First of all to set the record straight we didn't know it was going to snow at the top. As beautiful as snow is it's pretty stupid to put yourself in any type danger without being properly prepared. When the date got nearer I figured it was just going to be a long wet ride after the second day. We were clearly wrong.
The first day it was a great, gray,cold day for climbing. As bad as that sounds I believe it's the best time to climb anything. Never overheated as long as you regulate your layering. We took the long way to get to San Jose hitting the local dirt to make things interesting. Once we got into Grant Ranch Mike picked out a great camping spot were we had an amazing clog artery-ing dinner of Spam quesadillas. Second day when we started climbing up into colder wetter weather. About 3000 ft we started seeing icicles. At the top we saw a good layer of frost on a lot of the trees. For us Californians' we rarely get to see any snow, so we were having a blast. Cold, wet and hungry we retreated inside for warmt and food. The Licks Observatory and Post Office were close so we made hot chocolate and had some salami and cheese inside. As our chocolate cooled down the snow started coming slowly. Then it started coming down hard. Amgood 4 inches before we knew it. While 4 inches of snow may not be a big deal to you mid-US folks. It was a big deal when you had another 4000 feet of descent to go. To be honest I was pretty freaked out and ready to call it quits, but Mike convinced me otherwise and reminded that me that we are on bikes and worse case we just walk down. So we suited up with everything we go. Mike with his rain covers, doctor latex gloves under wool gloves and his three jackets and two pants. Myself I was prepared but I had to make due with bandana socks with the splats, and my sleeping wool oneise under all my clothes. Before we went down we got flag down by a local news team. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/19/winter-storm-bringing-rain-snow-to-northern-california/ They cut my speaking part .. something about being long winded.... The ride was fine. Like riding in soft slippery sand, we took it easy and got the hell off the road when we saw cars. Every car that passed us looked like they had trouble they pooled over and asked if we needed a ride, Once we dropped down 2000 ft all the snow turned into cold rain and we rode basically in a drizzle till we got to the Junction Cafe, which THANKFULLY was open. When Anne said biker bar, I was expecting a hardcore bar with motorcycles outside and bar fights inside. Way opposite. Nice family, old fashion, truck stop restaurant that had everything and anything you needed for the last 30 miles. We warmed up, had burgers and made out way to great looking weather the rest of the ride. We even saw the sun as we descended down to Livermoore. Really memorable trip. Glad I got to check off something off my bucket list. Pictures proved that yea it did snow at Hamilton. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjE4nrf9 - Manny "wool oneise" Acosta -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
