Mount Hamilton Revisited

聖誕假期那天才想起今個聖誕沒安排甚麼特別節目，那實在不成樣子呀！思前想後，一個人最有成就感的事莫過於「上高峰」，灣區三大峰以Mount Hamilton最近我家，又不需事先下載地圖（一條路直上），也沒有特別難上的路段，七年前Spring Break上去的記憶還有一點點，今天天氣又好得不得了！所以我決定再上Mount Hamilton；滋滋油油拖到差不多早上十時才離家，去到Joseph D Grant County Park，記得是要付費才能進入的，果然閘口有一部只收信用咭的機，不過壞了，浪費了我五分鐘時間，除了那裡實在不知何處可停車，亂兜了一會，竟然在較近山那邊發現了一個完全無人的停車場，那裡原來也是Joseph D Grant County Park某條行山徑的入口，雖然不知有沒有問題但不停那裡也沒有其他選擇，之後就戰戰兢兢地上路，皆因已有好幾年沒有獨自踩「荒山野嶺」，開始時實在不見有其他車或單車上落，年紀越大膽子越小！幸好想起Hana別再怕的歌詞：

不祈求 不知緣由 隨著我直覺走不停留 不想回頭 橫越海角宇宙晴陽就在雨後 晦暗迎來白晝命運的詛咒 未攔住我伴著你走
敢愛是別再怕 誰又會怕 懸崖邊往上爬感覺來自剎那 不花不假 我願誠實面對它相愛時沒有怕 多麼瀟洒 忘了記憶所有傷勢結疤哪怕任何代價

部份太陽照不到的路段的確還殘留著昨日未乾的雨水，當真就是晴陽就在雨後。而Sitting和Fever那段感人的愛情，加上三兄弟手足情深，及Hana的歌聲，都像在鼓勵我不要膽怯退縮！聽完Hana十八首歌後，已可見峰頂兩個圓圓白白的「波波」（即Lick Observatory兩支大型天文望遠境）其實到中午時份已陸續見到有單車友下山及汽車友上山，最難頂的反而是低溫和強風，下山時猶覺明顯，那只有「頂硬落」了，結果無驚無險回到起點，那時停車場已經全滿！可見該公園頗受歡迎（我以為十時半到已遲，原來一般遊人更遲來，可能是平安夜玩得夜吧）

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

Fat biking in Tahoe

As I mentioned in my previous post I really wanna try fat biking, in particular, on snow and I did it today! After dropping off the rest of the family at Boreal for skiing, I made it to the Alder Creek Adventure Center at Tahoe Donner ~10am, which gave me about an hour to ride before the trails were closed to biking (by that time your bike got much less traction. It won't be that fun to ride) The Surly Wednesday fat bike I rented was actually in very good condition. To maneuver up and down (and across) the snow, you pretty much ride it like a mountain bike (of which the skill I surely lack :P) The cross-country skiing area at Tahoe Donner is actually very big and I have only explored a very small area within it (close to the starting point, i.e., the adventure center.) They allowed bikes on all dog trails and that's what I rode on. The "cup of tea" and "piece of cake" trails were just like what their names indicated: they were easy, and very suitable to get started on snow biking. I have also tried other steeper trails connected to them. Overall, I had a fun morning ride. The route:

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

If I get a chance to visit further south, I should give Bear Valley a try.
For more info and hooking up with other folks that do fat biking in Tahoe, check out this FB group.

Biking on snow

The family just did a ski trip in Tahoe/Reno last month. Really not my type of activity. However, I have always been curious about riding a fat bike on the trails in the area and have been googling for the past few years. There are bits and pieces of info out there but this time I actually went in person to one of the places where one can rent a bike and ride: the Alder Creek Adventure Center for Cross Country Skiing at Tahoe Donner.  Too bad the snow condition on the trails were not suitable for fat biking when I was there as the snow cannot be too soft. The lady at the counter was very helpful and gave me this number to call (in the morning before you go): 530-587-9484 (or check the Grooming Report online) The cost is reasonable too: $19 for a day trail pass + $34 2 hour bike rental (if you don't have your own) Alternatively, if you have 2 or more people, you could join this tour which included instructions for snow biking skills for $90 per person. Both of them are in North Tahoe. I will try to find some info for South Tahoe and post it here. Most bike rental/tour shops mentioned they would reopen in the Spring. I think that's the popular time. I am looking forward to a snow biking trip some day.

