Two sections of the new flow trail in Demonstration Forest near Santa Cruz opened to the public last weekend. Section 3 and Section 5 are now open for business, and we headed down this Sunday to take the new trail for a spin and snap a few pics.
Long story short: the new segments feel really short and go by really fast. They’re also really fun.
We started the day with our favorite route at Demo: descending the Ridge Trail to Saw Pit. Pedaling up Hihn’s Mill Road, we headed up Tractor from the bottom as opposed to taking the long way around.
Start here.
I forget how steep the grade is on Tractor. Electing to spare our knees, we took our time pushing up the hill so we could save it for the down.
The push up Tractor
We did a run down Segment 5 first, before pushing up to check out Segment 3.
Inga drops into Section 3 of the Demo Flow Trail
Inga through the top of Segment 3
Exit of Segment 3.
Segment 5 is the more feature rich of the two, so we primarily played here. Since Segment 4 is currently just a line of pin flags, you currently have to roll back down Tractor to reach the entrance.
The start of Segment 5.
The section has a number of well spaced rollers that are fun to manual or double up. We’ve traveled to ride a lot of flow trails and pump tracks, and many of them feature carbon copy rollers all the way down the trail. One of things we’re currently enjoying the most here is the variety in the size, spacing and placement of the rollers and rolling grade dips.
Try not to smile riding here. Yeah, good luck with that. Yay-yaaaah!
The first time down section five I took it pretty chill, and rolled the trail without pedaling to feel it all out. On the second time down, giving it a few pedal strokes and really pumping the backsides of the rollers, the trail gets going quick. You can carry some serious momentum through this trail if you know how.
There are also a number of sections that ride like step down jumps.
This asymetrical stack of dirt makes for some bonus line choices.
Inga on the section following the step down. You pick up some momentum here
Exiting the berm into another huck-able roller. Carrying some speed now!
Booting another well spaced set of rollers. Brraaaap
Going for the high mark on this berm
After a quick photo sesh, we rolled back down Tractor for the 3 mile pedal out. On the way up, we encountered a few groups of riders pedaling straight in, obviously flow trail bound. Overall though, traffic on the trail was pretty light for a Sunday.
With our loop down Sawpit and up to Tractor, our mileage for the day hovered around 18 or so. With the flow trail only partially complete, it is a fun diversion from our usual ride, but with the solid push up, we’ll probably stick to playing on Segment 5 the next time out. Construction on the rest of the trail is slated to continue once they receive some precipitation and the trail building season commences. You can get more info at www.mbosc.org
We photographed these riding shots with a Ricoh GR Digital Camera 
Click the link to get one on Amazon.com— review coming soon.
