Mt Hamilton By Bike

Mount Hamilton (4,265 ft) by bike

Matthew Gilbertson

4/12/18

93 miles

6,000 ft elevation gain

7am to 5pm

The closest 4,000 footer to Palo Alto it Mt. Hamilton, home of the Lick observatory. You can see the white hemispherical telescope enclosures atop Mt Hamilton from much of the southern Bay Area, so it was a worthy objective for a bike ride. After an alpine start in Palo Alto, I pedaled SE through San Jose before starting the long climb. When I got to the top, there was fresh ice falling off the trees from some freezing fog that had rolled through overnight. It was still windy and cold, and I was out of energy, so I hung out inside the visitor’s center for about an hour in an effort to warm up. I also got to take a quick peek at one of the original telescopes. Thankfully, after some hot chocolate and M&M’s, I was ready for the long, cold descent.

I made it back down to warm and sunny San Jose in no time, and began riding the long urban maze back to Palo Alto. Luckily, I could follow bike trails for most of the way. The strong NW headwind that sprang up in the afternoon was most unwelcome, and was perhaps one of the strongest headwinds I had ever experienced. It was sustained at around 30 mph for about 8 miles of my ride along the Bay Shore. By the time I reached the Google Campus, I turned off the bay trail in the hopes that the wind would subside. It did indeed, and I cruised back to the apartment by 5pm, stopping by Stanford along the way to grab an orange from the post office trees.

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