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Mt. Hamilton Ride, 27 Apr 08
Sunday 27 Apr 08
Only a few days after I rode from Palo Alto to San Jose and up over Mt. Hamilton in chilly weather with long sleeves and pants, the weather changed to the opposite with temperatures in the 90F region. Ray Hosler, Marc Brandt and I started from Milpitas at 07:30, taking Piedmont Rd. south, literally at the foot of the Hamilton range to Penitencia Creek Rd. taking a left and a quarter mile later, right on Toyon Ave. across to McKee Rd that joins Alum Rock Ave, the approach to HWY130, the Mt. Hamilton road to Lick Observatory and beyond. http://tinyurl.com/54j5ye Having started when we did, the day hadn't gotten more than comfortably warm and as we climbed to the top of the ridge, remained that way as we descended into Halls Valley and Grant Ranch Park, where on a hot day, we often stop for a drink of water, but not today. Halls Valley has an idyllic character with rolling meadows, lakes and a few old farm houses, one of which is obviously a school house from the days of the one room school (with belfry). The Valley was lush green grasses and a blue tint from wildflowers, a fitting foreground for Mount Hamilton and its observatory rising above the next ridge. Marc was riding a city bike with a fixed gear and a single speed freewheel on the other side. It was his intention to ride only to the top while Ray and I went on to Livermore, Pleasanton and Sunol to return to the start in Milpitas. With green slopes and wildflowers, we took a leisurely pace taking pictures as a couple of riders looking like they were in a race wen huffing and puffing by at about twice the speed. In the fall we see migrating tarantulas on the mountain and in spring rains, newts crossing the road, many of which get killed by traffic. This time we saved a "potato Bug" that moved about as slowly as a tarantula. We took its picture and moved it to the road shoulder in a manner similar to my 2ft rattle snake with rodent in belly on my previous ride a few days earlier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_cricket Up at the observatory we rode through fairly thick swarms of small flies that clung to arms, legs and jersey. One got in my eye and has acrid irritating juices. Meanwhile small caterpillars that feed on new foliage were on the road under trees. Birds don't like eating these little furry bugs. That's what their hair is for. In spite of sunshine, it was hazy and had high altitude humidity, shown by the persistent vapor tails across the sky with bits of cirrus clouds here and there. We hadn't hit the predicted high temperatures as we proceeded down the steep back side of the mountain, stopping at the "radiator refill" watering spring at the 3-mile marker. The ice cold water went down well and assured us that we would have an easy ride to the Junction Inn. Wildflowers from two weeks ago (pinkies) were drying up but remained in blossom in shady places. In contrast, there were more California poppies and lupine that before. Clear water in Isabel Creek looked great after which we had a short steep climb into Arroyo Bayo where wildflowers abound. The road follows the west side of the valley to a place where the river runs through a rocky defile around which the steepest short grunt of the ride occurs before descending back to the river at the Arnold Ranch at milepost 10. Arnold ranch peacocks replied to my peacock imitation, about five or six of them all giving their classic scream. From here the road climbs gradually getting a bit steeper at the end before descending into San Antonio valley. In spite of a relatively dry winter, streams and ponds had plenty of water and some ducks were still there before moving off to their summer haunts. The buffleheads that are usually there all winter had already gone, as had the Canada geese I saw recently. At one place a paved driveway climbs up past a dam and because I passed there too often to not know what was up there, we rode up the road and saw a full lake with ducks and surprisingly many ~8inch trout clearly visible near the shore. A farm house lies at the end of the lake with a small jetty on which two small plastic skiffs were stored. We stopped at the San Antonio Junction Cafe where we met plenty of bicyclists and many more motorcyclists. When I came here last Thursday the place was closed, even though they are open daily now. The reason was a scheduled power outage that morning. I was told they opened at 4:00 in the afternoon that day. I also has a chance to talk to Ruthie of Ruthie's Emporium a mile farther on mines road. She has a great collection of curios and hardware, all for sale. Ruthie ran the Branding Iron road house about 20 miles down the road as many years ago. It was painted deep red and had a good following from the bikers. The ceiling was about 8ft high and was papered with geologic survey maps of the area. Today the place is a private residence. What a loss. Ruthie also said that the infamous "Jot-em-down" store was burned to the ground by hunters the day before hunting season opened back in those days. In all, although a bit scarce, we saw beautiful birds all along the way. Bullocks orioles, black headed grosbeaks, meadow larks, western king birds, bluebirds, yellow billed magpies, lewis and acorn woodpeckers, humming birds at the junction cafe, and finally a pair of bald eagles. After climbing the two passes that got us over into Arroyo Mocho, that we would follow all the way to the Livermore valley for the next 30 miles. The road (Mines Road) crosses the creek a couple of times before the Alameda County line that lies below a short descent and one more creek crossing. Oaks in this area are just budding out from their leafless winter and wildflowers color the roadside. Farther down, at about 2000ft elevation, we crossed the creek once more