One day to ride in Santa Cruz?

[jackstraw]

My guess is SC is the best option, but that's a ways from South Bay. Locals will have better intel. I know there are some great trails north of SC, but the ones I know about are not near a shop. And I've never had an issue with crowds in SC biking. There is a lot of terrain, so people are spread out...or surfing.

[davjr96]

I may have 1 or 2 days free in October to ride somewhere around the South Bay Area. Strongly prefer trails close to a shop where I can rent a bike, so I don't have to deal with fitting it in a rental car. Is Santa Cruz my best bet? This will be on a weekend so I'm guessing it will be busy, and I'd be willing to drive farther for a better experience.

Depends what you are going for. Have you ridden in the Bay/SC before? What kind of trails do you like? Where in the bay are you staying before hand?

There are tons of options besides SC. For example, Pacifica has pretty good trails with much better ocean views than SC and is closer to the city. You loose the redwoods, a bit of trail quality, and all the SC bike culture though. Tradeoffs.

[BigHerm]

You can ride the UC trails from SC without a car. Takes some "heat map" route finding. There is a shop at the bottom of Nisene Marks but the climb to the goods never felt worth it to me on a muscle bike.

My favorite trail in South Bay was Rocky Ridge. Fun both directions with a lot of anti-flow sections on the down.