However, the really interesting trails in this area are off to the left. These trails are unmarked, so keep your eyes open and explore a bit. These trails generally return to the main fire road or go through Pogonip to get to Highway 9.

Several "roads" meet at the water tank junction and it is a good place to meet people and exchange information. To the east is a road that leads down to campus. Continuing straight ahead at this junction is the way to go here.

Straight at the junction is the right way, but that does not mean that one has to stay on the road. There are several tiny unmarked trails that branch off both sides of the road beyond the junction. You can only find these by looking carefully or hooking up with a local. Many sport colorful names like "Birth Canal", so you can imagine that long hours have been spent thinking up clever names. These trails are rather fun. They are very narrow, twisty trails that seem to go forward, then sideways, then backwards. The distance "as the crow files" is relatively short, but these trails are very different from most of the cross country trails we ride, making them a fun change.

The main road turns into the U-Con Trail (this is for University Connector). This traverses down a wooded hillside to Highway 9. At this point, it becomes the Rincon Trail. Rincon runs parallel to Highway 9 for a ways, then crosses the highway. After crossing over the railroad tracks, it begins a fairly steep fireroad descent to the San Lorenzo River. The trail then winds along the banks of the river. According to the maps, there are at least two place where one should be able to cross the river. We were there shortly after some very heavy rains, so the river was running very high was was clearly unpassable without a bridge, but we did not see a bridge anywhere.

Once you are here, you might as well explore a bit and take a break. The path back is retracing the path you came on, but this time everything is uphill. Settle in and grind it out.

If you decided to explore some of the unmarked trails at the start, some of them will also get you to the Rincon/Highway 9 junction area. There seems to be a large number of trails (not all of them explored yet) that get you through the forest. Some are smooth and fast, some are tight and twisty, and some are downhill and rocky. Usually we end up on a set of trails that encompasses all of these.

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