9/26/06: Tunitas Creek (39.2 Miles)

After spending the night in Half Moon Bay, I rode back over the hill to Palo Alto on Tunitas Creek Road.

The first 10.5 miles were along Highway 1 South to Tunitas Creek Road. It was windy and cold, but after a couple of miles I warmed up and was okay by the time I reached Tunitas Creek. I’ve heard from so many people about how Tunitas Creek seems to go on forever with miles of incredibly steep road that slowly grinds riders’ legs into jello.

Tunitas Creek is 9.2 miles long but its really only the 5 miles in the middle that are steep. The first 3 miles and the last 2.5 miles are pretty flat. Furthermore, the first mile of the climb is gentle and there are short flat spots along the way that provide moments of relief. There are a couple of brutally steep parts of the road but I don’t remember any of them being longer than .5 miles. On the whole, Tunitas Creek Road is difficult but it isn’t as hard as Page Mill. Of course, it would have been harder if I had done the Coastal Loop in one day rather than splitting it over two days.

As far a scenary goes, I was blown away. Tunitas Creek is much more isolated than most of the other climbs in the area. There is virtually no traffic and the road is very narrow as it winds through towering redwoods next to a small creek.

After reaching the Sklyine, I made a right and climbed back to Highway 84 which I took down into Menlo Park and then coasted back to Palo Alto.
Here are my stats:

3h & 22s

39.17 miles

13.0 avg mph

35.2 max mph

131 avg heart rate

165 max heart rate

1153 calories

9/25/06: Ride to Half Moon Bay (37.6 Miles)

Today I rode from Palo Alto to Half Moon Bay. It was a more difficult ride that I had anticipated but not too bad on the whole. The wind on Highway 84 and Highway 1 definitely made the ride at bit more difficult than it looked on paper.

I rode up Old La Honda to Skyline and then down Old La Honda West to Highway 84. Highway 84 is a long descent of about 6 or 7 miles before hitting a rolling flat section before Stage Road and Highway 1. The descent through Pescadero is fun and beautiful. There were very few cars on the road so I was able to ride it fast and take the full lane for most of the turns. However, the road gets very pebbly. Pebbly probably isn’t a word but it seems to be the best way to describe the road with was quite uncomfortable. The road surface wasn’t in disrepair, it just wasn’t smooth and was made up of thousands of small pebbles. It definitely wasn’t unbearable but it was pleasant either.

I turned right at Stage Road, which climbs 1 mile to Highway 1. The climb on Stage Road felt good. I was more tired than I expected at this point, but the grade was manageable (I’d guess 6%) and very consistent. I went slowly, but this climb was easy.

I made a right on Highway 1 and headed North towards Half Moon Bay. At this point the the temperature began to drop and I was a little bit cold. It wasn’t too bad, but if I do it again any later in the Fall, I will definitely bring leg & arm warmers. Highway 1 is also quite windy and a huge gust coming in off the ocean hit me just as I was crossing the bridge before Tunitas Creek Road and nearly knocked me off my bike. Highway 1 was mostly rolling hills a couple of short steep climbs but otherwise nothing difficult. The traffic moves quickly on Highway 1 but the bike lane is very wide most of the way. Traffic really picked up in Half Moon Bay, but otherwise it was light.

After passing though downtown Half Moon Bay I met a friend at his beach house were I spent the night. Also, we had dinner and several beers at Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. Its a great place with a nice beer garden that has roaring fire pits to sit around. The food was a little bit expensive but the beer was cheap and very good. I highly recommend their Maverick’s Amber Ale. Just the kind of place I was looking for after a long ride.

Here are my stats:

2h 43m 37s
37.63 miles
36.3 max mph
13.7 avg mph
1170 calories

142 avg heart rate

239 max heart rate (this must be wrong)

9/23/06: Page Mill Road (37.9 Miles)

I rode up Page Mill Road for the first time today. At 8.4 miles, Page Mill is one of the longest climbs in the bay area. However, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The climb took me just over an hour. Stupidly, I forgot to check my time at the top of the hill, but I was just passing the one hour mark near the top and I think 1 hour and 3 minutes is a good estimate.

