The Annual Thanksgiving TurkeyDay Trot  Rain or shine, it happens every year, same time, same place... 8am at Olive Hill & Canada Road in Woodside.  Shown here is the traditional ride, but we've also done a  more-challenging version as well.  

1999 was a great year for our 2nd Annual TurkeyDay Trot!  Fantastic weather and very few cars found 13 of us having a good time making room for all Turkey.  Check here for our 2001 ride photos.  --Mike--

(This ride is on the mid-peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose, CA)

Photos from past TurkeyTrot rides
1998 The day started out a bit on the dreary side, as heavy overcast and a light drizzle greeted us.  This is the start of the ride, at Olive Hill and Canada in Woodside.  On the far left is Claude L; he rode up Kings Mtn but sensibly chose to skip the more masochistic part of the loop out to Alpine.	1999 Much nicer weather greets a much larger group! Don't have all the names, but we can see Dick Kiser, Bruno Colchen, Richard Brockie, Kevin Keenan, Pell, Andy Verhalen, Frederic Vifian, Steve Rempel, Sal Contreras and Sergei.
1999 Frederic Vifian and Kevin Keenan, the strongest two riders, on Manuella.	1998 Climbing King's Mtn road, just below the first hairpin, creek crossing and water tower.
1998 After descending on Skyline from Kings Mtn, we head west at Sky L'onda down 84.  Still a bit wet.	1998 group photo.  Left to right- "Pell", Mike J (the only photo of me on this website!), Kevin K, Andy V, Bruno and Dick (the latter two from our shop).
1999 That's Kevin Keenan climbing away from the photographer on Alpine. It's not that Kevin's anti-social...he's just fast.	1998 Here's Pell at the mid-point in the climb up Alpine to Skyline.  To the left is the route into Portola State Park.
1999 This is what it's all about. You don't have to go to the Sierras to find twisty 1.5 lane roads through beautiful hills with light traffic.	1998 Regrouping at the top of the Alpine climb (at the corner of Page Mill/Alpine & Skyline).  It's almost literally all downhill from here!
1998 The view at 2400 feet is spectacular. This is just north of Page Mill on Skyline.	Maybe I can't make the hills look as steep as they are, but at least you can tell this is a descent...and a pretty cool one at that!  Skyline from Page Mill/Alpine to 84 is a great ride, with excellent pavement and wide turns.
1999 The first "survivors" back at the start/finish!  Richard, Sergei & Frederic, of which Richard and Sergei are about to head on to the infamous "Noon Ride" because they just haven't gotten enough speed and miles!  On the right is Canada Road...sporting nearly as many cyclists and joggers today as cars.  The way it should always be!

Normally, every Tuesday & Thursday morning we've got a ride leaving from Woodside and heading up King's Mountain, south on Skyline to Sky L'onda and then back down Highway 84 to Woodside.  Our now-traditional Thanksgiving Day ride (TurkeyTrot) is quite a bit longer.

We start at the usual place, head up King's Mountain Road to Skyline, then south to Sky L'onda.  This is part of the regular ride.  But instead of heading east (and back home) on Highway 84, we ride west to La Honda and then up Alpine Road, a narrow, often-steep and always-beautiful 1.5-lane road that brings us back up to Skyline!

Too bad we're twenty years too late for a view of the Buffalo that used to live on a ranch about halfway up the hill...a most amazing site.  They'd come up to the edge of the road and just stare at you...and it's nothing like the blank stare of a cow...there's something much more intriguing to a buffalo.  Probably just as dumb as a cow though, and it didn't seem like a good idea to try and make one mad.

But no bull on this ride...just solid climbing, beautiful views and fun descents.   When we get to Skyline at about 2400 feet we have great views of most of the bay area.  It's about a seven mile trip on Skyline back to Sky L'onda, where we descend down the east side of Highway 84 and back to Woodside.

For 1998, the weather started out a bit damp and drizzly, but got nicer through the ride. Low temp was 49 degrees, and it got as high as 64.  1999 saw a beautiful day with few clouds, but quite a bit colder...down to 40 degrees, and up to 65.  In general, assume that it could get quite cold on this ride, and that you could be back as late as noon, depending upon your speed. 

--Mike--

Check here for an overview of the various different rides on our website.

Last updated 04/10/09