Belgatos

The South San Francisco Bay Area has been following a “shelter-in-place” order for almost two months. It has been raining heavily for about half of that time. I am lucky to be able to work from home (which takes up a significant amount of my days), and there is little time to get on the bike. My garage E-trainer has come in pretty handy, but it only helps so much.

My neighbor recently got a new bike from his Brother-in-law. It’s a first-generation Yeti, and it’s awesome. Great older tech. He has been dying to get it out on the trails near our house, so I finally arranged the time and we got the kids together and headed out.

Belgatos is a local park that lies in the hills just south of Campbell, California. While it is technically part of Los Gatos, the land more resembles nearby Quicksilver Park. Steep but rolling hills, wild grasses, and oak trees cover the landscape and make for some short but challenging climbs. The downhills are short but fast.

The lower section of our descent was dotted with turn-outs that were being used as run-ups to jumps. There looks to be a speed run being built here by the local kids. Being unfamiliar with the trail system, and also leary of non-professionally-built jumps, I stayed off of them. But they did look pretty fun.

The boys loved the ride and were more than happy to get out for a while. It was just what they needed; stretching their legs and pushing hard (on and off the bike) on the uphill segments.

It was a short ride, but a fun one. I think Johnny and I will be taking off to hit more of the trails around here.