Dawn patrol on Mt. Hamilton

I spent the last couple days selling wine in the South Bay and knew that if I showed some discipline I could get in an ascent of Mt. Hamilton (the giant of the Bay Area) before my first appointment of the day. I booked a hotel reasonably close by and set the alarm for 5:30. A quick stop at a coffee shop for a quad latte and banana bread and by 6:40 I was clicked into the pedals and starting up the 22 mile climb to the summit of the highest mountain in the SF Bay Area. This is actually three distinct climbs seperated my two short downhills. The first section is roughly 10 miles of climbing and takes you up to the ridge above San Jose. It took me about 40 minutes to climb this. A quick descent brings you into a valley containing Grant Park and then another 3 miles climb follows that. After a very short descent the final 7 mile climb to the top follows. As I had a 10:30 appointment I promised myself that I would turn around at 8:30 no matter where I was on the climb, but 8:30 found me within a mile of the summit so I pressed on and hit the top at 8:35. While I'd taken the whole climb at a pretty moderate tempo I will admit to pouring on the coals a bit in the last couple miles in my attemp to hit the top. My legs felt good the entire way and it while hard it was not really that difficult compared to other times I've done this climb. Despite its length the grades rarely go abouve 6% so once you find your comfort gear you can pretty much spin it to the top - fitness helps. The hour long 200+ corner descent back down was a handful. The pavement is only smooth on the bottom ten miles. The rest is chuckholed and gravel strewn so real caution must be exercised to keep it on the road. I was back to the car right on schedule and arrived at the first account showered shaved and on time.