Mt. Hamilton Ride, 24 Apr 08

Thursday 24 Apr 08
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As I started from home at 07:00 on a Mt. Hamilton ride, the roofs of
houses had frost and my breath was visible in front of my face. I
headed south on Middlefield Rd. and found the air warmer as I got to
Mountain View. Continuing on Central Xpwy after the end of
Middlefield Rd. I was comfortably warm in my long sleeves and pants.

Having ridden this route often, I watched landmarks pass, like Intel
and Owens Corning fiberglass, steaming away into the morning sky. I
have often wondered what it is in those six steam stacks that wafts
away as a faint blue haze after the steam evaporates. I first
wondered about this in my high school days when commuting past the
plant by train to College Park, the station where Jack London's story
of "Call of the Wild" begins as he boards a train to SF.

Central Expy ends on De La Cruz Blvd. at the north end of SJ airport
runway. I turned right and then left onto Coleman Ave. that takes me
past the old San Jose freight yard and on to Santa Clara Ave, the main
street of San Jose. I was surprised that I made better time across
town than the 522 VTA (express) bus mainly because there are so many
complex traffic signals that I treat mostly a yield signs when not
green.

Santa Clara Ave. changes name to Alum Rock Ave. as it heads for the
hills, and just after crossing I680, starts its climb to Mt. Hamilton
Rd. Traffic was light and even lighter after I started up HWY130.
That junction is 24 miles from my house and the climb to the summit 43
miles. On the way up I noticed that fields were still green and
colored by California Poppies, lupine, and purple vetch. Puncture
vine was barely germinating along the barren road shoulder.

http://tinyurl.com/y5meyd

After Grandview, I was in mountain air, noticeably cooler than the
west slope of the first ridge, as I crossed into Halls valley. I saw
no wild turkeys but there were plenty of deer watching as I passed,
apparently waiting for me to get out of their way so they could cross
the road.

I met another rider stopped at the second summit before Smith Creek
descent who lives on Quimby Rd., the steep cutoff from Eastridge in
the valley. He just rode that far for a workout and turned back. I
notice these days that most riders climb a lot faster than I, but they
also aren't going as far.

http://tinyurl.com/3orhpg

I crossed the summit (4209ft) and noticed that I had accumulated
6200ft of climb that came from crossing two ridges on the way up and
the ups and downs from Palo Alto to the base of the mountain. In
spite of a brisk wind, the sky was hazy enough that nothing was
visible past the central valley (no Sierra snow) and Mt. Loma Prieta
to the west was fuzzy while the Santa Lucia mountains, where we
recently rode Arroyo Seco, was barely discernible to the south.

http://mtham.ucolick.org/hamcam/hamcam1.html
http://www.rntl.net/mthamiltonlookout.htm

On the descent to Isabel Creek I stopped at the 3-mile marker to get
an ice cold drink from the fountain that Don Axtell maintains for
bikies, now that it is no longer needed by cars for overheated cooling
systems, the original reason for its existence. With the gusty wind I
reached a mere 43mph on the dash to the cattle guard, a section on
which 50+mph have been reached on other rides.

http://tinyurl.com/3mmdos

Isabel Creek still had crystal clear water that vanishes in summer. A
quick sprint up the short climb over to Arroyo Bayou valley, where in
older times the road was in the riverbed and had unpaved fords instead
of bridges. Along this section of new road along the west side of the
river, tiny pink flowers grow in the steep walls of scree.

I once gave these flowers the nickname "pinkies" because their
botanical name is too heavy for these profuse and pretty plants:

http://tinyurl.com/hkcr3

This year pinkies (Claytonia gypsophiloides) were especially rich
along the steep shady scree along to the road, all the way to San
Antonio Valley where other wildflowers abound.

http://pixseal.com/mounthamilton2005/index2.htm

Surprisingly the Junction Cafe at del Puerto Rd. was closed even
though their normal closure day is Wednesday. Fortunately I had
enough to skip the food and drink stop and continued, climbing the
Blackbird 1.5 mile hill and the Double-ess one mile hill, after which
it's mainly downhill to where the road and river separate. From the
junction to Livermore was into a fairly steady headwind today.

http://tinyurl.com/3shnre

This part of the route is rich with blue, yellow, and lavender lupine
mixed with California poppies and paintbrush. Red cobweb thistles
were just getting started.

http://calflora.net/bloomingplants/cobwebthistle.html

As I rode along the part of Mines Rd. that remains at about 2000ft,
high above Arroyo Mocho, I came across a two foot long rattlesnake
sunning itself on the road, doomed to be crushed bu a passing car
without my rescue efforts. Fortunately there was almost no traffic
and the snake made a good subject for my picture collection with a
visible lump in its middle from a rodent that it had eaten (whole).
After I, and another passer-by photographed the snake, we pushed it
off the low side of the road where it seemed content after taking up
various coiled positions as we swept it off the road with a broom the
man had in his truck.

The wind was mild in the Livermore valley and I rode easily with only
a crosswind along Stanley Blvd. to Pleasanton where at the Milk Store
I got the traditional "medium" soft-ice cone. I can't imagine what
one can do with a large one, the medium being huge. From here its a
short jaunt to Sunol corners, where I turned west to Niles Canyon, the
home of the Niles canyon historical railroad, on the former Southern
Pacific ROW, that operates a tourist ride from Niles and some day to
Pleasanton when the former Southern Pacific rails are re-laid.

http://tinyurl.com/49zmz9
http://tinyurl.com/4grv8q

The yard has a beautiful collection of steam and diesel locomotives,
and cars from western railroads, of which many are restored to "more
than oriental splendor" [Rudyard Kipling]. Across Alameda Creek from
the rail yard, the first eastbound ACE commuter train to Tracy and
Stockton went by on Union Pacific rails (formerly Western Pacific).

http://tinyurl.com/6g5j2x

It's a hop skip and jump from Niles to Centerville and Newark and onto
the old Dumbarton bridge approach that is now a parking lot for access
to trails and a fishing pier. The old Dumbarton bridge road remains
on the south side of six-lane HWY84, practically at water level, on
the edge of the bay flood plane where shorebirds (avocets, stilts,
willets, sand pipers, rails, gulls, and Canada geese) abound.

The last climb of the day is up and over the bridge that rises 200ft
above the bay. It was easy because the wind was directly from the
side although dense speeding traffic made it turbulent. I didn't make
good time due to the wind but finished the 125 miles in 11 hours.
That was a bit more than 9000ft climbing.

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Jobst Brandt