Long Way Home via Welch Creek

Took the long way home from work today and headed to Welch Creek Road to finish off some unfinished business. The last time I did Welch Creek road in 2006 I got really dehydrated and barely made it home. It was pushing 100 degrees that fateful day. Today it was only in the high 50's making things a lot easier. I got to Welch Creek and forgot the first mile is really easy. The ride really gets hard at about 1.8 miles and sticks up at 18% or for for at least a quarter a mile. It eases up for a while and really hits hard at 3.25 or so. I used the 34/25 on the Time bike which gave me enough leverage to get to the top. It took 35+ minutes to do this. Compared to the top low key hill climb winning time of 22 and change, I am not too unhappy as those guys are pretty damn good climbers. I don't think its any tougher than Bohlman on Orbit. Having just done Jamison Creek, I would say it might be slightly tougher than that, but not by much. Its a bit longer, thats all. Will have to take on BoO really soon to get a comparison.

The ride up Calavares was pretty good. It was good to eye this section as it will be part of the Devil Mountain Double in a few months. The DMD takes this on the slightly easier opposite direction. The only thing crappy about this ride was the return from the Milpitas to home. Its a grim slog through Milpitas and then into Santa Clara down Tasman. Overall a nice long alternate route home.

Comments

nrmrvrk said…
Damn. that's the really, really long way home. The Cross-a-bridge-in-the-opposite-direction long way home.

How long was the total ride?

Shame about South San Jose. It's a wasteland getting through there.
Chris O'Keefe said…
Definitely a Dean K. kind exaggeration to call this the long ride home. It really sucks how hard it is to ride from Mtn View to Sierra, Hamilton, etc. I cant think of a decent way of getting out there other than driving out to the edge.

Oh well, were definitely not perfect here in the BA...