Just Kickin' It

They want four bucks a gallon for gas, the security lines at the airport are moving slower and slower, the planes are all full of passengers and running late, and the trains...the trains? Sorry, I live in California, and we don't do trains. I really admire all of you road warriors out there, but I don't need the hassle and I can't afford the gas, so the only thing left to do is go local.

Luckily, there are lots of local sites to see out where I live. You know, beaches, redwoods, mountains, theaters and restaurants and all that. Today I decided to play local tourist and put up a quick little post, but instead of writing about the major attractions I decided I'd focus on a couple of local ones instead. So, I packed my little cameraphone in my pocket and off I went.

The first stop was the local gas station for a couple of gallons of gas and away I went up Mt. Hamilton Road. Mt. Hamilton is just east of the Silicon Valley and rises to a majestic height of 4,000 feet or so above the valley floor. To get there you take the only road going east, that being the aptly named Mt. Hamilton Road. The road is one of the last remaining links to the Valley's rural past and was originally built back in the 1870's by the County of Santa Clara for one specific purpose - to provide a means for James Lick to reach the top of the mountain where he could build his famous observatory. The road was finished and the observatory built, and ever since then the "chrome domes" have perched ominously atop the distant mountain.

It's approximately 30 miles from downtown San Jose to the Lick Observatory, but the drive is very demanding. Mt. Hamilton Road was originally built for horses and wagons, not automobiles, and careful drivers can plan on about a 2 hour drive to the top (although a raucous carful of drunken teenagers can usually make it in about 45 minutes, but that's a topic for another day). A more popular way to make it to the top is by bicycle, and on weekends it might be fair to say if that the cyclists outnumber the automobiles on Mt. Hamilton Road. Be forewarned, however, it's a narrow road and drivers need to keep an attentive eye out for cyclists, although their dorky looking cycling costumes make them pretty easy to spot.

I didn't take car or bike but rode my motorcycle up the mountain. As it turns out, this is probably not the best way to travel this road. There are parts where the road is open with the kind of swooping curves that bikers love, but for the most part the road is full of potholes and blind curves and tight, tight switchbacks. My bike is pretty nimble and light, and I can't imagine slugging it out through those switchbacks on some 700 pound hog. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then just walk out to some biker bar and ask one of the hairy gents with the prison tats stenciled on his head if you can borrow his Harley for a while. If he agrees then get on the bike and go out in the parking lot and do nothing but tight, low speed U-turns for about 45 minutes. That's the kind of fun you'd be having trying to slog your way up those switchbacks on a Harley.

Anyway, at the top of the Mountain sits the observatory. In total there are about 9 or 10 telescopes up there, but the Lick's claim to fame are the original 36 inch refractor and the 120 reflector. The public can view both telescopes, but the only one the public can actually look through is the 36 inch refractor, and then only during special public viewings.

I've been up to see the refractor around 4 or 5 times during my life, and actually looked through it once when I was a very young child. Even though it's nearly 150 year old, it's still an impressive piece of equipment. The telescope itself weighs in at around 7 tons, with an added 7 ton counterweight. Even at this enormous size, however, the telescope is so perfectly balanced that it can easily be maneuvered by hand.

Once you've seen the telescopes and visited the gift shop and taken in some of the views, then there's not much to do but come back down mountain. Along the way you'll pass Grant Ranch Park which has some of the best hiking and mountain biking trails in the valley, so bring your hiking boots if you feel up to the challenge. Another warning: Grant Ranch gets very hot and dusty during the summer, so bring lots and lots of water and try to hit the trails early in the morning.

When I got back to the valley I decided to take a little ride out to one of my favorite valley spots. For those of you who don't remember (or don't care), back in the sixties and seventies the City of Santa Clara had one of the most prestigious swimming clubs in the country, called, oddly enough, the Santa Clara Swim Club, which, in it's heyday, boasted probably the two most famous swimmers in the country - Donna de Varona and Mark Spitz.

The swim club is still very much alive, although not so much in the limelight as in it's former days. It sits rather nondescriptly behind the City Library, and other than the plaques on the wall and two very prominent pictures of De Varona and Spitz in the main entrance area, seems to make very little fuss about it's illustrious past. In fact it would be hard to call it a real tourist destination; it's really nothing more than a point of interest.

Still, back when I used to live out around there I used to love to walk over to the pool and think of all the Olympic history that got it's start right there. In fact I remember one afternoon I walked over and got to see Janet Evans swim an event. She didn't swim for the club, but she was there with the Stanford Swimming Team swimming some sort of mete. It was amazing. I didn't have to pay any admission fee or anything like that. I just took a seat in the bleachers and watched a world record holder and multiple olympic gold medalist swim a few races. Don't you wish sports was still like that?

That's my post.