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The landscape was dry with barely a hint of green poking up occasionally. We saw evidence of overgrazing and a blight that seems to have stricken most of the old oak trees in the area.
Traffic was nearly nonexistent south of Pinnacles until the northern end of our return trip, where we were overtaken by several convoys of campers, motorhomes, and pickup trucks towing dirt bike trailers returning from the Clear Creek area at the end of the day.
Distance: 76.5 miles Climbing: 3600 feet
The railroad is built 1/3 scale and has a number of pieces of equipment including steam locomotives (diesel fired), a diesel switcher, a number of passenger cars, both open and covered, and some utility/maintenance cars. I also toured the grounds and explored as far as the Ed Carnegie bridge over Scott Creek south of College Park.
My visit to the ranch was unplanned. I just happened to see the sign for the railroad at the entrance as I was riding by, so I went in to have a look. I was fortunate that one of the on-site volunteers, Andy, was available and willing to show me around the place at the moment I showed up.
My ride started in Sunnyvale. I rode out to Portola Valley on the usual roads, climbed Old La Honda, descended to La Honda, then took Pescadero Rd. to Pescadero. Since I had plenty of water and food with me I didn't stop in Pescadero but continued on Bean Hollow Rd. and CA1 to Swanton Rd. I hadn't ridden Swanton Rd. in many years.
After my visit to the Swanton Pacific Railroad I continued south on Swanton Rd. and rejoined CA1 north of Davenport. I took CA1 south past Davenport, then turned left on Bonny Doon Rd.
Bonny Doon Rd. passes initially through a deep canyon then climbs steeply to a bench where it crosses a conveyor belt for the cement plant in Davenport. After this brief respite the road resumes climbing with a wider shoulder before leveling off in a meadow between Smith Grade Rd. and the Bonny Doon Winery tasting room.
I continued past the tasting room and took Martin Rd. up through the dry landscape of the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve. At Ice Cream Grade I turned left, and then at Pine Flat Rd. I turned right.
At the upper end of Bonny Doon Rd. I turned left and began a long, sweeping downhill on a smooth, mostly straight road, punctuated by three tight 90-degree turns near the bottom of the descent. (The fourth and last 90-degree turn isn't as tight as the others.)
Having completed my Bonny Doon loop I returned to Smith Grade Rd. and turned left. Smith Grade Rd. descends gradually at first, then steeply into "the hole", the deep canyon of Reggiardo Creek, then Laguna Creek, before climbing to the low ridge at Majors Rd. separating the Laguna Creek watershed from that of Majors Creek.
At the eastern end of Smith Grade I turned right on Empire Grade and continued into Santa Cruz and the end of my ride.
(Distance: 94 miles; Climbing: 6740 feet)
While we were setting up the bikes we discovered that the dirt shoulder next to Crothers Rd. was covered with puncture vines and that a number of the evil thorns had found their way onto the bottoms of our shoes and were stuck to our tires. Fortunately we hadn't ridden our bikes yet, so the thorns hadn't penetrated.
Once we picked out the thorns we started our ride up the road. Another cyclist, Mike, had also arrived late and had forgotten his lights, both front and rear, so we offered to let him ride between us. We had remembered to bring our lights.
Ron and I rode at first with tail lights. Ron took the lead and used his low-wattage headlight, and I turned on my headlight only for the downhills.
Later up the road we came upon some other cyclists in Piaw's group who had been delayed fixing flat tires--four flats altogether. I wonder how they got so many flats!
When we got about halfway up the last climb, about 1000 feet from the summit, the sky began lightening noticeably, and the heavy orange orb of the full moon began to set behind Skyline Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the other side of San Jose.
A few hundred feet from the summit I offered to give Ron a push so that we wouldn't miss the sunrise from the top. He declined my offer, but he told me to go on ahead if I wished. So, I raced the last mile up the hill.
It was clear that from the summit of Mt. Hamilton the summer sun would rise behind nearby Copernicus Peak to the east. I suggested that we head east down the road to a small turnout just past mile marker "1" we had used a few years ago to view the sun rising over the Sierra Nevada. We arrived at the turnout a few minutes before the sun poked itself above the horizon.
After we viewed the sunrise we rode back to the summit of Mt. Hamilton and met up with the rest of the group including Ron, Marius Schilder, and Laura Stern and enjoyed watching the shadow of the Mountain slide across the haze above San Jose.