Page Mill was definitely a hard climb, but frankly I was surprised that it wasn’t harder. 8.4 miles of climbing is somewhat of an exaggeration because the first mile is very gentle and the last 2 miles are also quite forgiving. The 5 miles of climbing in the middle can be quite tough at times but there are frequent short flat spots (maybe 10-20 yards) that provide a couple of seconds of rest.   Page Mill Road is steep and there are a couple of brutal sections.  Many people find the climb after Foothill Park to be especially steep.  For whatever reason, this stretch didn’t phase me.  However, there is a .75 mile section around mile number 4 that really challenged me.
One other interesting note is that I took about 5 seconds to check out the intersection where the Alpine Road (fire road) meets Page Mill near the top.  At one point Alpine Road connected with Page Mill, but part of the road was destroyed by an avalanche and it is now only used as a fire road.  According to the

After reaching the top I took Skyline to Old La Honda (West), which I descended to Highway 84. I rode back up to Skyline on 84 with a couple who was struggling because the woman had hurt one of her legs. I wanted to make sure they were okay so I rode behind them until we got to Alice’s Restaurant.

After coasting down 84 into Woodside, I decided to checkout Bear Gulch Road, which is one of the last paved routes to Skyline that I’ve yet to climb. Bear Gulch is supposed to be much steeper than Old La Honda or Kings Mountain, but not much is know about it because it has been a gated private road since 1978. I rode up to the gate, which is about a third of a mile up the road to check it out. The road leading up to the gate is definitely steeper than Old La Honda or Kings Mountain and its pretty narrow as well. I would really love to try climbing it some time and it wouldn’t be too hard to get past the gate, but there is a video camera and a sign that very clearly says, hiking and cycling on the road is forbidden. Also, there seemed to be a lot of traffic on the road and I suspect that if home owners really don’t want cyclists on the road, it would be tough to make it to the top (where there is a second gate) without at least one of the drivers reporting the trespassing to the police. After hanging out at the gate for a couple of minutes, I turned back around and headed home to Palo Alto through Woodside and then Menlo Park.

Here are my stats:

3h 12m 3s

37.85 miles

11.8 avg mph

33.3 max mph

129 avg heart rate

169 max heart rate

1096 calories

9/21/06: Old La Honda West (29.5 Miles)

I keep hearing about how beautiful Old La Honda is on the other (West) side of Skyline Blvd. I’d never tried it and the sweeping views of the ocean and redwood forests were calling me so I decided to check it out.

First I climbed up Old La Honda (East) in 31:07. I’ve been riding it in 30 minutes or below so I was kind of disappointed with 31 but considering how tired my legs were from my adventure on Montebello earlier in the week, itwasn’t such a bad time. Also, despite riding slow on tired legs I actually felt strong and I think I’ve gotten to the point where Old La Honda isn’t that big of a deal. Sure its a tough climb but I think that I can incorporate into longer rides rather than having it actually be the focus of the ride.

After crossing Skyline Blvd, my breath was taken away by Old La Honda West. The road narrows considerably (and Old La Honda East is barely a two lane road) as it winds through an amazing cathedral of redwood trees. There is no car traffic whatsoever and the quiet atmosphere of the soaring redwoods creates a scene of tranquility that is truly beautiful. Jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, words just don’t do this stretch of road any justice at all. After about a half mile the Redwoods clear to very winding golden hills that are also spectacular. 2.6 miles later, Old La Honda meets back up with Highway 84. The condition of the pavement really wasn’t too bad but the extremely narrow road and the many sharp blind corners do make Old La Honda West semi-dangerous to ride. It was a good thing that no cars were on the road because passing would have been very difficult. Given the total lack of traffic, it was tempting to take the road fast but the difficulty of passing cars really necessitated using my ears to hear cars before I saw them and having the wind drown out the sound of the engines really would have been stupidly dangerous. I didn’t find any views of the ocean, but there is no question that Old La Honda West is definitely one of the most beautiful rodes I’ve ever ridden.

