After doing the coastal loop the past few weeks, it was time to do something different. Yet challenging. Maybe something I hadn’t done for a while, so I could remember why I hadn’t done it for a while. Nothing fits the bill quite like Redwood Gulch! But to include something new, I decided to try out something I’d seen on maps, a trail that parallels 280 and might be ok for a road bike. If it worked, it would shortcut just over a mile through Los Altos… but really the main thing is just seeing something on a map and wondering if it’s real.

Turned out it is! O’Keefe Trail, which runs between Robleda and El Monte Road. Kind of paved dirt that almost becomes single track for a short distance, but no need to get off and walk. Now Redwood Gulch, that’s an excuse to walk! But of course I didn’t… and while I didn’t walk, I did marvel at how they somehow managed to make the road steeper than last time.

After suffering for 11 minutes, 27 seconds on Redwood Gulch I turned up 9 and actually felt pretty good heading up the hill, although I did get passed by a young guy shortly after. Funny how that got me going; I spotted him maybe 100 meters and held him there.

Biggest disappointment? Mr Mustard wasn’t at Saratoga Gap! No hot dogs, no cokes. And the coke machine at the fire station? It has a sign on it now, saying it only takes change.