Think this is the second New Year’s Day Mt Hamilton ride in a row Kevin’s missed, this time because he wasn’t feeling well. So off to catch the train on my own, no optional-but-mandatory stop for coffee or more food, and then on my way from the SJ train station.

However, bizarre multiple equipment failures! My Speedplay power pedals wouldn’t read on my computer, and the GoPro camera wouldn’t work either! I might have spent a few more minutes trying to troubleshoot them, but knew that Kevin (pilot) and his friend Lida had started up the hill over an hour ahead of me.

The ride from the SJ train station to the base of Mt Hamilton is never fun; I have yet to find a route not plagued by zillions of stop lights. If anyone knows of a secret route that gets around that, please let me know! This time it was made even worse, due to some closed roads that put me a few block out of my way.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of debris on the road, and quite a few areas where water and mud were running across. Nothing too bad though and I suspect many of us were thinking odds were fairly high the road could be entirely closed. Temps ran 46-56F, not bad, and very few clouds. Unfortunately, to the east there were a fair number of clouds, obscurring what could have been a very nice view of the recent Sierra snowfall.

Didn’t bother with a coke at the top this year; just ate an energy bar, took a few photos, used the bathroom and headed back down.

Overall a nice but slow ride, very poorly documented due to equipment failures.