It was going to be an interesting ride, but not THAT interesting. A couple days ago I learned that someone from the San Mateo County roads department had reached out to one of the local bicycle coalitions, requesting that cyclists stay off West Old LaHonda road while it’s officially closed. I’d ridden it twice since the county had closed it, finding it easy to get through by bike as there’s stable pavement at least 5 feet wide that can be ridden on, and if the rest of the roadway fell away, you’d still be able to walk around it. Yesterday I tried calling the county but the person I needed to talk to was on the phone. I got an email and sent this-

Hi, I wanted to get an update on West Old LaHonda Road. As you’re likely aware, it’s one of the few roads in the county that gets considerably more use by cyclists than motorists, and it’s chosen not just because it’s scenic but also avoids a relatively-dangerous section of 84.

Presently it’s easily navigable by bicycle, but someone at the county reached out to a cycling organization, requesting that bicycles refrain from using it due to the hillside being unstable. As a cyclist who uses West Old LaHonda on a regular basis (100+ times/year) I’m pretty familiar with the changes to the road over the past couple of weeks and suspect the accelerated damage to the roadway likely happened with the west side of 84 was closed for a while, diverting vehicular traffic to a road not built for that sort of volume. Deterioration since last Thursday seems to have been stopped. I doubt cyclists cause much more wear & tear on the road than the rabbits that frequent the area. Having said that, if it’s the County’s position that the road is dangerous to cyclists, I have to respect that.

If possible, my preference would be that the barricades stay in place with a walking path along the “hill” side of the road, with signage indicating it’s for pedestrian-use only. In other words, walk your bike through.

Otherwise, do we have a timetable for repairs of the road? We’d love to have an alternative to 84 back on place as soon as possible. Thank you-

As of Thursday night, no response. I’ll try again on Friday. In the meantime, the plan was to check out and fully document the condition of the road on this-morning’s ride, and that would have happened except that, at the top of Kings, Kevin (my son, not the pilot) busted his cassette (rear sprockets) apart. Marcus and Karen rode on while I struggled to remove the broken bits from Kevin’s cassette so he could keep riding, but doing the full ride, with West Old LaHonda loop, was out of the question because this put us so far behind schedule.

Even missing 3 cogs from the rear, Kevin still had the 5 smallest, more than enough to handle Skyline… so we headed south and descended 84, arriving back home pretty much the normal time. This makes two rides in a row interrupted by some sort of bike issue, a very rare thing on these rides!