After reaching the intersection of Old La Honda and Highway 84, I climbed 2.5 miles back up to Alice’s Restaurant. This section of Highway 84 is a climb but it really isn’t that tough at all. The Krebs Cycle Map does give it one chevron (<) but I was able to ride most of it at 10-13 mph, with only one short section that required me to get down in to a lower (but still not my lowest) gear. After reaching Skyline I continued on 84 and coasted down to Menlo Park and then back home to Palo Alto.

I rode 29.5 miles in 2 hours and 21 minutes at approximately 12.5 average mph.

9/19/06: Montebello, Page Mill & Skyline (49.6 Miles)

Today I did an amazing ride that really wound up being an adventure. I havent kicked my cold/flu yet and I started out really slowly. I was planning on riding over to Montebello Road to scout it out and do about 25 flat miles in the process. On the way over to the Stevens Creek Reservoir through Los Altos, I was really gassed and I figured there was no way that I could climb Montebello today. I stopped into Chain Reaction Bikes on the way over and asked a couple of questions about Montebello. I like to research my roads before a I climb them so I had a good idea of what was in store for the paved section but I had no idea how long the dirt fire road would be and whether or not it really was doable on a road bike. I was told in the shop that the dirt fire road was a mile, maybe a mile and a quarter and doable on a road bike.

As usual, once I got to Montebello I was tempted to try riding a little bit of it. I started by saying I would just try to do a mile, after a mile passed, I thought I would try to get to the flat part at the end of mile two and finally about an hour later I found myself at the top of the climb staring at the fire road. Considering my pulled hamstring, nose running like a faucet, lungs coated in gunk and the fact that I hadn’t eaten all day it was probably quite stupid of me to try it but standing at the top sure was rewarding.

Montebello road is a 5.24 miles climb. The first 2 miles are very steep and definitely more difficult than Old La Honda. They are also exposed and would be especially difficult on a hot day. However, after passing Montebello School the road has a false flat section that frankly feels like a down hill. The easy section lasts for about .75 miles and leads to grade that feels nearly spot on Old La Honda the rest of the way.  Like most climbs Montebello has its fair share of spectacular views. Most of the climbs that I’ve done are further North, so it was kind of neat to get views with a slightly different perspective. It was also interesting to be able to see down on top of the quarry that is next to the Stevens Creek Resevoir… man is that thing big! They’ve teraformed half of a mountain! The ride is long, and the first two miles are very difficult, but is beautiful and definitely worth riding.

After getting to the top, I stopped for a quick bathroom break and then road around the gate on to the fire road into the Montebello Open Space Preserve. At first the road is just paved poorly but it quickly breaks down into gravel and dirt. Also, its a lot closer to 4 miles than the 1.25 that I was told in the bike shop. It really isn’t a good idea to ride on a road bike and definitely not what I was expecting. Most of the road is rideable with caution but the middle section is especially bad. I actually fell and wound up walking my bike 3 times. Fortunately, I didn’t have to walk anything longer than 50 yards but it was anoying nonetheless. Toward the end there is also a dirt down hill section that was really dangerous. My road tires were so squirely in the loose dirt of the decline that I unclipped and squeezed the breaks tight to ride it as slowly as possible. The drop-off cliff on the side of the road served as the perfect accent to this harrowing stretch of road. Over all the Montebello Open Space preserve is beautiful and I’m glad that I road it. However, doing it on a road bike was dangerous and I would not recommend trying it.

Eventually, the fire road comes to another gate which leads to a private driveway and then on to Page Mill Road. After 4 miles on dirt, riding this newly paved road feels like floating on air. Furthermore, just after passing the gate on to the private driveway, at 4201 Page Mill, is a drinking fountain on the left hand side of the road. I had pretty much run out of water on the way up Montebello so the fountain was a big relief and I refilled both of my water bottles.  The combination of water and smooth pavement really felt like I’d reached an Oasis after all of that dirt.  After several hundred yards, the private driveway comes to a second gate that is not passalbe on a bike when it intersects with Page Mill. It wasn’t tough to lift my bike over the right side of the gate and then walk around the left side, but it did make me wonder if I had just been trespassing.

