dryfj.com / drycyclist.com (kevin cook)

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Another switchback on the lower part of China Hole Trail.

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05949-switchback-550px.jpg A yellow-flowered buckwheat-like plant.ThumbnailsCotton-candy smoke from the Henry Coe brush fire at sunset in central San José. A yellow-flowered buckwheat-like plant.ThumbnailsCotton-candy smoke from the Henry Coe brush fire at sunset in central San José. A yellow-flowered buckwheat-like plant.ThumbnailsCotton-candy smoke from the Henry Coe brush fire at sunset in central San José. A yellow-flowered buckwheat-like plant.ThumbnailsCotton-candy smoke from the Henry Coe brush fire at sunset in central San José. A yellow-flowered buckwheat-like plant.ThumbnailsCotton-candy smoke from the Henry Coe brush fire at sunset in central San José.

I walk the 10-ton bike around most of these switchbacks and on parts of the trail leading up to them. Even when walking the bike, negotiating them is sometimes a very technical exercise because they are tight, a bit steep, and there's hardly any trail width within which to manoeuvre.

The unwieldy bike sometimes threatens to slide off the soft edge of the trail and down the hill, taking me with it, perhaps into a patch of poison oak as an additional bonus.

This switchback here is really awkward to get down. Looking back, the short, steep and slippery rise suddenly levels out and turns sharply to the right just beyond the log on the ground.