In January, California was hit with back-to-back storms. The damage from those storms really hit the backroads of the Santa Cruz mountains, as you'll see in this video by cyclist Larry Rairden. He biked 300 miles through the mountains in mid-January, capturing washed out roads, downed trees, and other reminders of Mother Nature's wrath. He writes, "Many roads had to be blocked off due to landslides and washouts. While barricades stopped motor vehicles, they didn't stop me. A cyclocross bike would have been more appropriate for some of the muddier sections, though."
"It was devastating. I've ridden bicycles on these roads for 50 years," said Rairden, 67, a retired geophysicist who grew up in Palo Alto. "I know there have been storms over the decades. But I'd never seen them like this. Every time I turned around there was a 'road closed' sign. I continued on the bicycle as far as I could. In some cases, bridges were washed out or landslides were too extensive for me to carry my bicycle across."