I actually had no idea how far up Page Mill I was but I figured that I would try to take it slowly and that I could always just head back home by coasting down Page Mill if my legs gave out. Fortunately, I was just below the Montebello Open Space Preserve parking lot and only about 2 miles from the top. The last 2 miles up Page Mill really aren’t that hard so I made to the intersection with Skyline easily. I took Skyline for 7-8 miles over to Highway 84 and then coasted back down into Menlo Park where I turned right on Alameda de las Pulgas and headed home.

This was an amazing ride. Definitely an adventure. I’m probably stupid enough to do it again at some point, but I really would not recommend riding the dirt section of Montebello on a road bike to any sane person.

Here are my stats:

4h 14m 26s

49.59 Miles

11.6 Avg Mph

37.7 Max Mph

1605 Calories

128 Avg Heart Rate

178 Max Heart Rate

9/7/06: Kings Mountain (32 Miles)

Today I rode up Kings Mountain (Google Map) for the first time. It is a great ride and I’m happy that I finally decide d to give it a try. Yesterday I did a lot of climbing having gone up Old La Honda and then up Skyline to Page Mill and my legs were very tired but for some reason I was very drawn to the idea of giving Kings Mountain a shot.

I started out going up Sand Hill Road and I struck a conversation with another cyclist who was heading up to Old La Honda. He was in great shape and had just set a recent best of climbing Old La Honda in 19:30. I’ve recently been riding it around 30 minutes and over the course of talking with him I probably tried to keep up with him a bit too hard. My legs really hurt on the short climb up over the actual Sand Hill. I was basically resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to climb Kings and I settled for just heading over to the road to check it out a bit. As I took Whiskey Hill into Woodside, my legs started to feel better and I thought that maybe I would try to ride up to Huddart Park as a preview for an attempt later in the week.

After passing through Woodside I turned on to Kings Mountain road. The climb itself doesn’t start until just after Tripp road and it winds 4.3 miles up where it eventually meets Skyline acros s from Tunitas Creek Road. When I did get to the climb I was pleasantly surprised about how gentle it was. I was in my easiest gear but it wasn’t hard climbing. I took it slow because I kept expecting the next bend to get much steeper. I felt fine when I got to Huddart Park so I decided to keep going. The road eventually started to feel like Old La Honda in terms of steepness but I was feeling okay and after having gotten a couple of miles up the road I really wanted to make it all the way to the top. Eventually, I made it to the top. I was tired and proud that I had climbed Old La Honda and Kings Mountain in consecutive days and that I could ticked off another steep road. I don’t know my exact time on the climb because I didn’t expect to do the whole thing when I started so I didn’t take my time at the bottom, but I think it was about 40 minutes.

Kings Mountain is a little bit different from Old La Honda in that it has very few houses or any side streets on the climb. Also the road is smoother, wider and less windy than Old La Honda. It is a full two lane road 90% of the way and couple of sections even have a little bit of shoulder. One point of annoyance was that sections have been recently been repaved and I picked up stickum on my tires as I crossed them. It might have just been my imagination but I sure felt like I was working a lot harder with that sticky stuff on my tires and it made an annoying whirring noise. Also, the stickum picked up gravel, which made smooth sections fairly bumpy. Eventually, the stickum wore off, but it sure was a frustrating to be struggling up an unfamiliar road with all of that crap stuck to my tires.

After reaching the top of the climb I made a left on Skyline. From Kings Mountain to Bear Gulch really felt like a climb. It wasn’t too steep but my legs were gassed so I took very slow. After Bear Gulch, is an awesome descent of several miles to Highway 84. The road is steep but doesn’t have many sharp bends so you can really let loose and I hit 47.7 mph at one point. There are 3-4 bends that do require braking but it is still probably the best decent I found in the area and a nice reward after having done all that climbing.

I didn’t write down my stats but they’re still in my cyclometer so I’ll post my ride stats tomorrow.

