Soquel Demonstration State Forest

Demo Forest is a mountain biking wonderland! Big climbs, steep descents, and don’t forget the jumps! This place has trails that suit everyone. Yes, everyone. From beginners to crazy elites, this trail has it all.
The descents are pretty intense. You really need to keep an eye out far ahead of you and communicate with the people you ride with. Because when one falls, you fall, or uhm, run them over. We don’t want that right?
Braille (My Favorite) — Very technical, plenty of jumps, and is a single track. It improves your grip on your handle bars. I actually went over my handle bars a couple of times lol
Tractor — Blah, pretty boring, single track pave
Corral — This is a trail off of ridge with really good jumps. A very short fast trail with good descents
Ridge — «Handle them curves!» This trail sorta reminds of those GP motosports where you’re leaning at a 40 degree angle. Okay, maybe not that much, but it’s pretty damn swoopy!
Sawpit– It’s a long climb with lots of ups and downs. Pretty much another boring trail.
Anyways…
I really love how this place is conveniently placed not too far from home. It’s difficult to find places to mountain bike in the San Jose area and getting to Demo Forest is not a hassle to drive to… It’s actually pretty beautiful! Who doesn’t like biking deep within the Redwoods? You really can’t get any better than that.

After biking here i have a hard time going anywhere else. Flow trail is awesome, its totally worth the long ride up. Braille trail is pretty good as well, I am not the biggest fan of Sawpit its a little rough for my skill set. Set aside a couple hours to ride this though.

Mountain Biking here is a lot of fun. I have enjoyed the single tracks and downhill experience more than any other MTB rides in the area. It is even better than the best tracks in Tahoe and while there are some good climbs to be had, they are fairly easy in comparison to Tahoe for 2X the fun downhill. You can do it with a hard tail (front suspension) but I would recommend a full suspension for a better ride as well as a full face helmet and protective gear for the Braille trail if you want to go real fast. I will be back!

Can’t say much more than what has been said already. Demo has something for everyone, and is suitable for advanced beginners up.
For those who want to try it, but don’t want to try it alone, there are a few mountain biking meetup groups that head there every week or so.
Enjoy.

Demo is the kind of terrain that combines long climbs with long descents.
Every payoff trail — Coral, Braille, Tractor/​Flow, and Sawpit has a 20 to 30 minute fairly steep climb preceding it.
But the payoffs are well worth it.
Most days we start by going clockwise in the paved road to the dirt road at the top and continuing up to Rosalia Point
Then you pick which trail to descend from along Ridge Trail.
You can climb back up Sulphur or Tractor to do another run.
The ground is almost always under the shade of the forest. It gets dusty and scalloped as summer wears on and then better again in Fall Winter Spring.
There is a go around for every feature.
Really great ground two to three days after a rain.