After another ten minutes we rode a short distance down the west side of the mountain to enjoy an informal breakfast at the home of Dr. Elinor Gates who had the good fortune of living in the old observatory director's house near the dome of the Crossley Reflector.
After breakfast Ron and I returned to the summit bench to enjoy the clear views in the balmy air for another hour before starting our trip down the mountain.
When we got to Halls Valley we turned left on Quimby Rd. and climbed the 600 feet to its abrupt summit (2204ft) on the shoulder of Masters Hill (2429ft) before plunging down into San Jose. From the bottom we returned to the start by way of Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Clayton Rd.
(Distance: 44.5 miles; Climbing: 6000 feet)
We started by taking Old Big Oak Flat Rd., the old road into Yosemite from this direction, also known as Tuolumne Grove Rd. This road is paved but several years ago was closed to auto traffic after a storm damaged the road. Bicycles can easily ride through, although the upper part of the road is the main trail through the Tuolumne Grove. There was a "no entry" sign, presumably for autos not to continue uphill where the old road used to be one-way downhill, and at the top parking lot there was a sign "No Vehicles Beyond This Point", but no specific prohibition against bicycles. The road lies just outside the wilderness boundary.
This road climbs steeply through the forest and finishes at the parking area for the Tuolumne Grove. At the bottom of the climb we saw crossing the road in front of us a rather large coyote who was too quick for my camera and about twice the size of those we usually see in the Santa Cruz Mountains near home.
Once we regained Tioga Rd. we headed east and uphill. Traffic was light overall and passed in platoons rather than singly. The road had opened less than 24 hours earlier. Most drivers were uncommonly polite, leaving more than the usual amount of space while passing.
The climb from Crane Flat to White Wolf is roughly 2000 feet, but is a bit of a slog through the woods, there being few interesting sights along this stretch. But, even after this dry winter, water running under, across, or alongside the road was a nearly constant companion.
A couple miles past the turnoff for White Wolf, Ron decided that this wasn't his day to do a long ride, so he turned back. It was decided that I would continue to Tioga Pass and Ron would return with the truck and pick me up wherever we happened to meet up on the road later in the afternoon.
I continued downhill to Yosemite Creek, then uphill on the eastern side, crossing several streams that were running across the road. Of course, motor traffic always seemed to pass and kick up the water just as I was crossing one of these seasonal floods.
East of the Porcupine Creek trailhead the scenery becomes more interesting, the road leaving the thick forest and crossing bare granite in many places. Views of distant landmarks became more frequent.
I stopped briefly at Olmstead Point to enjoy the view along with most of the motorists who were driving the same way. I was surprised how thin the snowpack was this year and how little snow remained on the ground.
From Olmstead Point Tioga Rd. descends to Tenaya Lake (8150ft), skirting its northwest shore before climbing to a low pass between Polly and Medlicott Domes. I saw no climbers on Pywiack Dome today, although the weather would have been perfect for climbing.
I continued on through a short dip across Cathedral Creek and over another low pass before descending into Tuolumne Meadows (8600ft) , where the snows had recently cleared, leaving a swamp amidst last year's brown blades of grass. Fortunately it was too cold for mosquitos.
I stopped at the store hoping I'd find it open. The ranger we spoke with at Crane Flat warned that there were No Services along Tioga Rd. today, and he was right. The store was shuttered. Even the restrooms were closed, the parking lot taped off. I was rather disappointed as I had been hoping to stop for some salty food. Homeopathic electrolyte capsules (Hammer Enduralytes) and energy bars weren't quite enough.
In spite of this I pressed on to Tioga Pass. As I climbed the snow became more constant on the ground, although the depth was never more than about five feet near the road.
At Tioga Pass I asked the ranger if the store at the Tioga Pass Resort, a couple miles downhill east of the Pass, was open. He said it was closed for the season. I wasn't going to go to Lee Vining as the plan was for me to return on the road from the Pass to meet up with Ron.
So, I turned around and in spite of the steady west wind found the descent back to Tuolumne Meadows much easier than the climb. Even so, I had only just enough clothing with me--all of it on me--to feel not chilled. I had climbed the same section of road earlier in short sleeves.
As I was descending westbound to Tenaya Lake I met up with Ron who was driving the other way.
(67 miles; 8250 feet; 3615 kJoules)