9/6/06: Old La Honda With a Twist (32.67 Miles)

I wanted to do another steep route but and wanted to put some miles on after having mostly rested for two days, but I didn’t feel up to trying something new like Montebello or Kings Mountain. I decided to climb Old La Honda, but then turn left on Skyline and come down Page Mill instead of making a right and descending Highway 84 as I’ve always previously done.

I climbed Old La Honda in exactly 30 minutes and I basically felt good. I basically took it easy up but I did have to scramble at the end to hit the stop sign in 30 minutes. That said, having reached the top I felt like I could have pushed much harder and maybe shaved 30 seconds to a minute off my time.

After a brief break at the top I turned left on Skyline towards Page Mill. Its not an easy stretch of the road by any means. Its about 5.5 miles and it mostly up hill. The climb isn’t as bad as Old La Honda but the grade is close and its 5.5 miles feels a lot longer than 3.3. That said there are a handful of short descents which provide welcome relief but by the time I reached Page Mill I was pretty tired.

Page Mill is a tough decent because it is very wind and very narrow. Also, it is about 8 miles long and my hands, neck and shoulders were killing me from squeezing the brakes for so long by the time I reached the bottom. However, I did notice something interesting at the top of Page Mill… it isn’t that steep for the last 1.5 – 2 miles. I know that it is an extremely tough climb but it looked like something that might actually be with in my reach sooner rather than later. Hmm. Anyway, after descending the main steep section of the road and passing Arastradero, the last little hump before hitting Foothill Expy was just murder. I was really pooped as I slowly rode home through Palo Alto.

Here are my stats:

2h 39m 57s

32.67 miles

12.4 average mph

32 max mph

918 calories

125 avg heart rate

173 max heart rate

9/1/06: Moody & Golden Oak (28.2 Miles)

After two consecutive days of climbing steeps, my legs felt like rubber, but I was curious to see how Los Trancos and Viste Verde Way compared with Moody Road, which I had ridden with Tom last summer. Moody is .53 miles and averages 12% so its a little longer and a little bit less steep that what I had been riding recently. However, when I tried Moody last year I had to stop halfway up and I remember it being the steepest and hardest road I’d ever ridden.

I took the scenic route through Los Altos Hills to Moody. Moody starts out gently but and gradually builds the grade over about 1-1.5 miles to the point where Krebs Cycling map gives it 1 chevron (<) before hitting the steep section. The steep section is almost hidden by a sharp hairpin turn. At first it doesn’t seem so bad but the toughest sections are hidden around the next bend. It got me out of my saddle after about .15 miles and despite my burning legs, the incline force me to stay there until I hit the stop sign at Page Mill Road. In my opinion, Moody is definitely tougher than the lower section of Los Trancos because while 18% is very difficult I can push muscles for a quarter mile. However, .53 miles is a different story and I was exhausted at the top but I decided to rest in descending Page Mill rather than stopping.

At the bottom of Page Mill I turned left on Arastadero and right on Portola. I thought I was done for the day and was heading home, but I had been reading about Golden Oak and when I noticed it off Alpine I couldn’t contain my curiosity. The first .38 miles of Golden Oak range between 11% and 19%. It was brutal after having climbed Moody and I had to stop at Bear Gulch Road after .28 miles. Had I known that I was .1 miles a way from a break in the grade, I think I could have kept going but considering how much my legs were hurting the break probably wasn’t a bad thing. Afterwards its steep rolling hills for about another half mile before rejoining Alpine road across from Los Trancos and just below Portola. I decided to head up to Portola and take it and Sand Hill Road back home. I was very very tired and even climbing Sand Hill was hard.

