Mount Hamilton Snow Ride, March 17 2002

And rainy.

And above 1500', snowy.

Since I've never seen weather as inhospitable on Mount Hamilton, I naturally decided this would be a great day for a bike ride!.

The foothills were green and lush. Not hinting at all of the arctic conditions at the top.

I drove to Grant Park and parked on the side of the road. check out the snow at the peak. Here's a zoom of the peak. This is where the cops and the highway workers closed the road. I just took the trails around the roadblock and got back to road for the rest of the climb. A few snowplows and Caltrans trucks passed me on the ride, but nobody hassled me. Note: I found out you're not allowed to park on the side of the road anymore.

Even the back side of Quimby road was snowy and closed.

Ran into some wild pigs.

	At around 3500', I disappeared as I climbed into the clouds.

It's all snow.

I finally reached the top, and the astronomers had a warm welcome for me. Not. It was quite desolate.

Well, this was me. Except for my hands & feet, I stayed quite warm. Gotta love fleece. You know what was weird? I didn't see a single other biker. None at all. And on such a beautiful day too. Odd.

	As I descended out of the clouds, the sun burst out from under the clouds and over the next mountain range. Stunning.

When I got back to my car after the ride, it was just about sunset and everyone else had gone home except the road block crew and the three park rangers gathered near my car. As I rolled up they asked me if this was my car, I told them it was, and they were quite relieved. They were afraid I was up on the mountain dying somewhere. Kind of sweet :-)