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Henry W. Coe State Park is a huge park (one of CA's largest) between Gilroy and the central valley, only half an hour from San Jose. It's desolate with zillions of miles of trails, streams, steep hills in every direction, and very few people dare to go there because it's so hard to climb and way out. Mountain biking and camping is legal just about everywhere day or night. Singletrack is about 30% of the park and legal except for a couple days after big rains. You can see nothing but mountains and mountains in all directions. In the summer I won't see a soul in all the 10s of miles and very many hours I ride there. Henry Coe isn't about technical single track. It's about getting way out there in the wilderness. Few riders get into it. Here's a picture portfolio of a recent 2-day epic that I hope will help explain why I love the park so much.
On April 23 & 24, a special Back Country Weekend allowed people to drive into the otherwise near impossible to reach back areas of this park. Fast Eddy offered to bring camping gear at the far end of the park for those few brave riders willing to take the challenge. Mike (Plim) and I used this as an opportunity to ride a very long and hard loop around the park.
We did 45 miles and 8000' of climbing. Many miles were so tough we only did 1 MPH with my HRM going off max.
On Saturday, we went from Hunting Hollow Entrance to Los Cruzeros via Coit Rd and Lost Spring, then via Narrow Trail over the steep Bear Mountain, down by Mississippi Lake to Orestimba Corral where Fast Eddy was waiting.
On Sunday, we went over Tie Down to Kaiser Aetna Rd, nearly straight up Scherrer Trail to Center Flats, back Wagon Rd. to Wilson Camp and down Lyman Wilson.
Here's the first climb with Mike (Plim) coming Coit Rd. Just before, a rider and his girl friend had just passed me and on the way surprised me by asking if I was BigLarry.
He figured it out from my size and turtle speed, even though he'd never met me in NorCal. Turns out it was Dan51. See more here
On April 23 & 24, a special Back Country Weekend allowed people to drive into the otherwise near impossible to reach back areas of this park. Fast Eddy offered to bring camping gear at the far end of the park for those few brave riders willing to take the challenge. Mike (Plim) and I used this as an opportunity to ride a very long and hard loop around the park.
We did 45 miles and 8000' of climbing. Many miles were so tough we only did 1 MPH with my HRM going off max.
On Saturday, we went from Hunting Hollow Entrance to Los Cruzeros via Coit Rd and Lost Spring, then via Narrow Trail over the steep Bear Mountain, down by Mississippi Lake to Orestimba Corral where Fast Eddy was waiting.
On Sunday, we went over Tie Down to Kaiser Aetna Rd, nearly straight up Scherrer Trail to Center Flats, back Wagon Rd. to Wilson Camp and down Lyman Wilson.
Here's the first climb with Mike (Plim) coming Coit Rd. Just before, a rider and his girl friend had just passed me and on the way surprised me by asking if I was BigLarry.
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