«PrimoDemo»
It is an adventure to trek out to Demo, start to finish. This is the place that will demand every last ounce from you at some point or another. It’s the perfect balance of speed and technicality, fun and exhilaration. This is the Disneyland of mountain biking for Santa Cruz County. Beautiful in its own natural right, the forest is truly a special location we are so lucky to have access to.
There are many combinations of routes to choose from, but all of them will make you smile ear to ear and challenge your skills. No matter how you slice it, it’s a long fireroad in and out of Demo, but it’s all outweighed by the abundance of downhill. I recommend going slowly and being conservative your first time on a new trail here; the waterbars, roots, drops, rock gardens, logs, etc. can threaten to launch you over your handlebars on the unexpectedly fast downhill sections.
In my humble opinion, here are my impressions of the downhill routes ranked from «easiest» to hardest, with notes. Remember that «easiest» at Demo is by no means «easy» riding.
1) New Flow Trail segments 3,5: these trails ride like a roller coaster through the forest, evoking involuntary «woo-hoo’s!» and child-​like giddiness. Meandering through well-​angled banks in the redwoods is pure fun, but don’t let it fool you — the inertia you gather coming out of those banks can propel you forward as if being pushed. Cool feeling. At the end of segment 3, get back on Tractor Trail for a bit; then section 5 starts. #5 is a bit more compacted, and feels super fast in dry summertime. #5 ends almost at bottom of Tractor Trail and Hihn junction. It only takes about 5 – 10 minutes to climb back up to the start of section 5, and if you’re up for it, a bit further back up to 3. Super fun and well designed. Thanks to all the people who labored to make these trails a reality!
2) Corral Trail: a short but really fun single-​track; ends about ¹⁄₆ way up Sulphur Springs. Good quick loop if you go back down Sulphur to Hihn Road, or a fun extra single-​track if you climb back up Sulphur to Ridge.
3) Tractor Trail: great single-​track in the beginning, turning into super fast fire-​road like trail that descends quickly and relentlessly. Not super technical, but makes up for it in speed. Watch for deep waterbars, though.
4) Ridge Road: a technical ride in and of itself; the connector trail to entrances to other trails. Some fun rocky sections, especially towards the end before Sawpit.
5) Sawpit: super bumpy, fast downhill, with some optional features. This feels like the roughest trail in all of Demo, rutted and rocky; will test your shocks!
6) Braille Trail: hands-​down the «double black diamond» of Demo. Steep, persistent, technical; tons of features. 1.5 miles and over seemingly too soon, some people take Sulphur Springs back up and lap it. This is a downhill rider’s trail by and large, but cross-​country riders will appreciate the saving grace of go-​arounds on the features.
Tip: Sulphur Springs can be an unpleasant climb, to say the least. Sandstone, mildly steep fireroad; it goes relatively quickly (20 – 30 min), but can feel longer. If you’re doing laps, I recommend starting out east on Buzzard Lagoon to the start of Demo at Mount Rosalia (great water break and seat lowering viewpoint). That way you don’t have to do «Suffer» Springs twice in the same day (a surefire way to make me a bit cranky, personally).
For shorter loops you can take Buzzard still, or you can enter starting west on Hihn, to Sulphur. I feel more tired when I reach the top via Hihn/​Sulphur than going Buzzard Lagoon, but ascent preference of course varies by rider.

My buddies and I took the shuttle service to the top. We left around 8:30 in the morning and let me tell you this ride is not the weary. I haven’t been MTB for almost 3 years and what a way to give it a go ahead. These trails give you everything that you are looking for except a «park» ride. The ride is very technical and great runs downhill. The course is possibly one of the toughest trails I’ve ever been able to ride. The uphill at the beginning was not to bad but I did have to stop about 2X. The downhill portion was a fun ride. YOU NEED TO BE VERY ALERT OUT THERE! All my buddies tasted dirt on this ride so Helmets is a must. I think we might have been the only crazy group with out pads or full-​face helmets. But hey WE survived. The only stump I had in the whole ride was the 3 mile uphill ride that took FOREVER!!! Well that’s due to not being in MTB shape and some climbs were just to hard for me and my buddies. Overall be ready to be challenged. We had an awesome time and felt so elated once we completed the trails. Bring a tough bike! Would I do it again, sure, but let me get in some shape first!!! Oh yea, we got back into town around 4:30pm!

I’ve been reading about this place and finally got to ride it with one of my biking groups. First off, this place is amazing. Deep in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mtns in the valley floor of the forest lies the Demo Forest. It’s a bit of a drive to get there off Highway 17 but it’s a beautiful drive.
I met up with the group of about 25 and headed out with a 2 or 3 mile climb. After the climb on the street and fire road we started on the single tracks. Boy these trails are amazing but no room for mistakes otherwise it’s a long way back to the car. Lots of challenges and play areas to mess with. The Single tracks are totally worth the long climb. Unfortunately I didn’t get to stay long due to previous injury. I will be going back and enjoy more of it.
This place is a Mountain Bikers Paradise…
Happy riding…

Excellent mountain biking trail near Santa Cruz which offers 5 – 6 miles of solid single track riding. While the amount of riding at this location is limited, the trails that it does offer are sweet. I enjoyed the lush forest scenery and the smoothness of the trails here. I don’t recommend using the shuttle service for this ride as it can be done as a 12 mile loop using a combination of fire roads and single tracks.

