Mt Hamilton, located in the south bay near San Jose, is, I believe, the tallest peak in the bay area, with its various summits (there are several along the ridge) measuring in the 4200-4300 foot range. It's also probably the easiest of the three to climb, since it's gently graded most of the way. Of course the price of the gentle grade is a very long climb: from the base of Mt Hamilton Road up to Lick Observatory is 18 miles. But I much prefer a long gentle climb to a short steep one, so Hamilton was right up my alley. The first twelve miles were pretty easy, with the steady ascent broken by a couple of 1-2 mile descents. This provided a nice respite during the climb, but then later coming down it meant that I had to do a little more climbing when I was pretty pooped.
The last 6-7 miles were a bit tougher. The road leading up to the Observatory is a bit steeper than the previous 12 miles, and I had a little mini-bonk on the last few miles. I had been going at a steady pace of 6-7 mph in the first 12 miles, but had to drop down to 4-5 mph on the final ascent. I just ran out of energy, and actually felt a little nauseous when I finally made it to the Observatory. I had only consumed half a luna bar and one gel in about 3 hours of steady climbing, so I don't think I had enough calories to keep me going. But I made it, so yay!
Lick Observatory is interesting.. it was built between 1876 and 1888, and has been run by the University of California since 1888 (UC has its mitts on all kinds of things that most people don't know about). According to wikipedia, the gentle grade of the road was to facilitate the transportation, by horse and mule-drawn wagons, of building materials for the observatory. Near the end of the long descent down the mountain, I heard a pop and pulled off to the side of the road. I had broken a spoke and my back wheel was so out of true that it was rubbing against the frame. Fabulous. A couple of cyclists stopped to offer help, but none of us had a spoke wrench or knew how to true a wheel, so we just loosened everything as much as we could so I could coast the last 3 miles down the hill. The woman who stopped said that her husband ran a bike shop in Santa Cruz.. I think she said it was called Sprockets. So, a shout out to the woman from Sprockets who stopped to help. Anyway, I dropped the bike off at the shop to have the spoke fixed and the wheel trued. My two readers will remember the trouble I went through when my other bike started popping spokes left and right, so let's hope I'm not heading down that path with the Dolce as well.
Animules: horses, several deer, lots of suicidal squirrels
Total Distance: 39 miles
Time in the Saddle: 4 hours
Elevation Gain: 5900 feet
Route (on bikely.com): Mt Hamilton
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