From the end of September to the beginning of April I go on lunch rides where I work in Garlicroy. The reason I don’t ride during the other months that’s just too hot and we don’t have any employee showers. Most of my rides involve the flat as a board bike path that follows the Uvas Creek. There are a bunch of reasons for this:
Garlicroy has more glass and debris on the roads than any place I have every ridden. Even more glass than on the roads in and around Santa Cruz during the height of the tourist season!
There are no cars.
I use the path to connect to a series of short, but steep hills when necessary.
Did I mention it was flat as a pancake? This makes it an excellent choice for recovery rides.
It’s actually pretty scenic.
Most important, the path and Garlicroy lies in an orographic rain shadow. It can be pouring rain in S.C., while the roads here are dry!

So when the trails at home are un-rideable to due rain or mud or the thought of riding the trainer in garage is unbearable or it’s just to nasty to go for a night ride (we used to do night road rides, but this turned out to be one of the scariest things ever and after a couple of near death experiences, we blew it off), I can almost always get one hour in here at work.

15 foot skid mark courtesy of a unleashed 4 pound Chihuahua in what could have resulted in a very ugly physics experiment that was saved by the deft handling of the Chihuahua!