Last weekend I was in San Jose. I arrived in a torrential downpour, but after a week of meetings, the clouds cleared, most of the snow melted, so I cycled out of town up to Mount Hamilton.

I thought I would post a few pictures of my ride – it’s amazing that on one side of the hill you have a city of over a million people, on the other side it’s pretty much completely empty.

I had the weekend, so on Sunday I cycled up to Mt Diablo and then over to Walnut Creek, and finally back to San Jose on BART.

Pro-tip: if you’re at Millbrae wanting to get on the train with your bike, it does *not* wait around for you to sort your life out. Fortunately there are lots of quite decent restaurants while you’re waiting for the next train.

Sorry, not a fancy gravel/adventure/whatever bike, just the normal bike I ride to work on, hence shonky panniers, mismatched rims, etc, etc.

Unusually green and verdant following “atmospheric river”.

Inscription reads that Ellen Thao Le was killed by an SUV that hit her head-on 🙁

Mines Road seriously washed out. For scale, that pipe is about as high as I am. A certain amount of scrambling was required.

Next day, cycling out of Livermore.

Summit of Mt Diablo.

Do you know the way to San Jose?
I’ve been away so long
I may go wrong and lose my way
Do you know the way to San Jose?
I’m going back to find some peace of mind in San Jose

Nice Post, ta. Makes a change from a shit British winter… 🙃

Lovely! Did you see any spiders?

I used to get to the Bay Area a lot with work and would often stay a weekend and explore on bike or foot. One warm sunny spring morning I parked at a Rangers station halfway up Mt Diablo and ran to the top then back to the car. Stopped to talk to the Ranger who asked me if I’d seen any spiders – apparently at that time of year/day there are masses of tarantulas sunbathing on the trails, if you surprise them they might bite. Fortunately I was completely oblivious and didn’t see (or perhaps notice) any.

No spiders, but a couple of coyote (?) wandering around. About a million squirrels.

Nice. Rode up Mt Diablo around 5 years ago. Classic ride in those parts. Stunning views and the low volume of traffic makes it all the more enjoyable.

I used to live right at the base of Diablo for a while. It was my regular weekend trail ride.

I’d often stop at sunset and look at the views…. Only to discover hoards of Tarantula crossing the trail.

One climbed up and over my tyre, through the spokes and on its way as I was watching.

It’s quite a big hill isn’t it?