23 Nov 07
Looking at the ten day weather forecast, Friday 23 Nov looked like the
best day to ride over Mt. Hamilton at a leisurely pace. Allison,
Barry, Max and I started from the cul-de-sac (Calaveras Ct) off
Calaveras Rd. in Milpitas at about 8:00 to head up to Piedmont
Rd. that traverses the bottom of the hills to Penitencia Creek, the
canyon of Alum Rock Park, where we followed the creek to Toyon Rd. to
reach McKee Rd. that connects to the climb to Mt. Hamilton.
It was a breezy morning with a light haze over the valley over which
we could see the panorama of Loma Prieta (3808ft) to the southwest and
a distant view of the Santa Lucia mountains above Monterey Bay. Other
than an occasional car we had the road to ourselves most of the way
being passed by three or four bicyclists who were headed to the
observatory and back.
Although there were swirling gusts at times the air was calm most of
the time on the main climb from Smith Creek to the top (4209ft). Of
course the gusts were most noticeable when they were headwinds, but it
was generally calm and comfortably warm (with cool weather clothing).
With a slight misunderstanding, Barry joined the faster pace of two
Alto Velo riders who rode to the observatory while we continued on our
route toward Livermore.
Although there wasn't as much wildlife as on other rides over the hill
we saw plenty of deer some bluebirds, flocks of American goldfinches
in brilliant yellow and a few Magpies. The serenity of that remote
ranch land was soothing leaving the shopping malls and freeways behind
in the Valley.
The ridges we crossed put us in an area where night skies are dark
after sundown with no illumination from city skies. With a slight
tailwind, the descent to Isabel Creek (2190ft) went briskly on a dry
road that without wind would still have dew in shady spots as it was
on my last ride a couple of weeks before.
A short climb from of Isabel Creek crosses a divide to Arroyo Bayo,
along which the road gradually climbs with a sharp bump over the rocky
narrows before the Arnold Ranch (10 mile marker form Mt. Hamilton).
The road follows the creek while gradually getting steeper with a
little grunt called China Grade to the divide (2200ft) before
descending to the San Antonio Valley (2079ft).
In contrast to other seasons, the valley was so grazed off that it had
little more than brown earth with trace of half inch stubble. The
cattle that roam there are fed by truckloads of hay that ranchers
bring to bridge the gap until the rains come... and they haven't yet.
Click on pix:
http://pixseal.com/mounthamilton2005/pan_4826-4844.htm
A few motorcycles passed us on the way to the San Antonio JCT (2188ft)
where Del Puerto Rd. joins from Patterson in the central valley. The
junction restaurant was serving burgers and fries as usual with a good
supply of beer and soft drinks (except Wednesdays). Their candy bars
are still kept in the fridge from the days when they had no air
conditioning and chocolate melted. Old habits don't go away easily so
we chew on hard candy bars.
On the way to the JCT, the backdrop Red Mountain with its white
magnesite mining spills set off against the red stone of the mountain
is a great backdrop. This operation was a huge miscalculation during
WWI and WWII when the mineral was not available from inexpensive
sources in Europe. However, the mines never produced much and mainly
lost money. From the junction bar-and-grill it's over a short bump
past the new CDF fire station, and down to the Digger Pine ranch where
the 1.5 mile climb up Sweetwater Creek to the Blackbird (2881ft)
begins.
A short gradual descent along Colorado creek leads to the last climb,
the Double Ess (2881ft) after which we follow Arroyo Mocho into
Alameda County. Mines Road crosses Arroyo Mocho the last time at
elevation 2056ft) and stays at roughly at that level while the river
descends toward the valley in a grand canyon with grassland above the
road and a oak, pine and buckeye forest on the opposite side.
Finally, Mines Road makes the big dive down to the Livermore Valley on
a swift descent, crossing Arroyo Mocho at the bottom of the grade.
Although we had been riding into a slight headwind most of the way
from San Antonio Valley, it was almost gone as we rode into Livermore
where we took College Ave. across from the Library to cut over to
Stanley Blvd after crossing HWY84.
Our headwind (breeze) turned into a tailwind on Stanley Blvd. before
dying entirely just before Pleasanton where we made a brief stop at
the Milk store across from the old Southern Pacific RR depot. It has
been a tradition on Mt. Hamilton rides to stop there for an ice cream
cone and soda pop before heading out of town to Sunol Corners (the
water temple gate) taking Paloma Road (230ft) that becomes Calaveras
Road as it crosses under I680.
Calaveras Rd. Rolls along the east side of Sunol Valley along Alameda
Creek, bounded by a cork trees under which the strange Dead Man's Foot
mushroom grows in the hot days of autumn.
http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Pisolithus_tinctorius.html
After Welch Creek Rd. we crossed Alameda Creek and began the gradual
climb up the ridge to the west of Calaveras reservoir to about 1100ft
as it winds in and out of steep ravines. As the sun sank behind the
ridge to the west, a full moon rose over Oak Ridge above the east side
of the reservoir.
As we reached the high point of Calaveras Road, the setting sun
briefly cast a golden glow on the hills under the rising moon before
vanishing below the western horizon giving us a beautiful motion
picture finale to a great ride. We made the brisk descent past Felter
Rd. coasting down Calaveras Rd. to our starting point in Milpitas just
as it got dark.
That was 103 miles and 9730Ft of climb, a great day.
-----------------
Jobst Brandt