Tour of the Big Island

I have a few days all by myself this March and I decided I need to bike somewhere. For some reason, I have my mind set on Hawaii's Big Island, probably because it was more do-able than Taiwan (which I hope I could ride around some day) I googled and found (surprise surprise!) Big Island Bike Tours (the first non-ad search result) I like the description of their "Circumnavigate the Big Island" multi-day tour and the tour days look good so I wrote them an email. No reply (found that it went to Spam for no reason) so I called and it was answered by Alex Candelario, the owner. He also sent me more details. I gotta admit I didn't see his bio on their website but instinctively I feel that name seems to be somebody so I googled him and indeed, he has just retired from professional cycling! And I immediately felt more confident about joining their tour. And I was lucky! Alex actually suffered from back injuries for the last few months and wasn't able to ride with the tours until ours. (Side-story: he drove the van on the previous tour and got bitten by a black widow in the middle of the 2nd night and suffered through the next few days of that tour. Poor Alex.) Riding with a former pro was definitely a super-cool thing to do. For one thing, Alex DO knows all these different routes all around the world. He even raced in Hong Kong (and knows the most famous cyclist from Hong Kong) With his experience riding Tour of California (I must have seen him in the peloton from the times I watch the tour in person or on TV), he is familiar with my usual routes like Old La Honda and the most challenging ones like Mt. Hamilton, Mt. Diablo and Tunitas Creek. On the first ride he told me to draft behind him so that we could catch the leaders of the group. During the whole tour he kept urging me to get the basics right: ride with high cadence and smooth strokes, including "pulling up" the pedal, and change the positions (between sit-down and standing) It's also cool to hear his opinions on PED users. (Big dislike!) Finally, he gave me some good tips on controlling my weight: snack with apple or baby carrot instead of junk food. For me, this tour is not cheap (spent a total of ~$5k) but I felt that it's worth every penny. In addition to the invaluable advices, Alex certainly didn't go cheap on the food and lodging (yes, even free beer!) I will break down the tour day-by-day (scroll down for stage 1.)

Tour of the Big Island: Stage 7

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

This route covered another part of the Ironman biking course, i.e, Hwy 19 (aka "Queen K") between Hapuna and the Kona airport. And I rode all by myself, like a time trail. According to Alex, a lot of athletes came to the Big Island just to ride this course for training and nowhere else. Man, they don't know what they have missed. I did see a lot of riders that day. Even though it looked flat, for the 54 mile I covered, there were actually ~2000ft of elevation gain. The 2 free bottles of water from the hotel was definitely not enough. Fortunately I found this Blue Hawaiian Helicopter airport with 9 miles to go selling bottled water (and for $1 only. They certainly don't try to milk the tourists)  I was more tired than I thought by the time I returned to the hotel, which was around 11am. I was thinking about sneaking in a round of golf in the afternoon but I quickly nixed that thought (BTW, the green fee was $95, which was actually quite reasonable but I also need $55 for club rental) Instead, I took my sweet time for a good bowl of cobb salad for lunch next to the beach. Then swam a bit in the ocean and looked at the tropical fishes (some are big, longer than 1 foot!) The beach of Hapuna Hotel was one of the best according to the locals. Many spent time here to enjoy Easter. Then I took a hot sauna and a shower at the fitness center in the Golf course club house, courtesy of the hotel (I've already checked out) Sipped a Mai Tai while listening to the awesome guitarist/singer and enjoying the view of Sunset at the beach as well as the Hula dancer. After finishing my fish burger and strawberry shortcake, Jeremy from the tour drove me to the airport to end this wonderful trip. I ended up riding a total of 270 miles. And coincidentally the length of the Big Island coast line is about the same. So even though we didn't always ride along the coast, I pretty much did the equivalent of actually circumnavigate the Big Island :P

Tour of the Big Island: Stage 6

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

This route covered the other side of the Volcano, the East side of the island. The starting point was where the newest lava from the Volcano flow through. After a short Cat-4 climb, we went back down to the sea level and rode along the coastline. Then detour to the intersection of Hwy 132 and 137 and back to the geothermal hot pond/tidal pool in Ahalanui Park for a refreshing after-ride dip in the pool. I was able to see tropical fishes swimming in it. Next the van took us to Hilo, the big town on the East side where the government is located and we had dinner at Hilo Bay Cafe, which has a good view of the beautiful bay. The seafood curry I had was delicious too. So was the cheesecake. Then the van drove us back to the Hapuna Prince hotel along the North East and North coast in counter-clockwise fashion and thus complete the circumnavigation of the whole island! This was also the last day of riding with Alex and the group. It was so hard to say goodbye :(

At the Hilo Bay Cafe

Tour of the Big Island: Stage 5

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

This 2-part route covered roughly the South east part of the island. The 1st-part was the long Cat-1 Mauna Loa climb (yes, it's the same name as the famous macadamia nut brand) and the 2nd part descend from the volcano down the Chain of Crater Road, took a detour to a lookout point and then climb out of it (a Cat-2) and finally a super-long and winding descend (but not too steep) to the South east coast, which was full of lava rocks. We took the van back up to the Volcano and stayed at the Volcano house for the night. Had a good steak at the restaurant there, which had a view to the fire. In fact, you could see the volcano from each room. What an awesome hotel!

