Well, I was telling folks that after the Fremont fund raiser 3/14, I was going to take a nice 19 mile loop to work off all my sins... I may have fixed a few but.... sigh... This is one of my preferred rides, so thought I'd show it to Ya'll!
The weather was gorgeous and off I went. I've been treated quite badly by the weather as of recent, so I started out with a light sweatshirt... peddled 1 mile to the beginning of the bike trail...
It starts at a percolation pond, that's how we get our ground water, let it out of the dams, store it in places like this and let the water get into the ground water system. The water is very clear!
Highway 85 just west of the 87 interchange, north of Oak Ridge. This is where I lost the sweatshirt... nice out!
Other side of the perc pond, the bike trail follows a stream just to the right.
...and leads to Almaden Lake. Pretty place, the horrible paths I have to ride on.. GBG
Town homes across the lake.
This is where I lost the T shirt... 80... in the sun. From here, I take streets along the Santa Teresa Hills to Bernal Rd. that goes over my favorite hill... That's miles 2.5 to 8.5.
Hillside as I peddle along, almost to the good place!
Alright! At the park and starting up the road...
I'll take a pic from the road up by that cement wall..
Some folks ruining their day... GBG
About mile 8.8 and we start up the hill... notice it has a slight upward slant! GBG
This is about .3 miles up or 9.1, notice that we're moving right on up!
Overlooking the homes, same place.
So I go a short way so I can see up the road.. and up we go...
Santa Teresa Park, notice the ruts... hogs looking for grubs, etc. They plow quite well! And looking for deer, normally see some up here...
This is one of my favorite stops, overlooking the houses, this is about 9.7 or almost a mile from start of "up".
So I've got a bit more to go..
A park, quite nice, the family used to go there.
Now about 1.3 into the up, at a pull out / parking spot. Notice everything is green... well we've had a wet year. It's the Golden State... in a couple months it will be golden! And we'll go to HSVROC at Topaz Lake, Nv and most of CalEfornYa will catch fire and I'll have to eat smoke all the way home! Or that's what it's been for at least the last two years!
Looking back down the hill....
AT the top! This is about 1.5 mi of the "up"... notice that zig zag on the left? Kids and I called it the switch back, single track and on the other side going down, there's about 5 levels of it, pretty bad trail, very rocky and steep.
If you look at the tallest point, There is an antenna there, I think it's Coyote Point, around 1450' up.
Looking to the right at the IBM Almaden Research Center - ARC.
There ALWAYS has to be a down side! The road / trail headed down into Almaden Valley.
It's hard to see, but if you click on the pic, the left highest point is Mt Umunhum, at about 3450', the next tallest peek to the right is where the power lines go over the hill... power lines are mountain bikers best friends... they have to have fire trails and access roads for power company vehicles... nice roads for the off roader's. I took that road ONCE, and that was enough! It's a killer! 
OK, so far, this is the "wild life", sigh...
We got lots of turkeys in the valley, real ones! I saw 5 dozen here once!
For the "wild life", bet that would feel good on a 100 deg day!
Some very large old growth Manzanita trees.
Looking back up this side of the trail. We're almost at the 12 mile point.
Back on the bike path, 12 down 7 to go!
A nice stream fed by the Almaden reservoir.
The other side of the bridge, the water was dirty today, unusual, but we've had a lot of rain lately, that clouds it up.
...not the yellow brick road, but pretty nice! GBG
Let's see, Sunday, first great day in a LONG time... think the trail was packed!
This is interesting, to me at least, I've watched this stream for a long time, the straight route and the branch to the right were always even split. I wondered why one didn't become the dominate branch... this year the right branch won!
Again, the water was cloudy, it's normally crystal clear. They have some very large fish in the stream, lake and perc pond. I've seen 12" round, 2+ foot long ones taken out, black bass... big ones! That rock by the tree out growth, is where they like to play. A few weeks back I saw about 8 big ones, spawning, I think.
Well, I didn't get skunked! A deer!
A tree laying down. This creek will rage! When it rains hard, all the street water drains to ditches that feed this and the run off comes in FAST! And this thing can get wild!
That tree was straight across the creek, laying on the fence post of the bike path, the last heavy rain and run off, straightened it out! I'm tellin' Ya, this thing runs bad in heavy rain!
A lot of times I'll see families with kids playing in the water....
We get to the park across from where I first came into the lake.
A busy day indeed! Lotsa folks!
Nice picnic areas.
Remember I said this creek rages? Look at the rock build up in the lake. That has occurred over the years, the water washes rock into the lake. Makes it nice for folks and fisher people to walk out into the lake.
Nice place for families.
Favorite view across the lake looking at Mt Umunhum...
Almost back to where I started. This is the coolest spot any where! The breeze comes across the water, 85 shades the lake, and it's real cool!
Hey! The Cranky dude survived! Great day all around! I think I still see some 'tator salad, mac salad, bit of brownie stuck in places, sigh... Next time I'll work it all off! GBG!!!!
I bought a new bike just after this ride:
http://dadfunrides.blogspot.com/2010/02/misc-catchall-blog.html
Look under Dad New Cannondale F5 Section
The thing about a cross bike, part mountain / part street bike, is it does neither very well.... sigh... Well, I rode it for 35K, and it was completely shot! Rims, tires, tubes, derailleur, gear cluster, chain, it would have cost more to fix than my new one... oh well.....
So back to a mountain bike. Got it for $400 on Craigslist, less than 1/2 price, but of course, added much to make it work for me.... and would have had to do the same if I paid full price, some things Ya just gotta do....
1 comment:
I am not ready for that ride on my little cruiser, 3-speed bike. :-)
But it is a beautiful Ride.
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