Saturday A Ride: Butano Gravel + AVRT picture day, 2/7/26

Hello everyone! The weather is warming up & there hasn’t been rain for awhile, which means it’s a perfect weekend for Butano, the back door into Big Basin. This is my favorite ride in the area, hands down. We will start by climbing dirt alpine, and going allll the way down west alpine to Portola State Park for a brief water stop. We will then traverse Old Haul Road, the first dirt section, down to Pescadero. We’ll briefly stop for a coffee/pastry/water - the last water stop for about 2 hours. The real fun begins after, where we climb Butano fire road, where, at its peak, you can see all the way to Monterey. After ten miles of gravel, we are spit out onto China grade/big basin, where we will climb up highway 9 to the fire station for water. After the fire station, we’ll head down skyline, -> page mill -> summit. This is a big, beautiful ride so we’ll try to make efficient stops to allow for time spent dismounting to hop over trees and taking photos at the old air field.

Note: If you are on the race team, please arrive to Summit at 8:30 & wear team kit for photos :)

Equipment: Gravel bike

Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/3454294432426423576

Start/End: Summit Bicycles, Palo Alto

Time: meet 9:00 am & roll out 9:10 am. Race team - meet 8:30 & wear team kit for photos

Ride etiquette: https://www.altovelo.org/ride-rules

Ride Leader: Wil Gibb