Soquel Demonstration State Forest. For hikers this place is just ok, nothing special really. It’s very popular with mountain bikers & from all the other Unilocal reviews you can read why. A bunch of trails where you climb & then go down.
Note: Tractor Trail Closed now until maybe end of July 2012.
To get there from Fremont we took Hwy 17 to Summit Rd, keep going on lots of windy road to Highland Way, go until you see lots of SUVs/​Cars with bike racks. Park on the side of the road where there’s a bridge. Bridge is chained off to cars, hope it open in June 2012, not sure.
After parking on the side of the road we walked over the bridge. Trail is nice & wide, soon see a Forest Gate & Signboard w/​FREE maps. One pit toilet w/​tp & seat covers plus foot-​pumping sink & paper towels.
We continued on Hihn’s Mill Rd it’s flat & downhill at the beginning, though on the way back lots of Uphill when you’re tired out! Then we went on Sulphur Springs Trail (Steep) to a Helipad (where a helicopter could land, just flat, open land, very limited views) to Ridge Trail (had lunch on a bench in Memory of Jim Owen) — down Corral Trail (some steep sections) — to Sulphur back to Hihn’s Mill Rd (some uphille parts). Total we did 9.1 miles.
Saw: Two California Newts, several banana slugs, & some ticks! I think I saw a newt eating a banana slug!
Maybe worth going for expert mountain biking & if you live nearby. Not worth it for this Fremont hiker.
Hours for use are dawn to dusk; day use only
Website:
Park map:

It’s important to note that this is NOT where you go to actually do your mountain biking. The address listed is for the Demonstration Forest offices… and it’s about a 30 minute drive to the actual entrance parking they recommend. I knew most of this driving up to this address, but my buddy was fooled by their devious ways…
That being said, if you’re a first timer like we were today, you might want to pop in to the office and talk to the nice people. They can give you a map (better than the one I printed out) and tell you about closures, parking, etc). Plus, the area for parking on the map was about 1+ miles off of where I had found to go through Google and various mountain bike sites, so they’re good to make sure you’re info is up to date.
As for the actual biking, way over yonder… it’s pretty good. Have to say that the stuff at Wilder beats it in my opinion, once you get back into the forests at least, but you won’t see too many others on the trails here and it’s a very pretty wilderness to be in.
If you take the bridge they recommend you park at and follow the road, you’ll pass all the trails, but be in for a 1000+ foot climb when you actually want to go down some. The alternative is to take the road up and around (to where I originally had thought we’d be parking) and then follow Ridge Trail until you get to the various offshoots you might be interested in.
Note that the top of Sulfer Road where it connects to Ridge Trail is not at all well-​marked, and can be very confusing to figure out, even if you’re good at map reading. The helipad at that point is the best indication you’re there… which, while also not marked, is a fairly obvious clearing near a bunch of trail signs at the top.
In theory, you can ride from the Demo Forest back into Aptos via Nissene Marks. There are signs to help you do so, and on the map it doesn’t look all that bad… Ran out of time today, but I’ll have to try it next time for sure.

This place is well worth the time it takes to get there. I won’t go into the arduous trip… the best thing to do is check out this site:
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I parked where they recommended (by a roped-​off bridge the crosses a stream at the end of Hihn’s Mill Road).
From there it’s about 1.9 miles up the paved road to where Buzzard Lagoon road (fire road) veers off from where Eureka Canyon Road becomes Highland.
Take that dirt road to the right. You’ll only come to one fork in the road (forget the mileage) but veer right there. Just before the 5 mile mark (total from the parking lot), the road/​trail veers to the left and you come to a gate labeled Aptos Fire road. Past that at the 5.15 mile mark is a clearing with a great view and Ridge Trail starts.
The trail is amazing and relatively fast and wooded. Went in June so there really wasn’t mud to speak of. I would rate it at intermediate. Basically Ridge trail runs parallel to Hihn’s mill road and you choose one of three trails to take you down from Ridge to Hihn’s.
I was aiming for Sawpit trail… the one farthest down Ridge trail, but somehow ended up taking Braille (you can also take Tractor. I’m a strict XC guy and an absolute weenie when it comes to jumps, but Braille was still fun and manageable (would rate Braille an intermediate plus plus).
Any time there’s a gnarly jump, there’s also a non-​jump way around. There were some pretty steep/​technical sections so I pity those on hardtails. Your wrists and brakes do indeed get a workout.
At the end of Braille is Hihn’s Mill Road, at about the 9 mile (total) mark. I was going to take that to a fire road (can’t remember the name) back up to Ridge (you could also bike up Tractor to Ridge) and take Sawpit down, but my chain broke on Hihn’s Mill, so I fixed it and rode it back to the car. Round trip was 11 miles.
Sorry this is long and rambling, but I hope it helps clear up the area for newbs. Long story short, I’ll be back.

