A nice enough day on top of Mt Hamilton that you could easily see the Sierras and their rather-modest snow cap.Sure, it would have been nicer to ride with others up Mt Hamilton today, but Kevin wanted to spend time with his girlfriend, the other Kevin is in Switzerland (with his girlfriend) and it didn’t quite seem appropriate to publicize a group ride that might involve taking the train to the start. I was hoping that my long-time friend Ron would be able to ride; he’s recovering (remarkably so!) from cancerous brain tumors and no way, just a couple months ago, it would have seemed possible, but the new miracle targeted-t-cell drugs are working their miracles for him! But his wife nixed the idea of riding anywhere very far from home.
I was surprised by the relatively-small number of cyclists on the hill; it took a few minutes before I was able to overtake anyone. No heroic effort today, although Strava says it was my 4th-best effort since 2010. And of the 36 people listed by Strava (so far) who climbed today, I was 4th on that list too! So not a completely sluggish climb. I think, riding with others, I could have ridden a bit faster (and probably wouldn’t have stopped twice for pictures).
I did see some familiar faces at the top, including Jeff H, who I descended with.
No coke at the top, as the gate at the base of the observatory was closed and signs on the way up warning no restrooms. I did venture further down the other side a bit in search of a plant to water, and caught some really nice views of the valley below.
My string of really strong climbs had to end someday, and today was that day. Actually my “Thursday” rides have had some issues lately; last Thursday my head wasn’t in the game and I ended up bailing early, just after the climb through the park. Very unlike me, but some very unlikely stuff had been going on for a while and I let it get to me. This morning? It was Colin and Kevin and we started 20 seconds early, something never, ever done. We normally leave at 7:45 on the dot, but I was thinking maybe we could dispense with 2020 a bit sooner. It wasn’t as cold as Tuesday, but maybe the dampness got to me. Breathing just wasn’t going too well, and there’s this thing about climbing where you kinda have to breathe.
Interesting how much warmer 38 feels than 33! Just 5 degrees, why is that such a big deal? What was a bit uncomfortable was slowly catching up to a group of three mountain bikers making their way up the hill, holding a pace where I was a bit concerned I could run out of gas after passing them. Hate that! But I was making fairly steady progress up the hill. Not like Kevin was though; he took off pretty hard, until he blew up at the wide open clearing. Still couldn’t catch either he or Colin before the top though.
Heading down the other side of 84 Kevin pointed out a single large wild turkey, perhaps fitting at the end of a pretty ridiculous year. West Old LaHonda was quite beautiful, as you can see in the video at the top.