6 mile into the Mauna Loa Cat-1 climb

Me and the tour provided Giants Defy bike at the South East coast

Tour of the Big Island: Stage 4

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

This route covered the Southern part of the island. We started from the Woodvalley house, stopped briefly at the Buddhist temple, which was fitting for the spiritual surroundings. Then we made another stop at the Kau Coffee Mill for coffee and macadamia nut tastings. After 2 Cat-5 climbs we reached the famous Punalu'u Bake shop. Then we climbed a Cat-3 and it all went down hill: all the way to South Point, the Southern-most point in USA (which was actually not in Key West, Florida) The cliff was a popular spot to jump into the ocean (which I didn't, obviously) Then we took the van all the way up to the Volcano. After a nice dinner of Thai food at Thai Thai, we visited the Jagger museum of the Volcano to see the "red hot fire" spat from it. It was an unforgettable scene. We stayed at the cozy (yet a bit cold) Hale-Ohia Cottage for the night.

L-R: Michael, Chuck, Lisa, Alex Candelario, me

South point cliff jump

Fire spat from Kilauea

Tour of the Big Island: Stage 3

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

This route roughly covered the South west part of the island, starting from the most tourisy town of the island, Kona. (The tourisy indicators were the several ABC stores, which was a popular chain in Hawaii for souvenirs) My first part of the ride was a challenging Cat-2 climb up to the coffee shop and back until I reached the highway. I got back on the van to avoid the high-traffic area and also to take a break (I didn't sleep well the night before with only ~2 hours) The 2nd part, a Cat-3 climb, started from Captain Cook (honoring the first Westerner who visited Hawaii) and ended at the Painted church. The heat made it more challenging than it should. For the day I rode a combined 20 miles only. We drove back to the Honaunau beach for snorkeling (which I skipped and visited the nearby Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park instead, where a couple of totem poles and outrigger canoes were preserved) Then we headed to the Airbnb house we stayed for this night in Woodvalley, near the Southern part of the island. The host, Matt, was also our cook for the night. He made delicious fish and pork tacos with home-made tortillas. And the quiet and peaceful surroundings of the house simply look surreal.

The road from Captain Cook

The Painted Church

Honaunau

Tour of the Big island: Stage 2

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

This stage roughly covered the North-central and North shore of the island, starting from Waimea, near the headquarter of the tour company. We stopped briefly at the Hawaiian Vanilla Company for its delicious milk shake. Then rode to the beautiful Waipio valley lookout. Alex and I got back on the van at that point but the rest of the tour (3 members) continued back to the starting point. The "after-ride treat" was at the Big Island Brewhaus. I enjoyed its own White Mountain Porter, which contains less alcohol than usual for a Porter. The fish tacos tasted awesome too. The tour didn't provide dinner this night but I was already quite full from the brewery food so I just had a roast beef sandwich from the hotel's cafe as dinner.

Waipio Valley

Tour of the Big Island: Stage 1

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

This is the first day of riding and it covered roughly the Northwest part of the island. (BTW, I arrived at noon the day before and ended up just relaxing in the hotel room and the beach. Alex told me the tour has deal with the Mauna Kea Beach folks for water activity but I wasn't able to find them. Too tired anyway. The first dinner was at the Coast Grille of the hotel. The seafood was decent but not special) The first part of the ride was the Northern half of the world-famous Big Island Ironman biking route, between Hapuna beach (we started from the Hapuna Prince hotel) and Hawi. We actually continue riding to Pololu valley lookout for a total 29 miles. Hiked down the valley all the way to the beach side. It was a challenging hike! Then we rode back to Hawi and took the van back to the hotel (Alex has just recovered from his back injury and he suggested me not to go all-out on the first day too.) Rested at the hotel for a bit and then headed to Mauna Kea beach to paddle an authentic Hawaiian outrigger canoe. Dinner was at the Mauna Kea hotel restaurant.Very high quality seafood.

