Tour de Disaster, Santa Cruz Mountains (2023)

[@alcantey]

Biked many of these... time to use some of the state budget surplus and get these mountain communities operating again. Great video 👍🏼

[@tienyt6]

Thank you for doing the video

[@Nightchime3236]

As a local I appreciated this video. It is history of a storm we all witnessed together. Thanks for taking the time to record it.

[@MichaelMcGannon-jy1bx]

Many thanks Larry.

[@Questioneverything72]

Wow! Nice work. Thank you for sharing 🙏

[@dawnhooper5504]

Thanks for sharing

[@patsmith4706]

This is great. I live up here and appreciate seeing what the roads looked like. Maybe you could make a book with your pix. I would love to have one. Memories fade after time and all you're left with is the recollection that it was bad.

[@AngelaLarry]

Thank you. I have only the fondest recollections of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I envy you living amongst such beauty.

[@robinneal1583]

Absolutely heartbreaking and takers your breath away. Would never have known that impact there. We all saw footage of the coast but not the mountains. Thank you for sharing this.

[@billtruran2338]

Thank you for sharing this. Nice work! So important for everyone to know.

[@ArleyLewis]

You earned your (mud) stripes riding the roads in these conditions. Thanks a lot for sharing this.

[@AngelaLarry]

Thanks! The snap-on rear fender really helped.

[@socksandtea]

Wow! That is an incredible set of images of the destruction. I was amazed by some of the shots. Thanks for taking the time to visit these places.

[@AngelaLarry]

These are great roads to ride, if one doesn’t get caught in the rain.

[@alexcarter8807]

This is outstanding because those living there can watch this and have an idea of why they're better off not traveling on their road if it's one of these at least not traveling in a car. A bike, maybe!

[@garyniblock8864]

Great video Larry. I live in SC County but have not seen this coverage of the devastation. Thank you.

[@AngelaLarry]

Very welcome.

[@ginniemickelson4216]

Thank you so much, from Ginnie on (lower) Bean Creek Road, and in no danger.

[@AngelaLarry]

You're welcome. It looked like a few properties that I passed there had slide damage, but I didn't see any houses damaged.

[@quercophilia]

thanks for this tour!

[@AnnThryft]

Thank you for doing this and posting the video! It's hard for outsiders to understand what we're going through here. Let's hope this gets the FEMA dollars here faster.

[@AngelaLarry]

I totally agree.

[@shahemoutafian]

Larry, I really appreciate your posting of the road failures. That you did it on a road bike is impressive. I've been thinking that I need a Bradley tank to get around. Thanks for revealing such a sad picture of our roads.

[@AngelaLarry]

Thanks! Sad about all the damage, but at the same time nice to be surrounded by the redwoods, gushing creeks, and the glory of nature.

[@alexcarter8807]

Road bikes are still bikes and it's amazing how capable a bike can be. When I rode with the Western Wheelers, one of the guys used to like to try to get people to follow these little skinny trails that went between roads. He took me up on, it was loose sandy soil, and he said "Keep pedaling" so I did and I motored right on up (it was uphill too) and this was on a skinny-tire road bike.

[@AngelaLarry]

I also rode with the Western Wheelers, circa 1970.

[@photonjones5908]

The Santa Cruz Mtns/Gabilan Mtns tract (that is in fact everything seaward of the San Andreas fault) are composed of lightly consoidated alluvial plain and seafloor sediments, primarily silicic (sandstone, sand, mudstone, siltstone, clay) that are in the process of being tilted upward, crumpled. crumbled and eroded as the Salinian block upon which they lie bypasses a deep protrusion of accreted crust that roughly corresponds with the position of the Sierra Azul (Mt Umunhum to Loma Prieta) as it rides the Pacific Plate Northwestward along the fault zone. Btw this protrusion marked the southern limit of the 1906 displacement and later became the locus of the 1989 displacement. All these remnant seafloor sediments atop the tillted Salinian Block are recent and structurally weak, and need only the hydrostatic pressure of plentiful rains (and/or earthquakes) to turn them into motile mudfows and slumps that end up washing into Monterey Bay from all directions. Just look at the depth and vast extent of the alluvial fan at the mouth of the Submarine Canyon for an idea of how much material has already eroded away from these newly uplifted coastal sediments, and note that only fifty miles north of the protrusion, virtually the entire formation west of the San Andreas Fault has already subsided back to or below sea level. That lovely green land you are riding on is all borrowed from the Pacific Ocean coastal seafloor, and not for very much longer either.

[@AngelaLarry]

Great summary of the geology and tectonics. Thank you.

