My 4 hour tour
I’ve been wanting to do this road for a long time now and finally got a chance to drive the whole thing! The trip was phenomenal. It was raining so I had to take it easy but still had a chance to open it up a little here and there. It starts with the hill climb to the top of Mount Hamilton which is the home of the famous Lick Observatory. This road starts out as a third gear road through hillside homes. There’s usually a little bit of traffic here but I was really lucky on this trip. Had a propane truck in front of me for about ¼ mile and that was it. Continued through the Grant Ranch and started the main stretch up. I drove mostly 2nd gear with an occasional 1st for some of the switchbacks. It was probably about 60 degrees outside, raining and pretty light on the accelerator without revving very high and the oil temp got up to 240. This one’s going to be an issue in the summer if you don’t have an oil cooler. The best part about this stretch was that I only saw 1 car the whole way up and it was parked on the side. There’s multiple drop-offs on the side of the road that must go for a couple of hundred feet. You really don’t want to loose it on one of those! So, got to the top and had a snack. Stretched my legs for a minute or two and then continued on. Next stretch, all the way to the “T” where I hung a right was really cool. No oil cooler required on this stretch but if you want to drive it hard you’re going to need some upgrades to the brakes. Not as steep as the way up but still a good grade. Probably lucky it was raining forcing me to take it easy. Saw 2 vehicles on this stretch, one SUV and 1 plow truck. Don’t know what the heck he was thinking, no way was it going to snow on that peak on this storm. Turned right towards Patterson. Figured I didn’t want anything to do with rush hour through the east bay so I would come in from the south. This road started off ok and got pretty rough for a mile or two. Then it just got better the further I went. No traffic till after the “Rough Terrain Park”. Used to dirt bike so I know I nice park when I see one. That park looked awesome! There were only a couple of campers parked in there and no one riding. WTF, conditions were perfect for them! This is where the traffic started… I must of saw 6 more cars by the time I got to I.5. A word of warning on this stretch. There’s 2 knarly bumps in the road. Could of lost it on the first one. Car must of hit the bottoming out bumpers on the suspension and I ground about 2mm off the front splitter. Would of really sucked if I had a Nismo or aftermarket front end. Probably would of tore it off. The car bounced really hard and may have even come off the ground. There was one more a little later but I hit the brakes really hard before I got to it. Suspension just sucked that one up like it’s supposed to. Somewhere around the red dot on the map. Overall, it was just an awesome trip! I really can’t believe I never had anyone in front or behind me. I took I.5 to 152 and got back into the bay area on 101. 2.5 hours on the mountain and 1.5 hours getting back the fast way.
Last edited by B&W_Evader; 04-11-2012 at 10:25 AM.
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