You might ask: why mountain bike at night? Answer: because you can’t do it during the day. Around Santa Cruz there are some awesome state parks with some awesome trails. But.. bummer, bikes are not allowed. Yet, the parks are closed after sunset. So at night, when there are no hikers or rangers around, seems to be the best time for riding.

We started the climb before sunset. First on roads, then on paved paths, then on single tracks and dirt roads between the redwoods. One of the tracks is called Star Trek – after the similarity with the redwood forest from “Return of The Jedi”.

We got out of the forest as it was getting dark. We still had enough light to see around. Like the occasional skunk in front of us. Or the occasional deer watching us from the distance.

Started going downhill and reentered the forest. It was completely dark and we were relying entirely on our lights. Biking in the dark is a totally different experience. Your whole view is reduced to a spot of light on the ground in front of you. The small bumps in the road are harder to notice. The ride becomes a lot rougher than a similar one during the day.

Besides, this forest came with its own perils. Bart warned me – on both sides of the trail there was a lot of poison oak. Thankfully, I managed to avoid going into the bushes.

We returned to Highway 1 and started biking back to Santa Cruz… when suddenly Bart stops. “Do you hear the music? There’s a party there. Let’s check it out”. We stumbled upon an outdoorsy event organized by a local microbrewery (New Belgium). They were showing short adventure movies, the bike parking there was the biggest I’ve seen since I arrived in the US and their beer was indeed great (especially since you could sample different types). Great way to end the night.