Los Gatos Creek Trail — Attraction in San Jose

It's a very beautiful 10 mile stretch and I love all that it offers: lake, stream, fishing, BBQ area; however, I went early morning before 8 am and stayed until 330 pm and I had 5 negative, potentially dangerous events I escaped by a small margin. God was watching over me because I am a believer in Jesus and I prayed for protection.

First, I noticed a young man with an oversized black hoodie in early 30s sitting by the wooded area off the paved path as I biked further towards San Jose end of the trail. As I was returning, my bike was pedaling slowly due to mechanical issues. The same man and a woman were approaching me. From a small distance, something was unsettling about his swaggering pose and the fact that he looked back as if to see if any other souls were around. Thank God a handsome male jogger came from behind him like a beacon of light. The man folded his stance and the woman then said, "Why you don't want that one? " And then it occurred to me the possibility of him wanting to steal my bike and he would've thrown me off for it or worse. I mean, with my cheap bike mechanically not the best, an attack definitely wouldn't have been even worth his time. It was around 240pm and I wanted to bike down the dirt side road, not surprisingly the same one where the man was lurking in am and at another point in the day, a man and his little ones were coming up on bikes onto the pavement. I biked down the dirt path, and I saw from the right periphery that a man was laying prone on dirt. It alarmed me and I quickly came to a fork (decision to make) came to keep on the path or climb back up into the pavement. An inner voice screamed, "Get up, get up there now (to the right, uphill, dirt hill into the pavement )!!!" And in what seemed like 3 seconds, in fight or flight mode and adrenaline pumping, I jumped off the bike, grabbed the bike, and ran up into the pavement. It is because I heard the sound of that man quickening to rise up! There was no one else around around 3pm. He may have been waiting to pounce on some innocent soul...

I had been there 7 hours and tired and as I biked slowly, I noticed the legs of a small man sitting on the ledge to my left. As I peered around the curved path, the man asked, "Do you want...

This is a big trail and we did only the stretch between Vasona Park to Lexington Reservoir. We biked and that was our problem. Walking or jogging would have been better.

The trail is layered with tiny crushed stones and dust (not natural gravel, the artificial one used to make asphalt). That, along with the steep elevation in some parts of the trail made it extremely hard to bike. We are not novice bikers nor experienced, just regular bikers, but my son skid and fell down. The edges slope off deep into the creek and I was wary the whole trip. Probably an expert/more-than-regular biker could easily handle it.

I would caution you to learn about stopping techniques when riding slippery slopes, before you attempt this...

Good trail for biking and walking, it goes 10 miles north from Lexington Reservoir and passes right nearby downtown Los Gatos and Campbell, as well as ends not too far from downtown San Jose. Unfortunately some surface street riding is required to connect to other trails including the Guadalupe River Trail if you'd like to continue north. The good news is that safe bike lanes are installed on the way there.

My one complaint is with the southernmost part of the trail. There are two very steep grades in the first half mile of the trail, and the unpaved one is nearly impossible to travel on bicycle either direction without...