Cow Mountain is BLM land, which means pretty friendly to bikes. It's divided into 2 halves: the north part, open for non-motorized folks (like cyclists), and the south part, open for everyone (like motorcycles, jeeps, and cyclists). I had a pretty sweet little ride there a month or so ago, so I figured I'd go put together a real all-day adventure there.
I went up 101 to Talmadge road east, south on East Side road, then east on Mill Creek road (which is signed for Cow Mountain) and parked up by the lake, about 2-3 miles from the turn off at most. I rode past the lower trailhead of the Valley Vista trail (a pretty fun descent with great views of the valley floor), and turned left on Mendo Rock road. This is a steep-ass dirt road from hell that goes really, really up. I was glad to have the 34t cog on my new 9-speed drivetrain for that climb. I don't know if it was the big cog or my improved fitness, but I definitely had an easier time with the climb than the first time I rode it.
At the top, you can look around for a bit.
You have the option of doing some sketchy ridgeline descending on firebreaks
to meet up with the Valley Vista trail (in this case, take the left at
the saddle through the gate, but be ready to hike in a few spots), or you
can just continue down the dirt road to the bottom. At this point, you
should learn from my mistake.
The first bit was fun, kinda rocky, a couple stream crossings. Then it got a little steeper and looser, plus it was going downhill, which I didn't expect it. You'd think I could read a map, and in fact I can, but the situation was complicated by the fact that I had left the map in my truck, which made it hard to read indeed. There were some pretty hardcore loose switchbacks, followed by a series of log steps (easy on a heckler), but the trail seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, and I had to get off more and more frequently. Many parts of the trail consisted entirely of 1/4" rock bits, which were quite loose and uncooperative. Finally, the trail just gave up entirely, and turned into a creek bed and started up. It was still a followable trail, but not at all rideable. I musta crossed the creek 20 or more times on my way up. At least this part was all cool and shady (and infested with poison oak).
After long enough that I was pretty dang tired of it, the trail left the creek bed and instead, followed a total goat track up an exceedingly steep mountainside. Every now and then I could get on and pedal for 10-15 feet, but the steepness, looseness and switchbackyness of the trail prevented more than the tiniest bits of riding. Woulda made a great hike though.
After carrying and pushing my bike for well over an hour, the trail finally flattened out enough to ride, and i almost instantly came across an unsigned intersection that I took to be (correctly, for once) the Glen Eden Trail. That was steep, but all rideable, and all pretty much up. I was quite tired at that point, and slogging along in my lowest gears (i used the 22/34 for a while), but just getting to actually ride made it worth while. After climbing steeply forever, I finally came to Mendo Rock Road again. Obviously, the smart way to do it is just to stay on Mendo rock road the whole way. Alternately, it looks good to continue up Mendo Rock Road out to the other end of the Mayacmas trail, and come down to where I turned on to Glen Eden. That appears to be pretty rideable according to the absent map, but who knows until you actually try it.
Unfortunately, it's not all downhill. When you get to the Goat Rock campite after 4-5 miles of swooping and sailing, you have to cross a creek and climb for about a mile. To make matters worse, the day I did it was apparently shortly after someone did "trail maintenance" with a freakin' mini bulldozer, so the dirt was soft and loose and the trail was 3 feet wide. Fortunately, it was still rideable (barely), and the downhill on the other side (after crossing a private road) was pretty entertaining due to the looseness. It seemed like good practice for the first big descent in the Lemurian. Any attempt to slow or turn was instantly met with a 2 wheel drift. You could sort of affect your direction by "surfing" the deep loose dirt, but any hope of sudden direction change was right out the window.
After a little bit of rolling terrain, the trail crossed another private road (turn left on the road and go down about 1/4 mile, then turn right onto the trail again), and then started down in earnest again, still plenty loose. I finally saw some actual humans at this point, because it's fairly close to the trailhead. Right near the bottom, in a dusty series of switchbacks, I passed a guy hiking, then shortly after that I passed what appeared to be his abandoned bicycle. It didn't look like it would be much fun to ride up that part.
Finally, I got to the bottom, on Scotts Valley road, about 10 miles from Lakeport. I ate a sandwich (pb & j, if you must know), and noticed the sign informing me that the trail had been adopted by the local horse enslavement and exploitation ring. That certainly explained the bulldozer. I guess you have to get drastic in repairing the obscene amount of damage caused by massive 800 lb pooping machines. If you do the trail the direction I did it, keep a close eye out for horses. Most of the trail is fairly wide, but once the dirt packs down, it'll be possible to run up enough speed to be dangerous with horses around.
Naturally no one in lakeport ever heard of the huge recreation area 5 miles from town. I went back up out of town the way I came, crossed the freeway, and asked 2 kids playin' with their motorcycle in a vacant lot they had turned into supercross track. Pay attention now.... before you get to town, Scotts Valley road makes a hard (right angle) left. If you go right there, it winds a bit (maybe 1/2 mile) then you turn right on Scott Creek road, which goes right up into cow mountain. If you're coming from town, like I was, that means you go across the freeway (like i already did before i asked the kids) then up to the top of the hill, then turn left (sorta straight, actually) off of Scotts Valley road instead of going hard right to stay on it. Then turn right on Scott Creek. That's all there is to it, except I'm not sure there was an actual road sign for Scott Creek, but it's the first road.
You actually get to ride across the river to enter the OHV area. I think this is where all those dorks that buy sport utilities go so they can drive around and splash and feel manly and backwoodsy, never mind the fact that I could drive my wife's Sentra across the river there. After crossing the river there's a freakin' humongous hill. It was somewhat sobering to think that I now had to gain back all that altitude I lost while I was whooping it up on the long downhill. Luckily, i had my trusty extra low gearing, and even luckilier, it was afternoon, so all the 4-runner owners were taking naps or something. As a result, there was no traffic to stir up dust on the dirt road climb.
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