The statue of the first king who unified the whole Hawaii at Hawi

Pololu Valley

Challenging hikes

I am hoping to try these trails in the near feature:
The Black Mountain: This should be the hardest trail in Rancho San Antonio. One possible starting point is the Duveneck Windmill Trailhead on Rhus Ridge Trail. The parking lot is kinda small. If it's full, try parking on the street near Bledsoe Ct on Moody Rd. 
Windy Hill: This one also go up to Skyline Blvd. 
Mount Diablo State Park: This is gotta be one of the most famous mountains in the area. (My buddy did it with his son last year starting from Rock City Park, S Gate Rd, Danville. Total was 8.6 miles. It costs ~$10 per car for parking)
Mount Hamilton Antler Point: This is probably as famous as Diablo.

Map on Garmin Vivoactive

My 5-year old Garmin Forerunner 305 was on its last leg: its battery couldn't even last a 1.5 hr ride last time I tried. So I need a replacement. And I found the Garmin Vivoactive released in 2015 quite interesting: Garmin marketed it as a smart-watch (think Apple Watch) as well as an activity-tracking device (think FitBit) And the battery is supposed to last for 10 hours with GPS on (Yes, I did 3 10+ hour rides in the last 5 years) I just got it tonight and immediately paired it with the phone (installation of the Garmin Connect mobile app was required and I created a new Garmin account) and my old heart rate monitor from the 305. I also linked my MapMyRide account to Garmin Connect. Then I did a quick indoor ride just to test its HR tracking ability. That ride was sync-ed to Garmin Connect right after (via my phone) and also to MapMyRide as a workout. So the activity tracking part of the watch seems not bad (wish it doesn't require a chest-strap HRM though) Next task was to prepare for my weekend ride. Forerunner 305 allowed me to load a route to it and display as a map on screen to provide some "rough" navigation utilizing the GPS. (I would manually create the route on MapMyRide, export the route and convert to GPX, import to the PC software and then finally sync to watch. Yes, I know those are a lot of steps) I was hoping Vivoactive would support the same (if not better) out of the box but it doesn't. Fortunately, the smart-watch side of Vivoactive allows third-party developers to create app for it. And one such app seems to fit the bill: dwMap. First, open your Garmin Connect mobile app and enter the Connect IQ store. Search for dwMap and download it. It will sync the app to your watch eventually. Second, go to dwMap's website dynamic.watch. Click 'Link to watch' and open the app on your watch to see the code to be entered to the website. Then log on using your MapMyRide (UnderArmour) account. The website will show 20 of the routes you bookmarked in MapMyRide. You could "star" one of those route and next time you open the app on your watch. This will be the route to be displayed. Hopefully my Vivoactive experience will get better and better and I could share more here.

(BTW, found a pretty good page that compare all watches for running.)

Hicks Road

As you could see from my previous posts, I learned about a lot of those routes from books, e.g. Big Basin, Clayton, Mt. Diablo, Calaveras Rd....... Hicks Road is one of the few left that I always wanted to try but didn't get a chance to for some reason, until this labor day (I rode Big Basin with my buddy on the 2012 Labor Day weekend)  Maybe it's kinda down south and hard to gauge the time needed to finish the ride because of the climb. Also, I had no idea where to park in Los Gatos (It seems like there are plenty available in the residential area on the streets near Los Gatos Blvd.) The 2 Cat-5 and Cat-4 sections (Shannon and Kennedy, respectively) in and out of Los Gatos were actually quite good for warmup/cooloff. Of course, the biggest "attraction" was from the bottom of Hicks Rd to the summit (before getting up Mt. Umunhum. The Mt. Umunhum climb was one of the hardest in the area and was NOT part of my route) And both sides of Hicks Rd from the summit is kinda symmetric: one steep 1.5 mile stretch on each side so you could pick your own "poison" To me it's a pretty good challenge since I got too familiar with the routes in the peninsula already. The steep downhill is long enough to "re-train" my descending skill without scaring me too much. The shortened version could easily become a 2.5 hour routine weekend ride with my SJ friends.

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

Wunderlich County Park

I got a request to blog about this hike we did on Sunday. I think it satisfied the 4 criteria I mentioned before: (1) shades (2) elevation change ~950ft (3) ~5 miles, i.e., 2.5 hr (4) good scenery.
The parking lot (right off Woodside Rd) is kinda small and luckily we got the last 2 spots. However, people could still easily park close by, outside on Woodside Rd. Compared to Rancho San Antonio, this trail seems much less crowded even though the parking lot was full. And people ride horses on the trails (no bike though) so hikers need to beware of horse manure. It could get a bit dusty too. Still, it's a pretty good trail for those who likes to hike with less people around.

