bcolli08

Hi All,

I'm from Washington, DC and flying out to San Francisco to do my first tour starting next weekend and I'll be passing Devil's Slide on Saturday mid day. I have experience riding but not touring, and have been a little intimidated by comments here and elsewhere about how safe it will be. I haven't really found an alternative that doesn't add significant miles, so my currently plan is to try and hitch a ride up to the top (or over) the hill, or wait for other cyclists and try to do it with a group. Will it be easy to flag a Cab down in that area? Can I expect there to be a number of cyclists on that portion of the road? If anyone is local I'd be happy to pay $20 for a ride. I've even considered trying to sneak through those tunnels that aren't quite finished yet. Thanks for the help and looking forward to my first time ever in California.

cpach

Hey bcolli,
Devil's slide isn't great, but people do ride it with some regularity. I wouldn't say it's very unsafe, but it is somewhat stressful. The descent is fun, though. You might be able to hire a cab in Pacifica.

A few weekends ago, I rode from my home in Santa Cruz to my friend's house in SF, and I avoided riding Devil's Slide by riding Old San Pedro Mt Road, which is a decommissioned road that is open as a multi use trail in McNee Ranch State park. Coming from Pacifica, it mostly climbs a single track width asphalt trail in reasonable shape, and then descends through a multitude of conditions: paved double double track, paved single track (both ranging from ordinary to terrible), and some double and single track dirt riding. It's really weird! It clearly was a road intended for auto traffic but has been neglected for decades. It has a slightly post-apocalyptic quality to it. But don't get me wrong: this is not technical terrain by mountain bike standards. And it's beautiful!




As I was going from Santa Cruz to SF, I climbed on the worse terrain and descended on the better terrain. I was riding a light carbon road bike unladen with 23mm tires, and while not an ideal bike for the section I felt fine, but I also ride my cyclocross bike off road a lot (including in cross races). I would personally be willing to ride this the other way on a road race bike on narrow tires, and certainly on a touring bike with wider (but still slick) tires, but I don't know what your comfort level is, and obviously your touring load will impact your decision. I personally found it the best part of my ride (especially after the monotony of fighting headwinds on 1).

To find this, in Pacifica you want to turn left onto the multi use trail after Linda Mar Blvd, which will dump you onto Peralta RD, which you can then follow to Higgins, at the end of which is the start of Old San Pedro Mt. There is decent signage in the area to direct you to Hwy 1, which you'll enter from McNee Ranch State Park just outside of Montara. Here's my Strava data if it helps you figure this all out: https://app.strava.com/activities/39698837 .

I hope you enjoy your tour. We have been enjoying excellent weather, and the coast really is very beautiful.

3alarmer 

Cutting edge Devil's Slide tunnels poised to open



Too late for you, but this road appears to be headed toward becoming one
of our more spectacular pedestrian/bike trails..........at least until it falls into the Pacific again.

And a big plus 1 on our current weather.....it is ideal right now.

bcolli08

Thanks for the recommendation cpach, any idea how many additional miles that route will take? The first day im planning to get to pidgeon point.

cpach

It probably only actually adds a mile or two, but the going will be much slower, as you'll be carefully riding your brakes down dirt instead of screaming down on the road. Maybe budget an extra 45 minutes to be on the safe side? It took me about 50 minutes to do the whole thing, but going the other way will be slower. Just going over Devil's Pass probably takes about 25 minutes.

SF to Pigeon point is not a particularly ambitious day, you can probably take this detour and be fine. You're riding with the wind, and it makes a HUGE difference.

SesameCrunch

Just to add another option - If you want peace of mind, you can catch a bus from Pacifica that takes you over the Slide into Montara. There's a nice bike rack on each SamTrans bus. Here's the schedule - https://www.samtrans.com/schedulesand...tables/17.html

I've done that with a bike because riding on a road with no shoulder, lot of uphills and steady traffic zooming by at 50mph is worth the $2 ticket.

bcolli08

Sounds great thanks for the info. I think I'm going to give cpach's rout a shot. I wanted to spend some time in San Fran but as long as I hit the road early enough I'll aim for that route, and worst case scenario its nice to know there's a bus. This was a great help.

terrymorse 

Devil's Slide is not so bad in the north-to-south direction, especially on the weekends. There's enough traffic on Saturdays that the traffic is traveling slowly, and the cars pass respectfully. I've ridden it several times on weekends and have never felt unsafe.

prathmann

I agree that Devil's Slide usually isn't bad for riding. Here's another trip route using the alternate old path on the way south to Montara and the Hwy. 1 Devil's Slide route on the way back. Zoom in on the map and scroll to see the two routes:
https://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=609060