Northern California - *Extremely!* Close Call on Page Mill Today

I was out with two other club members today for an easy paced ride. Our route was starting at Peet's in Los Altos, through Portola Valley, up Kings Mountain, Skyline to Skylonda, 84W, up West Alpine, and down Page Mill.

Two of us (Steve & Steve) were descending together. We going down the steep descent just beyond the Montebello and Los Trancos Open Space parking areas. At the bottom of the steep pitch there is roadside parking. I was going full-speed down the hill when a car pulls out of the parking spot, attempts to make a U-turn to head back down toward Palo Alto/Los Altos, can't complete the turn, and is blocking the entire roadway.

I hit the brakes and my rear wheel went up in the air at least a foot or so and I am headed toward the car riding on just my front wheel. I really thought I was going to do an endo and/or smash in to the side of the car. The grass to my right looked a lot softer than either the pavement or the car. I instinctively eased off the brakes and managed to get my rear wheel back on the ground. I headed off into the grass figuring I was in for a nasty spill. Somehow I managed to keep the bike upright through the grass and get back onto the pavement. Some grass got caught up in the front front and made a hissing sound and I thought I had a flat.

My riding partner who was right on my wheel saw the whole thing and, also having nowhere to go, followed my track, and also stayed upright.

The thing that made me the angriest was that the driver didn't even stop or slow down to apologize or ask if we we OK! :mad: I shouted a few choice epithets at him as he went by. Not knowing how my wheels were at first, I took the first few turns cautiously. Eventually we caught back up to him just before Gate 6, he moved to the right, I again yelled as I went by that he had nearly eff'ing killed me, and finished the descent uneventfully and happy to not be in the hospital (or worse).

*phew!*

What is it with stupid drivers today?

Holy crap. Glad you made it through unscathed. Props to your bike handling skills.
Yep, it's a full moon.

Glad to hear no one was hurt. Every time I've been down that steep pitch, the thrill has always been tempered by the fact that it's straight, and you have a pretty clear line of sight before it flattens out and turns to the left. If you're a driver who might block the whole road at the bottom of that pitch, you should really check out if anyone's coming down that hill. I'm thinking the fog had cleared by the time you came down that pitch or things would have been a lot worse.

Wow, that's scary ... Page Mill was our first climb of the day, so hearing this is pretty eerie. Glad you were able to survive unscathed. What time of the day was this?

This happened around 1PM yesterday. It was perfectly clear. Absolutely no reason he wasn't able to see the two of us.

Glad you're okay. We were descending Page Mill on Saturday and saw someone sitting in the shoulder with a couple Sheriff deputies standing by. Poor guy looked a bit shaken up and was missing a shoe. Not sure where his bike was or what happened. That road can be scary...

Glad you didn't hit! How fast were you going at "full speed"?

nearly the same thing happened to me on Crystal Springs. Some jerk in a Volvo SUVall the way across the road with a bike rack on the back - with one of those projections at my head level. He was backing into my path, so I whistled and shouted at him. He stopped, and I went by.

Why he didn't just go down the road about 100 yards and turn where there's a big wide dirt shoulder, I don't know.

Mind you, that was the SECOND close call. The first was on Canada at the roadblock at the North end. A cyclist rolling across, not looking, rolling right into my path between the cones. Darn near T-boned him. Why is it that folks pass the roadblocks and stop? Or they make a slow U-turn not looking to see if anyone's coming?

I’ve been descending PM since the mid ‘80s. Some years only a handful, but other years almost weekly, so summing up it has to be a few hundred times. While I realize that the road isn’t some people’s cup of tea, I’ve always enjoyed it because car traffic in generally very light and isn’t a favored motorcyclist route. I also think it’s a mentally challenging descent that requires a suppression of extraneous thoughts…

Outside of a fall in ’86 on a dewy morning when I slid out on the smooth part of the road between Foothills park and 280 (nasty hematomas and cracked VI-Pro helmet) I’ve made it down each time unscathed.