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyHike

踩遍天下

去年前介紹過一家單車旅行社的泰國柬埔寨遊路線，日前讀一本戶外活動雜誌又介紹了另一家專搞全世界各地辛苦探險團的公司：Tour d'Afrique,不少路線要露營度宿！我對其中中國（上海至香港段）及北美（Banff至Helena段）都頗有興趣。

Off the bike and hike

I suppose most cyclists enjoy the nature and don't mind to hike once in a while. Hiking uses a different muscle group than cycling and it would be good to train those too.

Our go-to trail was the Dish near Stanford. As it's under maintenance for the past month, we tried some alternatives too. Rancho San Antonio has become our new favorite. The Wildcat loop takes us about 2 hours and that's ideal.

And we are also looking into venturing outside the Palo Alto-Los Altos area. The criteria includes: (1) must have some shades (2) must have some elevation change, e.g. Rancho San Antonio has ~800 ft (3) ~2-6 miles, i.e., 1-3 hr. (4) good scenery. We have already been to Big Sur, which is beautiful (and tough!) I think we should try these in the future:
[SF] Mount Sutro, 1.8 miles
[San Bruno] Junipero Serra County Park, 2.1 miles
[Oakland] Redwood Regional Park, 3.7 miles, 700 ft elev. chg.
[Palo Alto] Monte Bello, 6.5 miles, 1000 ft elev. chg.
[Cupertino] Stevens Creek County Park, 6.1 miles, 1100 ft elev. chg.
Angel Island, 5 miles
 
Bay Area Hiker is a very informational website with all trails ranked by difficulty.

環加單車賽、衝線

「加」是指加州，不是加拿大。加拿大作為全球第二大國，要辦橫跨全國如環法環意的比賽實在不易，其實環加也是名不符實，一星期的賽事只是由北至南（或由南至北），中文傳媒硬加一個「環」字。這項賽事歷史雖遠不如環法環意等悠久，但不經不覺也已經舉辦了十年！本地聖荷西市是唯一一個十屆都有一站的城市，可見大會對矽谷社區的重視！電視轉播比賽沿途吶喊助威的觀眾，我也是一份子，算是對車壇的一點支持。當然，這些賽道不只可以觀看，更加可以親自踩踩，比賽期間播放California Dreams Big系列廣告也強調這一點：其他體育界知名場地，如非頂尖或職業運動員，相信試玩的機會不大；但公路單車就不同了，職業車手所踩的路線，你我皆可踩！雖然要完全跟隨也不易，除非有人接載，因為通常起點和終點不同。看了一週的賽事，啟發我在週末也要踩踩比賽路線，這次踩的包括了去年和今年部份路段：去年賽事由San Jose Mt. Hamilton Rd (130)上山，今年賽事路段則是在山腳（註：今年方向相反由Livermore那邊上山往SJ）轉入Quimby Rd,再上一小段至Summit 2200ft（有一Buckeye Ranch），然後在短短4英里急降2000尺，真是看也腳軟！接著踩San Felipe Rd入Evergreen區，越踩越少人煙，在Metcalf Rd（今年Stage 3終點）的Motorcycle park回頭，全程～50英里

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

說起單車比賽，也想提提剛看完的香港無線電視劇《衝線》，其實我甚少看電視劇，看此劇是因為其中一個主題和單車有關，出現了不少在台灣踩車美麗風光鏡頭，雖然劇本及演員水準相當一般，踩車練車鬥車情節也完全脫離現實，不過如果拍得像環加一樣，師奶觀眾肯定不明所以。（例如主角在台灣租的單車有問題，以他們的經驗，肯定不會將問題置之不理，就算自己不動手維修，也會立即回程退換）無線最成功的可算是不停洗腦式播放主題曲《美好的時光》，此曲已成為我踩車在腦中自動播放的歌。吳若希唱的無線劇集主題曲實在不錯，另一首《愛我請留言》我也相當喜歡。

Road biking route suggestions

The previous post was for mountain biking. Now I'd like to mention a few good ones for road biking:

• Stanford cycling team's favorite routes listed a lot of the steep climb that I've done, like the famous Old La Honda, King's Mountain, Montebello and hidden gems like Moody, Joaquin, Golden Oak and Westridge. 
• The Egan Ride is a group ride that starts at the Egan Middle School in Los Altos. Their page listed many local routes from 15-30 miles with GPS/map. Very useful.
• Monta Vista Velo's page listed quite a few looooong rides (>50 miles) which includes Big Basin, Jefferson, Portola. All familiar names!
• Some routes in South San Jose Santa Teresa area. 

Bay Area mountain biking

I came across this website when looking for trails. It's quite well-organized: by region, by technical difficulty, etc. Single track trails are really not my type but I do enjoy riding double tracks/fire roads/gravel trails. I'm looking forward to riding some, like this one at the El Corte de Madera Creek (the easy option) or this one in San Jose.