This was the best weekend to join the Santa Cruz Triathlon Association Saturday Bike Rides, as it turned out to be the Annual Pie Ride! This means you ride your bike out to Gizdich Ranch, EAT PIE made from their apples, Ollalieberries and so forth, and then find your way back. Depending on where you start, this can be a pretty hilly and long ride. And why not, you get pie!
This is how it went down
We meet at the Nisene Marks parking lot, but instead of riding up the fire road into the forest, we headed south for one of my favorite routes, the Valencia/Cox “loop” which features rolling hills through a part residential part orchard neighborhood I refer to as “Tuscany” and an illusional climb the bottom part of which looks flat but really isn’t and the top part of which looks steep but is somehow much easier. Wow, that was a long sentence. Anyway, today the cyclists are myself, friends Catherine, Lori and Mike H., along with Keith who I only met this ride.
We swoop down into Corralitos on a bright and chilly descent and land at the market where, by the way, you can also get Gizdich pie. Lori opts to go back ostensibly to save her legs for a longer run tomorrow (ok fine, that’s sensible) and the rest of us are only too eager to continue our quest for flaky goodness.
Two of us know the way
Sort of, anyway! Mike and I announce that we totally know how to get there from here, and take off in the lead, going over hill and dale, quite literally in fact! My other favorite part of this route is next: Hazel dell, home of up, up, up and down, down, down, with a very lovely and sunny pasture at the top. (moo)
I decide for us to take Green Valley, the less hilly way to go. More fun swooping turns and wonderful patches of sun.
We pop out at Casserly, which is where we take a wrong turn, complete with confusion, and a near crash with Mike and Catherine. Heh heh! Though I have done this ride from many angles, and had the sense that we needed to be farther over to the left, I didn’t know the area well enough to know how to make that happen. There were differing opinions, and we eventually were pointed the right way by a nice man who wished us a Happy Halloween while we were at it. “We’re dressed as cyclists!” we say and pull off toward the PIE.
Mike gets us there
So we go the roundabout way and here we are, pulling into the driveway! It is now SUCH a BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!! It’s not just the tint of my glasses. In fact, every other cyclist we meet cannot help but say “beautiful day for a ride” with a huge smile. Why yes. It sure is.
We go through the red barn buildings by the arrow that says PIE SHOP—-> and go into, well, a barn, with tables inside and a little plexi-glass window through which you can see into the kitchen and order your PIE. Gizdich is an Apple Orchard, and while I don’t know if they also grow the Ollalieberries and lemons and pumpkins for their other pie flavors I can be reasonably sure at least their neighbors did. I get Apple-Ollalieberry (YUM) and some Apple-Ollalieberry juice. If you ever see this stuff in stores, buy it! YUM!!!
We eat in the sun-spot outside and another patron takes a picture of us by the sign. (I’ll insert that when Catherine emails it to me.) “Mission Accomplished”.
The way back
Our legs thought we were kidding when we got back on our bikes, but we did anyway. Mike said he wanted to go the fastest way possible and decided to go on his own, down Airport Blvd and back that way. The rest of us follow my lead to go the pretty way down Varni, which is still a shortcut from the way we came.
We had a great time trading off who shoots into the lead and who hangs behind. Definitely more tired this direction, so maybe I won’t hammer the whole way back. That might be smart. We passed some extremely cute sheep and a horse posing with a number of goats, all facing the same direction like they are waiting for the photo to be taken.
More directional drama
I mention the options for our return and decide for us that we will take the Valencia turn from Freedom, where we now were. It is the third right from my three favorite ways to get back to Nisene. Though I seemed to be the one taking charge of our route, I was not always in front, and our pacing got wider in between. I saw Catherine make the turn, and then I saw Keith NOT make the turn. I called out “TURN RIGHT!” but he didn’t hear. I opted to turn right anyway, since Catherine was to be my ride home. I knew he was headed toward the fourth option back, Soquel dr, and that he would know the way.
Catherine and I finished our swooping rolling-hill ride back with a little racing in between (Ok, I give up, she can totally go faster) and arrived back at the lot. I saw Keith had arrived before us (well, we did stop so Catherine could peel off some layers) so we were able to re-connect and all agreed it was an insanely fun ride and how glad are we to have done it.
It turns out
So apparently Mike arrived back at the lot just after Keith, and told him though he was trying to find the fastest way back, he actually got lost and just took the bus back to the parking lot.
I think that is just hilarious and a perfect end to my story.
Go us! Yay pie.
