Nisene Marks

Nisene Marks

Shuttle Smith: A Bike Shuttle from Aptos to SDSF/Nisene

June 2nd, 2010

Dave Smith has been mountain biking for a long time and used to work in the construction industry. With the downturn in construction he started a new business to called “Shuttle Smith” which provides a service to shuttle riders from Aptos to Buzzard Lagoon road near the East entrance of Nisene Marks. Dave converted his cube van and can securely carry 9 bikes and riders.

The goal is to provide a way that riders can get to SDSF and upper Nisene Marks without driving. After a loop or two in SDSF then you can ride down the Nisene Marks fireroad back down to Aptos. Or you can ride over to Aptos to catch the shuttle and meet some friends at  SDSF.

The service costs $15 and starts June 5th 2010 with pickup next to Epicenter Cycling in Aptos Station at 9:00 am, 11 am, 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm. See the Shuttle Smith flyer for more details.

Dave is quite flexible to provide shuttle services for other locations or you can rent Dave and his van for special events.

I applaud Dave’s entrepreneurial spirit and he recognizes there is a market for mountain bike tourism and services.

Call Dave at 831-234-3383 to make a reservation.

Posted in nisene, sdf | 5 Comments È

The Big Picture

June 26th, 2007


I’ve been spending a lot of time in Google Earth these days. For years I have wanted to catalog every mountain bike trail and large land parcels in GE so I can plan for new trails systems and look at the entire inventory of large public and private land holdings to seek opportunities for more access. I seem to have a lot of time these days so I’ve been listening to a lot of internet radio and clicking, clicking, clicking…

The image above captures the state of legitimate mountain bike trails in Santa Cruz county that I’m aware of. If you know if any other legal mountain bike trails in Santa Cruz County then please contact me. The orange and yellow lines represent dirt roads and single track respectively. The white lines represent paved roads which act as connectors within and between parks. Technically, Butano State Park is in San Mateo county but I count it as part of the Big Basin trail system.

There is a lot of opportunity for more mountain bike access in the land holdings which do not have any trails open to bikes. We are currently working on initiatives and projects to expand legitimate access for mountain bikes. If you want to help out then please contact me at http://www.mbosc.org/about.html

Posted in big basin, fall creek, gray whale, nisene, private land, wilder | 2 Comments È