Here are my stats:

2h 9m 16s

28.20 miles

13.0 avg mph

33.6 max mph

785 calories

126 avg heart rate

170 max heart rate

8/31/06: Los Trancos & Viste Verde Way (23.4 Miles)

After falling off my bike at the top of the main Los Trancos climb the previous day, I was curious to see where the rest of the road went. As I rode up Alpine my legs were definitely soar but I decided that I would just take things slowly. I made it up the steep section of Los Trancos and I was definitely tired but I decided to keep plugging away up the road. I was pleased to learn that Los Trancos isn’t that steep after Ramona. Well actually its probably in the ball park of Old La Honda or maybe a little bit more gentle, but it certainly feels like a break after grinding through 18%. The ride was narrow and beautiful and made all the more enjoyable by the huge smile I got from the cute lady unloading her groceries as I passed by. I don’t know the exact distance but I would guess about 1-1.5 miles after Ramona, Los Trancos essentially becomes Viste Verde Way. I didn’t even notice the change but the maps do show Los Trancos splitting off to the right. Viste Verde Way had really big surprise in store form after the intersection where Ramona rejoins the road. Man is that section Steep! It supposedly only 15-17% over .33 miles to Old Spanish Trail, but it felt like 24% over a mile. I was dying climbing that section and I had to take a 2 minute break after about a quarter mile. In retrospect, I think could have made it to the top if I had know how close I was. After climbing up Los Trancos, Viste Verde Way is like a punch to the gut. That said, the views are amazing and riding along Old Spanish Trail I felt like I was on top of the world… literally, its so such a narrow peak that I actually felt like I was on top of the world. Coming down Joaquin and Upper Alpine are tough decents. At 15-20% Juaquin is just ridiculously steep and requires caution. Upper Alpine road has a couple of steep sections but its narrow and winding nature is what makes it difficult. They are both the kind of roads that I take at 15-20 mph when one could easily hit 35-40mph. After decending Alpine I made a left on Willowbrook and took Portola and Sand Hill Road home. I was wiped out.

Here are my stats:

1h 42m 59s

23.44 miles

13.6 avg mph

34.0 max mph

8/30/06: Los Trancos & Upper Alpine (28.7 Miles)

I spent the past 3 days learning some of the local steeps and I’ll post on my rides from 8/31 and 9/1 soon.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve started getting a little bit bored of the my usual routes. At the same time, I’ve also decided that I want to build my climbing strength so that I can expand do longer rides with multiple steep sections like the Coastal Loop, which climbs both Old La Honda and Tunitas Creek. After consulting my Krebs Cycle map and Lucas Pereira’s cycling grade research, I decided to try Los Trancos first.

I picked Los Trancos because it had an extremely steep section that hit 15-18% over the last quarter mile. I was a little bit nervous about riding 18% but I figured I could get up anything that was only a quarter mile.

After riding up Alpine and slowly heading out Los Trancos in anticipation of what lay ahead, I was able to get up the steep section but man was it hard! My legs and lungs were burning as I slow reached the stop sign that signals the end of the main climb but I decided to stay right keep going up Los Trancos. However, I was so tired that I actually fell over in the first hairpin turn! A combination of the oddly banked edge, steepness of the turn and my lack of concentration due to exhaustion led to me losing my balance and slowly tipping over into the road. I wasn’t hurt because I was only going about 5 mph at the time but it was definitely a frustrating fall that knocked any remaining wind out of me.

After falling I decided to head back down Los Trancos and explore Alpine Road above Portola. Upper Alpine Road is definitely more challenging and rewarding that the lower section between Junipero Serra and Portola. Its approximately 4 miles long most of which is a light to moderate climbing but it does have a couple of short steep sections that I would guess hit 10%. The ride has much less traffic than the lower section, partial shade and follows a beautiful ravine for much of the ride. Upper Alpine dead ends into a private driveway. I’ve never ridden up the private driveway, but according to Google Maps, it looks like it connects with Old Spanish Trail at the top.

After reaching the top of Alpine Road I turned back around made a left on Portola and followed the Portola Loop back home.

Here are my stats:

28.69 Miles*

2h 10m 28s

13.2 Average Mph*

35.o Max Mph

————

*The average mph figure is a little bit low because I road several miles across Palo Alto and back at a very slow pace on legs of Jello in order to visit a friend.  I probably added 3-4 miles and knocked .3 to .4 mph from my average.