Cycle Tour "Little Appalachia" in Silicon Valley
Just a stone's throw into the hills from the bustling "Silicon Valley" of Santa Clara County, California lies a microregion seemly untouched by the tides of change below. Cycling along Stevens Creek Canyon road, which tracks Stevens Creek for about four miles, yields some juicy atmosphere. Conjuring images of Appalachia, it's a welcome break from the plastic wealth on display in the valley below.
The arboreal junkyards of rusting machinery by the road, with the dark dampness. give kind of a Halloween feel to the place. Truly, one enters a strangely isolated zone as one travels upstream. Throughout the area, tall trees (often redwoods) shroud everything in a seemingly permanent shade.
One time I took a buddy up there. A native inhabitant rolled by in his roaring 70s-era 4wd pickup. Both of us must have looked like skinny (well, by comparison to the local population) little colorful bug-guys in our colorful cycling gear with biking glasses that really make us look entomological: Bugs flying in from another world. So, taking advantage of the extra lookee-see time of the road curve we were on, he let out an unforgettable "hoooodllee".
Seeming quite out of place in my cycling gear, I made sure not too tarry to long while I took these photos:
Comments
Chris,
Do you think I could get that California Fixer Upper for less than $1.2 m?