Reading these threads about Mt Hamilton; and watching on the ToC gets me to thinking.
I live in SoCal now, but as a high school kid I got a wild hair up my butt and decided to ride my bike to Mt Hamilton from my house in Santa Clara. Took me two tries as the first time I got two flats and had to call my Dad from a pay phone in Grant Park to pick me up. I didn't even have patches or tubes or a pump - stupid kid.
Second try I made it up and the observatory was closed when I got there. I went up Quimby as it seemed shorter on my Auto club map borrowed from Dad.
The speeds coming down were better than any ride at Great America or Santa Cruz.
Here's my basic route on mapmyride.
Map My Ride to Mt Hamilton
~ 63 miles and ~5000 + feet of climbing; still the most climbing I've ever done in a day.
Looking back; probably not the smartest thing for a 15 year old to do.
I wasn't even a cyclist then; just a 5'0" 105lb squirt of a swimmer - my old Nishiki was how I got around.
About 8 miles to swim practice and school every day.
Forgot to mention, I might have just seen Breaking Away for inspiration.
If I get around to getting a road bike again; I'd like to go up north and do Hamilton again and others like Diablo and Sierra Rd and Tam and ....