As we pulled into the parking lot on Summit Road, Millie and Angel didn’t look like they were planning on actually getting on their bicycles and riding.\u00c2\u00a0 You couldn’t blame them:\u00c2\u00a0 it was cold and although the worst of the wind had blown through the night before, it was still gusting pretty strongly.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew there were power outages probably from trees falling across power lines, but the sun was out and my body really needed those endorphins. So with some reluctance Millie donned her garb and led us down Soquel San Jose Road.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was cold, but the wind wasn’t too bad and there was only an occasional branch to dodge.\u00c2\u00a0 We stopped at Casalegno’s Market to get warm.\u00c2\u00a0 The locals told us we shouldn’t be out riding in the mountains today, but they were heading out to pick wild mushrooms.\u00c2\u00a0 Heck, if they were headed out into the mountains, so could we, so we headed down Laurel Glen. Maybe the locals were right.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a lot more debris on the road, and then Ray got a flat.\u00c2\u00a0 As we stood around watching Ray, we looked up and saw the trees whipping around in the wind and started to get a little spooked.\u00c2\u00a0 Then as we got started a fellow in a car told us that the road ahead (Branciforte) was closed.\u00c2\u00a0 We weren’t ready to turn back and call it a day, so we decided to venture on and see how closed it was.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure enough, there was a tree at a 45 degree angle resting against a power line, and even though the tree seemed to be pretty well supported, it wasn’t until two PG&E workers sauntered up the road directly under the tree and told us we could go through (at our own risk) that we threw caution to the wind (which was still pretty strong) and ventured on.\u00c2\u00a0 The tree had only fallen half an hour ago, so there had been enough car traffic earlier to knock the worst of the fallen branches out of the way along Branciforte.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The road was more cluttered as we turned up Granite Creek, and the sound of cracking tree limbs got us up that goat in record time. \u00c2\u00a0As we pulled into Scotts Valley, once again luck was on our side.\u00c2\u00a0 Starbucks had been closed due to an power outage, but opened up just as we were trying to figure out somewhere else to go to get warm.\u00c2\u00a0 After a nice long time warming up inside and out, I was very tempted to call my wife and see if she wanted to drive over to Scotts Valley for a little shopping, and by the way, would you bring the bike rack.\u00c2\u00a0 But by this time our small band had formed that type of bond that comes with facing adversity together, and desertion was not an option.\u00c2\u00a0 I wasn’t looking forward to Mt. Charlie but had no idea how hard it was going to be to get there.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t