When I first moved to the Bay Area in 1980 I lived in San Jose. My house in Albuquerque, NM where I spent the 70's was at 5,600'. It was nothing to ride up to Sandia Crest, altitude 10,600'.

I used to ride up to Skyline Drive from San Jose via Hwy 17 to Hwy 9 then down to Saratoga. The altitude of Skyline Dr. on the peninsula is about 2,000' feet. Back then, coming down to the thick air at sea level made climbing up to Skyline easy!

verktyg