after which it dives down its huge canyon while the road stays high on the east slope, wending its way in and out of small tributary gulches. http://tinyurl.com/3tsfmf Mines Rd. is mostly on a slight descent with a couple of dips as it stays near 2000ft before making its final descent to the Livermore Valley where we crossed Arroyo Mocho again and Del Valle Rd. Before the road descends, water tanks of the SF water department mark the place next to the creek where the Tesla Cutoff, the worlds longest tunnel (22miles) in its day passes beneath the mountains on its way to Irvington. This replaced the conspicuous surface aqueduct adjacent to the road through Niles Canyon. http://tinyurl.com/54mx2f Interestingly we rode into increasing headwinds regardless of our direction until late in the day. Livermore greeted us with 94deg heat but reasonably dry, so it was no problem. Parallel to the RR right of way where formerly Western Pacific and Southern Pacific lines ran parallel but to day Union Pacific remains on the WP tracks, the SP track being sued to store container rack freight cars from Oakland. At times there are more than a mile of parked empties. http://tinyurl.com/49zmz9 We stopped at the Milk Store in Pleasanton across the street from the historic former Sp Depot before rolling on down to Sunol and turning south on Paloma Way that turns into Calaveras road at I680. White throated swifts nest in the vents under the freeway bridge. Calaveras Rd. has a line of Cork Oaks on its west side and for some reason, dead mans foot mushrooms grow under these trees on the barren dry road shoulder. http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/P...inctorius.html We saw groups of four or five as we rode along, many of these looking more like horse apples than mushrooms, but in one spot a fresh one was emerging in its typical white skin of a "puffball" mushroom. http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Bovista_plumbea.html After crossing Alameda Creek and Geary Rd. that goes into the park, Calaveras road begins its climb out of the narrow valley that ends at the base of Calaveras Dam of the SF Water Dept. (Hetch Hetch Sys.). The high point of the road is at about 1200ft giving a grand panorama of the Mountains to the east above which eagles and turkey vultures soar gracefully. Today we cam upon a couple of birders with powerful optics and cameras who were obviously on to a good sighting. It turned out, they were observing a pair of bald eagles, the symbol of the USA who had an aerie on top of a high voltage tower a few hundred yards away. First on, then both took wing and flew overhead in a striking display of their black and white plumage better than the one on the US Postal Service logo. http://tinyurl.com/3maryh http://www.bluevalhalla.com/v/wildli.../bald/calares/ From here it is a few miles to the pass out of this valley and all down hill to the car parked just off Calaveras Rd. in Milpitas. http://tinyurl.com/4b97ju That's a 103mile loop with 7800ft climb. ----------------------- Jobst Brandt |
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Mt. Hamilton Ride, 27 Apr 08
On Apr 29, 11:47*pm, wrote:
Sunday 27 Apr 08 Only a few days after I rode from Palo Alto to San Jose and up over Mt. Hamilton in chilly weather with long sleeves and pants, the weather changed to the opposite with temperatures in the 90F region. That's a 103mile loop with 7800ft climb. ----------------------- Jobst Brandt Nice picturesque reports as always, Jobst. I find it interesting and mildly amusing that you never mention some of the animals and birds that are real pests in the midwest, above all squirrels, but also rabbits, racoons, opposum, sparrows, mourning doves, crows and geese. (You do mention deer). Are they missing or just too commonplace to mention? |
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Mt. Hamilton Ride, 27 Apr 08
Ron Wallenfang wrote:
Sunday 27 Apr 08 Only a few days after I rode from Palo Alto to San Jose and up over Mt. Hamilton in chilly weather with long sleeves and pants, the weather changed to the opposite with temperatures in the 90F region. That's a 103mile loop with 7800ft climb. ----------------------- Jobst Brandt Nice picturesque reports as always, Jobst. I find it interesting and mildly amusing that you never mention some of the animals and birds that are real pests in the midwest, above all squirrels, but also rabbits, raccoons, opossum, sparrows, mourning doves, crows and geese. (You do mention deer). Are they missing or just too commonplace to mention? Ground squirrels are food for the raptors, we see skunks and raccoons mainly as roadkill, that if not messy get tossed off the road so the turkey vultures have some safe food. Bob cats, coyotes, and rarely mountain lions along with a couple of elk herds make the day interesting occasionally. http://www.geocities.com/rayhosler/ Jobst Brandt |
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Mt. Hamilton Ride, 27 Apr 08
Ron Wallenfang wrote:
On Apr 29, 11:47 pm, wrote: Sunday 27 Apr 08 Only a few days after I rode from Palo Alto to San Jose and up over Mt. Hamilton in chilly weather with long sleeves and pants, the weather changed to the opposite with temperatures in the 90F region. That's a 103mile loop with 7800ft climb. ----------------------- Jobst Brandt Nice picturesque reports as always, Jobst. I find it interesting and mildly amusing that you never mention some of the animals and birds that are real pests in the midwest, above all squirrels, but also rabbits, racoons, opposum, sparrows, mourning doves, crows and geese.[...] Those animals are pests? The real pests in the Midwest are loose dogs (and of course the bipedal varmints). -- Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia The weather is here, wish you were beautiful |
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