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Bicycling directions from Sacramento to Santa Cruz

I rode this the route in 1999 so quite a bit may have changed, use it at your own risk. The route leaves from downtown Sacramento following State Highway 160 South.

Sacramento

• Take 19th St south, eventually it merges with 21st St but it's marked as 160 through most of town.
• Hwy 160 follows the river and crosses it a couple of times and there's always a farm road on the other side of the river. Each time it switches sides I'd recomend crossing to the opposite side to avoid the trafic.
• Along the way 160 merges with 84 till you get to Antioch so you might see it marked as either Antioch/Brentwood
• The bridge over the delta/river is a pretty long pull but you get a nice ride down, don't worry there's plenty of shoulder room and they probably won't make you pay the toll.
• get off on the 1st exit (I think you have to) take a left under the bridge and a right infront of the dupont plant. I believe this puts you on Highway 4. (this part is sort of bad i didn't take very good notes)
• Head southeast (left) on 4, it might be called Main St. follow it to Cypress St.
• Left on Cypress St to Sellers Ave
• Right on Sellers Ave. Follow it a mile or two to Marsh Creek Rd.
• Right onto Marsh Creek Rd. and go one block to Walnut Ave.
• Left on to Walnut Ave, Vasco Rd will branch off to the left.
• Follow Vasco Rd get ready for fun, it's a pretty hefty grade and hopefully it won't be windy when you ride it but the hills are covered with wind mills for a reason.

Livermore to Milpitas

• Stay on Vasco Rd till it comes to the freeway
• Right onto Sunflower Ct
• Left onto Bluebell Dr
• Left onto First St (Hwy 84) when Bluebell Dr ends
• Left onto Holmes (Hwy 84) when First St ends
• now hwy 84 alternates between shouldered an un, but it seems to be the return on the PE you invested in Vasco Rd, after a little up hill (with out much sholder) it's clear sailing.
• 84 turns into Interstate 680 so get off on the first exit (it's marked that bikes aren't allowed before the exit but since there's no place to go ignore it)*
• Turn left going under the interstate. Get onto Calavaras Rd.
• Stay on Calaveras Rd for a while, its a gorgeous strech so enjoy it soon enough you'll be in the Bay Area Sprawl.
• Calaveras Rd comes to a T turn right onto East Calaveras Rd, it'll take you past a golf course into Milpitas

*Comming back I found a route that avoided the Hwy84/I680 portion and went through Pleasonton then on the bike lane along Stanley Blvd into Livermore. I didn't take notes but it was flat and had plenty of space to ride on. Eventually I'll find the map I used and update this with that info.

Milpitas

• Find Capitol Ave (sometimes called Capitol Expressway) heading south. It's between I680 and I880. Get on Abel St and head south it'll cross it. You'll be on Capitol Ave for quite a while before you come to Alum
• Right onto Berryessa Rd

San Jose

• Stay on Berryessa Rd for a while.
• It should turn into Heading (I'm pretty sure it does but I also seem to remember it forking so you might want to ask a cop to doublecheck these directions) which turns into Pruneridge.
• follow Pruneridge to Saratoga and
• left onto Saratoga. It's Hwy 9, so stay on it all the way into Santa Cruz.

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