Hamilton through a Shortcut of sorts

It's Labor Day weekend, and I'm actually in town!  Well, actually I didn't want to hassle with driving on the big holiday weekend, but my friend Karen, from SoCal, is visiting her parents, and put together a ride from San Jose to Hamilton and back.  It should be enough to get some blood pumping, legs climbing.  She also brought along her friend Valerie, also from SoCal, and another friend Ken, who is local.  Actually, this is Ken's route, so it should be fun ... mix it up a little bit.

We got a fairly early start at 7:30 am, in interest of time obligations.  We left from the Holiday Inn hotel by Silicon Valley Road, through some fancy homes by Silver Creek.  This is an area I've never ridden before, so this is fun.

I normally start the Hamilton climb from the base at Alum Rock and Hwy 130, but we took Clayton Road instead.  Clayton Road averages 4-6%, so it's a gradual climb (probably a little shallower than climbing straight from the base ... I'd have to do some comparison of my Strava data). 

There were quite a few riders on Hamilton already by the time we started that portion of the climb.  I saw one guy in polka dot jersey pass us up, so Valerie and I decided to see if we can catch him.  I got to within 10-20 bike lengths of him, but just couldn't close the gap.  I thought, great ... now I wasted all this energy ... what do I have left for the rest of the climb?  At least there are breaks in the climb, so my leg was able to recover.  I later saw him resting near Quimby and Hamilton, and he wasn't even going up to the top!  Whats' up with that????

By the time we got to Grant Ranch Park, the sun was out in full force.  Time to ditch the arm warmers. With about 5 miles left to go, we started splitting up into groups.  For Ken, this was a recovery ride for him (he had done 130 miles, and the backside of Hamilton yesterday, on his fixie!).  I only mention this, as he passes me up like I was standing still.  

It's a good thing we are hitting this climb early.  I could sense that the temperature was getting in the upper 80's.  This nice thing is there wasn't too much car traffic.  

Finally get up to the junction at Hwy 130, where there's one final climb up to the Observatory.  I stop here, just because the water spout here is easiest to fill water bottles ... something that not many people know, and they usually fill up at the Observatory.

While up at the Observatory, I see Donald come up.  He rode solo from Fremont, and it was good to catch up with him.  He didn't recognize me at first, as he hadn't seen me since I started shaving off this weight.  Well, give it time ... he'll see the old me, with the added pounds in fall/winter ... lol

Going back is a straight shot down, back where we came from.  Great ride, great route.  And yes, yet another video ... you know that was coming.