Hands down, this is the best place within 1 hour drive of my house for mountain biking, and I mean real mountain biking, not Mission Peak or Coyote Hills.
Best trail would have to be Braille, I know, but it really is.
Summary of the trails
Ridge– Fun swoopy singletrack that connects you to other singletrack trails
Corral– First real trail off Ridge with jumps, it is short and fast
Braille– Singletack, technical, jumps, my fav
Tractor– Meh, singletrack, least fav
Sawpit– Extra singletrack on Ridge to get to it with few jumps and really long climb back to the car, average 47 mins to climb out. I am not setting any climbing records, I know.
There are not many hikers and most of the trails are one way so that is a big plus. Don’t come here at night, it’s in the middle of no where.
Been here at least 50 times.

I have a formula that I apply to potential activities that predicts/​decides how much I’ll enjoy them. It’s rather informal and involves the amount of hassle before, during and after the activity compared with the amount of fun the activity imparts.
Best ratio activity I take part in — least hassle and most fun — motorcycle riding.
Worst ratio activity I take part in — where the hassle is still easily outweighed by the fun — snowboarding.
The main activity I’ve never done ‘cos the hassle just looks way too much — scuba diving.
Mountain biking has always been a more fun than hassle activity and I’ve enjoyed it for years.
I’d heard of demo forest before and knowing that it contains created jumps and obstacles, it had always intimidated me a bit as I’ve only ever been an average rider.
The opportunity to ride demo came around this last weekend — eight of us headed of up into the hills. There’s hassle to get there as you drive way up into the hills on narrow, bumpy roads.
Once you get there, more hassle as you leave the parking area and cycle uphill on the road, then cycle uphill on a fire road. After a few miles, you get to the start of ridge trail. This is where the real fun begins. The first part of ridge is about as technical as I’m happy with (I’m old and ride a hard tail — if that helps give you a frame of reference). We then had to make a decision — Braille or Tractor — apparently Braille is more technical that what we just did (but with ways around most of the technical bits) and Tractor is more open and flowing.
Both take you down to the lower fire road, that gives you a 2 – 3 mile ride back up hill (more hassle) to where we started.
We chose Tractor, it was so much fun, even though I avoided all the built teeter totters, log rides and jumps that littered the way down the hill.
Although riding demo involves quite a bit more hassle than most mountain biking places in the San Francsico Bay Area and the Monterey Bay Area, Tractor was so much fun, it more than redressed the ratio.
If I were more of a competent rider, I’m sure the other trails that drop off Ridge and down to the lower fire road would push the balance even further towards fun.

To climb or not to climb that is the question — usually — but here you have no choice. Even if you were to shuttle to the top of Buzzard Lagoon fire road, you still have to climb about a mile to the ridge trail and then once you hit the bottom of any of the downhill trails it’s at least 3 miles of light climbing back to the parking lot.
Stop bitching about climbing — I’ve ridden at Demo twice, I recommend taking Coral trail down, riding back up sulhpur springs and then down Braille. Tractor Trail was seriously lame, super fast wide single track for most of it’s length, while Braile is super technical with loads of berms, drops and sketchy steeps. Coral is like a baby A-​Line trail (whistler fame) and has loads of drop options.
I would not recommend riding here alone, the climb up to ridge would make you mad.

