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Finally someone (Ina) suggested the Mt Hamilton drive. I really want to go there some day. But I know it is gonna be a tough and long drive. So I will call it an intermediate drive just to scare away some people.
For safety purposes, I suggest we have a short lecture to teach people some basic driving techniques. We also need to warn people not to let their ego take over and do stupid things. Any advanced drivers want to take the teacher role?
I think we can either start from San Jose or Pleasanton. Hmm.. which way is better?
To accomodate the slower drivers, I think we need more waiting/stopping points. Maybe 4 or 5 for this drive. Are there enough places for 10 or so cars to stop?
It seems to me there are couple track days coming up. NASA 10/27-28, 11/3-4, 11/11. So I am not sure which Saturday will be good for people: Nov 3, Nov 10, Nov 17?
Please feel free to give your input and see if we can pull this out together!
here's my lecture: DON'T SPEED ON THE SAN JOSE SIDE OF THE ROAD. It is regularly patrolled by cops on the weekends and they will have no problems with writing you a big ticket. Also all the tourists don't know how to drive on narrow roads and go there with vans and such and take up all lanes...hard to see around the blind turns. dangerous road!!!
I'd say go up from pleasanton, there's less traffic and it's easier to go fast going uphill. also then there's more incentive to take it easy while going downhill.
I did this loop a couple of times on Fridays recently, starting at Livermore. Very little/no traffic but there were bicyclist climbing up from San Jose. Bicycles I think are one of the big safety issues with all of the bind corners. A weekend drive will add to traffic concerns. The road on the front and back of Mt Hamilton is narrow, the section south of Livermore is wider.
Stopping along the way is an issue in a few sections, sometimes I had to wait longer than I wanted to to find a place to stop to check tire pressures. There are two parking areas on the section up from San Jose, and a couple of smaller areas where side roads branch off, but a lot of that section is narrow. The back side part is similar, then it widens with more room and more options on the section to Livermore. This section actually has a good straight piece through a nice valley, but watch out for cows on the road as some sections are unfenced. Even if they are not on the road they can get spooked easily and can run out right in front of you.
It is a nice drive, the view from the top is great on a clear day and the small museum at the top is interesting.
I think we are going on Saturday mornings as usual. So there should be some tourist traffic. I think that should slows us down a bit. Hopefully some warnings dished out by the advanced drivers in the beginning will prevent us from doing silly things.
Hmm... so how long is this drive going to take? We usually meet at 10am and take off at 10:30am. Should this time be earlier? Like meet at 9am and take off 9:30am? We usually try to make the lunch time between 12pm and 1pm.
We still don't have a suggestion for a place to meet in Pleasanton/Livermore. Any local people that can give us some ideas?
You could try meeting up at In-n-Out in Pleasanton. Its right off the Hopyard exit on 580. There is also the Hacienda Crossing shopping/restaurant area of Hacienda. I've done the Mt. Hamilton ride a couple of time, but those were on my bike. I'd happily lead, but I don't think anyone could keep up
This group has still not settled on a date for this drive, right?
I've ridden the whole length from Alum Rock to Livermore half a dozen times on a motorcycle and done it once with my S2000. Even though it would be more convenient for me to start in Pleasanton, I prefer starting on the San Jose side. You just have to take it easy most of the way to the top. Once you get to the back side you can pick up the pace. There is one County Sheriff with an SUV that patrols the whole top section. (I had a talk with him when a friend crashed his bike up there.)
You might also want to consider making a run towards Patterson from the junction on Del Puerto Road. Map of junction. It's tight at the top, but opens up for some nice high speed curves at the bottom. There are even more cows potentially on the road there, though.
Be aware that it's approximately 70 miles from San Jose to Livermore on this road.
10-22-2001, 11:18 PM
Mt Hamilton Drive?