That all said a driver’s lack situational awareness can be truly scary. My closest call was on Thanksgiving Day of 2007. I was coming around a turn about a mile west of the vista points at about 37-38 mph when I saw a car at a dead stop not more than 75 feet in front of me. Fortunately I was already near the center line, so I moved into the opposite lane (hoping no one was coming in the opposite direction) and passed the obstacle.

If you genuflect too much on this sort of incident, you’ll swear off the activity and vow to finally get into Yoga or something else. Bad or inattentive driving is the wild card feature of each ride that we have to accept that is so maddening.

Thank you Steve E for sharing your hair-raising experience-these incident reports are valuable information. I never noticed at 40 mph the grassy area you describe; I’ll look for it someday when I’m on a climb.

Also, after a near miss on HW9 this past May, where I nearly t-boned a pickup truck at 40 mph, I decided to always ride with a headlight (like the motorcyclists). It may not have made any difference in Steve's case, but I firmly believe that the safety factor in being more visible on mountain roads is well worth the small weight penalty of a light. My Mi-Newt is standard equipment on my bike now.

Glad you didn't hit! How fast were you going at "full speed"?I figure i was going somewhere between 40-45 mph when I hit the brakes. My bike computer had a max speed for the day of 44.8 mph but I don't know if that was when I reached it.

- Steve

... I never noticed at 40 mph the grassy area you describe; I’ll look for it someday when I’m on a climb. I think the only reason it was grassy was due the recent rains. And it isn't very wide!

What is it with stupid drivers today?

Today.... and yesterday and tomorrow! I say people should be able to demonstrate two things above all else when they take their driving test; how to execute a u-turn without disrupting traffic flow and how to merge on the effing freeway! Two skills sorely lacking by today's drivers! Anyway, glad you and your friend weren't hurt Steve. I get frustrated when a clueless driver disrupts a high-speed descent, but I'm sure we can all do without the nose wheelies and panic stops.

Glad you're ok! :thumb:

Good practice for emergency stops when the crazy deer jump out at you (it is mating season).

Steve E, I took a look (as best I could) yesterday afternoon at the presumed stretch of your impromptu off road experience. I notice that there isn’t much of a grassy strip opposite of the parking area you describe and that there’s a metal pole with a pedestrian crossing sign right in the middle that I assume further complicated matters for you. That was phenomenal bike handling on your part and probably also testimony to the fact that bikes really want to stay upright.

I finally got onto Google maps and found that here's a "street view" perspective of this location:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=37.325024,-122.174523&spn=0,359.996516&z=19&layer=c&cbll=37.325024,-122.174523&panoid=ehFy3TEtqBEP8SLZfR-wUw&cbp=12,132.57,,0,21.18


I think I went off the pavement just beyond the sign on the right-hand side of the road.

- SteveE

I finally got onto Google maps and found that here's a "street view" perspective of this location:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=37.325024,-122.174523&spn=0,359.996516&z=19&layer=c&cbll=37.325024,-122.174523&panoid=ehFy3TEtqBEP8SLZfR-wUw&cbp=12,132.57,,0,21.18


I think I went off the pavement just beyond the sign on the right-hand side of the road.

- SteveE

:eek:

Today.... and yesterday and tomorrow! I say people should be able to demonstrate two things above all else when they take their driving test; how to execute a u-turn without disrupting traffic flow and how to merge on the effing freeway! Two skills sorely lacking by today's drivers! Anyway, glad you and your friend weren't hurt Steve. I get frustrated when a clueless driver disrupts a high-speed descent, but I'm sure we can all do without the nose wheelies and panic stops.

Yes. Yes. I could not believe my first (and only) driver's license test I took at 16 years old in Pennsylvania. About 15 minutes long through residential streets. When the examiner said we were done, I was initially glad that I didn't have to complete any difficult driving. Such as merging onto a freeway. Or driving through any semi-commercial area. Or an area that might have pedestrians or cyclists. Or, well, any remotely difficult area at all. And then I realized that this meant that the absolute worst of drivers had a chance at getting a driver's license. This, I think, is the point at which I put my palm to my face.