[@davidsbelden]

Thanks for sharing this. That destruction is no joke! I wonder how the open space preserves did in the storms?

[@AngelaLarry]

Good question! Especially after the horrific fires a couple of years ago.

[@Veem2]

Hi Larry, thanks for the video. Very long time no see! Your damage inventory captured the best of what I call "Cycling Heritage Roads". Clearly we have the same tastes in local roads. Great to know that you are still riding. Please look me up next time you are in the area. Best regards, Will (Billy).

[@AngelaLarry]

Wow! Bill! A blast from the past. I'll reach out to you on my next trip. Love the label "Cycling Heritage Roads".

[@AngelaLarry]

Billy, I’m in your neighborhood for the next two days. Riding out of Santa Cruz tomorrow. Meet for a coffee?

[@kevinarnold186]

I saw you taking the picture near Smoky when driving by. Great montage!

[@AngelaLarry]

Thanks! I hope you weren’t to badly affected by the storms.

[@kevinarnold186]

@@AngelaLarry Our house was fine but we were affected by the Miller Cut Off closure!

[@rajeshkanungo6627]

Thank you!!! This so strongly reminded me of Kipling's poem I read when I was a kid ... The Way through the Woods They shut the road through the woods Seventy years ago. Weather and rain have undone it again, And now you would never know There was once a road through the woods Before they planted the trees. It is underneath the coppice and heath, And the thin anemones. Only the keeper sees That, where the ring-dove broods, And the badgers roll at ease, There was once a road through the woods. Yet, if you enter the woods Of a summer evening late, When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools Where the otter whistles his mate, (They fear not men in the woods, Because they see so few.) You will hear the beat of a horse’s feet, And the swish of a skirt in the dew, Steadily cantering through The misty solitudes, As though they perfectly knew The old lost road through the woods. But there is no road through the woods.

[@AngelaLarry]

I did not know that poem, but it is indeed fitting for what is happening in the Santa Cruz mountains.

[@alexcarter8807]

This area is crazy. Some years ago I was driving around the area to find a place and at one point saw a motorcycle that had fallen on top of a car. It was a full size sport bike, a 750 I'd guess, and it was on its side, sitting on top of the roof of a car. I suspect it had fallen down from a driveway that was next up higher on the hill. Craziest thing ever.

[@lyrindasnyderman4320]

Thank you so very much for this excellent reportage. You really let us know how bad it is. I remember a video (or still image) compilation of the last major slide event. I was flabbergasted by the extent of the damage. I wonder if those roads had all been repaired before this event? Thank you again for a superb video.

[@AngelaLarry]

I, too, was flabbergasted. I rode most of these roads last year and the only problem area that recall was on Summit Road north of Bear Creek Road.

[@csn583]

Two whole months until it's tinder-dry again! 😅

[@edawriter]

Redwood Lodge Road is the saddest. It was just replaced.

[@AngelaLarry]

So I heard. Had that bridge even been in service for a year?

[@edawriter]

@@AngelaLarry I checked and it reopened August 2021 or shortly before.

[@dr_au_jus1360]

what roads are passible that's still closed to traffic?

[@AngelaLarry]

Bear Creek best for cyclists who want to avoid cars. I am told a temporary retaining wall is being put in so one lane of cars can get through soon.

[@vinceaceventura]

Wow, I feel so bad for all the folks that live out there. You never really think about something like this so close to home. Must make day to day life very challenging.

[@AngelaLarry]

I got to speak with a few of those folks while taking photos. These mountains are their home.

[@ericschmidt6129]

Great video. Really shows the impact of the heavy rain. On a related note, I drove up Stevens Canyon Road (on the eastern edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains) on January 9th right after a heavy rain and captured the high water flow in Stevens Creek. Thankfully, that road did not have any storm damage. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKKkipuYpaeSe9U

[@AngelaLarry]

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[@keranzhuo2640]

Love the bike design kzbin.infoUgkxHL1v1R3NE5x4KiYfyt8dnQmyNYz7qi5L and functionality. It is hard to align the front tired to center the disk brakes. The brake wheel touches the stationery side of the brake caliper and pad. I aired the tire up to 40 psi as the markings say 40-60psi. Left the house for a few hours and came back to an exploded innertube.All in all it seems to be a good bike. Have not ridden it yet though so that's the max of my knowledge. Update, put a new innertube made sure the tire was set properly and it did the same thing in under 20 minutes as second pic shows.

[@queprimejesse]

Larry, I’m trying to reach you. Would like to do a tv news story about your video and experience. Can you contact me please?

[@AngelaLarry]

Sure. How can I reach you?