The Moo Moo laughing at me and wondering why I am torturing myself climbing Quimby Road.
In all the years biking,
The Boyfriend and I have never climbed Quimby Road to Mt. Hamilton. I opted out the year Low Key Hill Climb Series did it. That was some time ago. It's not as bad as I imagined. If you can climb Sierra Road, you can climb Quimby. Well, I say that, until I reached this switchback.
And this doozy of a climb. That's where I panicked and got off the bike and walked. The rest of the club riders were way ahead of me on their way to climbing Mt. Hamilton.
So I took photos. A few days ago, we were in the midst of a heat wave. Today, we were bundled up and cold.
The climb is worth it for the views. The sun tried to make an appearance and I appreciated any warmth it provided. I was able to get back on the bike and do the last bit of the climb.
Last view from Quimby before descending Quimby to continue to Mt. Hamilton. Except I was so wet from sweat that I knew to stop. Descending Quimby was like being in a bucket of ice cubes. Turns out that Mt. Hamilton was open after all, and I was able to ride it back to the start.
I suppose I should have taken photographs to show the progress in the repair of the road after the washout from the winter storms but this sort of shot was much more appealing. For a brief spell, there was a bit of blue in the sky.
One last lovely shot before finishing the ride. It was darn chilly. After biking Quimby, the bits of climb on Mt. Hamilton were easy peazy. I waited an hour at my car for
The Boyfriend. He and everyone else did the entire ride. He said it was probably 40 degrees at the top of Mt. Hamilton. I would have demanded a limo to get me down. Or a horse drawn carriage. Proud of him for doing it all. And delighted that we both finally did Quimby Road. In a week or so, the pros will be doing Mt. Ham and Quimby Road for the Amgen Tour of California. I hope they have perfect weather.
One last thing, while at Chili's for a meal afterwards, we had another first, watching The Kentucky Derby. Neato peato.
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1 comment:
No doubt about it, Quimby West is one of the Bay Area's hardest hills. I take it hat Mt. Hamilton Road was closed for a while? I saw this weekend that WOLH is still closed, although other cyclists told me it's ridable. I hear from a co-worker that San Jose-Soquel is also still blocked. Two weeks ago, I was annoyed while riding up 9 to miss the traffic light associated with construction until I noticed that there was an unlocked porta-potty nearby!
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