So this was my first time on Demo. As per the other reviews, it’s pretty well in the middle of nowhere and takes a good 40 – 45 minutes of driving to get there from downtown San Jose. After parking there’s a 20 – 30 minute ascent up fire roads till you hit the ridge trail. Then, you’ll have the chance to pick one of the three downhill trails. We did Braille. I think they called it Braille because only a blind person would consider going down this on a bike (or a whack job). It was seriously steep and technical so I wouldn’t recommend this to a beginner. Most of the technical sections have turnouts which means you can pick and chose your level of insanity. Since I’ve reasonably new to this, I kacked it on a couple of the bigger jumps but never-​the-​less found the downhill section exhilarating and my wrists were sufficiently throbbing after pumping the brakes so much. I also wiped out on the see-​saw. Damn!
Once you’ve descended down the trail at the speed of sound, you’ll need to pedal back up again to the car park. The 3 mile ride out of the canyon will get the old heart muscle working nicely. All in all, an awesome couple of hours biking.

«Demonstration» Forest??? California, you got some ’splainin to do…
No, it’s not some experimental garden of exotic florae. As far as I can tell, it’s just a regular ol’ forest that they are trying to «demonstrate» can be sustainably logged *and* used for recreation at the same time. And while I didn’t see any evidence of logging, there is certainly evidence of recreation – in particular, mountain biking, for which this seems to be one of the Bay Area’s première spots.
To a hiker, though, this is really just a northern adjunct to the already massive Forest of Nisene Marks, though you have to go over Santa Rosalia Mountain if you want to link the two. Otherwise, you can certainly make a pleasant if monotonous walk on Hihn’s Mill Road, which simply follows the Soquel Creek valley down. I wouldn’t venture onto the singletrack bike trails, though, unless you want to have some freaky run-​ins.
Also, note that after being closed for years by a landslide, you can finally reach SDF via Highland Way from the Highway 17 summit (I have a feeling that the summit fire played a hand in the re-​opening). But as long as you’re out here, you should consider doing the full loop all the way down Eureka Canyon Road to Corralitos. Definitely one of the best and most out-​of-​the-​way stretches of backroad around.

ooooh man! This place is sweet. Mountain biker’s heaven in bay area~ I have to admit I am a complete noob. I took my old costco mountain bike up this thing and it was my first time mountain biking period.
Needless to say I nearly died. Quiet literally, there were countless times I was about to go off my bike and fly few yards into a tree!!! It was pretty intense. Not to mention the hours of climbing it takes from the lagoon road to the ridge, then down tractor and back up to the parking lot.
Despite the hours of climbing up the trail down is pretty sweet. We are not talking about just bare ground like fremont olders, the trail is surrounded by tall redwood trees everywhere. There’s a vista point at the time and the view is pretty good.
I was lucky and careful enough to not get any injuries. But I am definitely gonna hone my skills else where before I return here, it was pretty hardcore. I was pretty scared and had my breaks on for a while but it was still so exhilarating and so fun!
I got lost for a while trying to find this place, make sure to get a map beforehand and ask the bikers passing by, people are very friendly there.

This park is home to serious mountain bikers, you will not find too many hikers at this place.
It’s located in a fairly secluded area of the santa cruz mountains, east of highway 17 on highland way. The area has a lot of old growth trees and most of the trails (single track) is under them for a shady and cool ride.
Most people take buzzards lagoon up to the top and drop down onto the ridge trail. After a mile or so, you can then choose from 3 trails, Sawpit, Tractor and Braille. There are jumps, but you can go around them. There are also paths around most of the technical areas like rocks, roots, ruts, etc…
The area is really beautiful and one of a kind, I’d say that it’s the best place in the bay area for mtb’ing.
You should be at least an intermediate rider for these trails. There are a lot of people that get hurt here due to the falls.

This place is often called Demo Forest, Demo or SDF or «the place I ate it.» I visit here as often as I can, and the ride is phenomenal. Marin has its claim for being so close to the city, but Demo is worth the extra drive. It is absolutely accessible to bikes and has been built for our enjoyment.. . logs, teeter-​totters, tight corners.. . all singletrack. Even with turnouts and the ability to go around every obstacle, it is probably best to build your balance and technical skills elsewhere, if you are a novice.
Incredible riding, try to aim for at least two loops. Up the fire road to ridge trail, down braille trail, up tractor trail, and then down braille trail or sawpit. Have fun and lower your seat!