What am I even doing here?

Hello Everyone, 

It's a question I ask myself a lot. On the down days, when things aren't working out, I ask it in a self recriminating way. As in, what series of dumb decisions have led to this mess? On other days, I ask it to help make those decisions. Not dumb ones, I mean. Just decisions on where to go and what to do. 

When I was in San Francisco and trying to decide whether to stay or travel back to Santa Cruz, it's the question that helped me choose the latter option. 

The activity around which I'm planning a lot of this trip is mountain biking. That's what I'm doing here. 

I've gotten a couple of rides in yesterday and the day before, and they were nice, but nothing to travel for. Today was different. Today was epic. Today makes the down days, where I'm stuck on the road or stuck without a place to camp or a dozen other annoyances and inconveniences worth while.  

There are only two real trails in the Soquel Demonstration Forest, or the Demo to locals, but they are a couple of doozies. They start with about 4 miles of fire road, the last of which is steeply uphill. Arthur keeps looking back at me in these sections, wondering what's taking me so long. The bastard.

But once you get to the top, you get to ride a rollercoaster down. The trail builders used the elevation to best effect, with the descent being several times as long as the climb. It's all high berm turns and twisty sections through a redwood forest. 

Yesterday I was trying to figure what I'm going to do this week as my only appointment is to get back to San Diego by the 1st. I'm not yet sure about the whole week, but for tomorrow at least, I'm going to answer my original question and find that trail again.

Wes