Belmont Departure at 9AM

Lucille:

April 22 - Tuesday - I was a bit nervous for the bikers when I heard the rain last night.  Fortunately, it was cloudy when we woke up, but no rain.  It was fun having Bob Smith and Ed Schoenstein stop by to see us off.  The guys took off at about 9 am, and I left Belmont at 12:30.  The first part of this trip was familiar territory, so my one and a half hour drive to Casa de Fruta was pretty easy.  The clouds were beautiful today.  Enjoyed passing the farmland while on Highway 152.  I arrived at the motel at about 2 o'clock.  I realized that I had not gone over PachecoPass for many a year because I remembered Casa de Fruta as just a fruit stand by the side of the road.  I was amazed at all of the tourist attractions here now.  After checking in and putzing around the motel, I finally decided to go explore the Casa de Fruta complex.  I started walking, and 5 minutes later I was thrilled to see 2 bikers.  Hurray!  I even had my camera with me and so I got an arrival photo.  We were relaxing in the room when we were surprised by a knock at our door.  Our friends Helen and Jim Egerton drove down from Monterey to see if they could find us.  We were so happy to see them.  We had wine, cheese, and crackers in the room, and then the 5 of us went to the Casa de Coffee for dinner.  Now we're checking our maps for tomorrow.

ERIC:

7:30 am - I am ready!  One hour before we leave.   I am really excited now.  It looks like we are going to be starting off in a little drizzle.  The rain should only last a couple of hours.
8:45 pm - WHAT A DAY!  We had no rain.  Wonderful clouds.  Perfect temperature.  My bum was getting a little sore during hour five.  I feel great now.  We had a great dinner with surprise guests. (Friends of my parents)  My favorite part of the day was going through the farm land.  I have driven this road so many times it was amazing to really see the land I drive by at 60 mph.  There are so many smells you miss when in a car.  We had to take a little time this evening to figure out how to use the dial up modem so I think it is time to pass the computer on to the next person.  Until tomorrow...

Approaching the hilltop before Casa de Fruta

Coyote Creek Bike Path between San Jose and Morgan Hill

MilesAverage SpeedTotal Hours
82.614.35:47:57


Belmont, CA to Casa DeFruta (Highway 152 @ 156) 70 miles.  This may be the longest trip in an urban area.  The elevation change is small (450 feet down to 30 feet up to 1100 feet and finish at 270 feet)

TOM:

The estimate for this route had some errors.  The actual distance was 83 miles and the highest elevation was 450 feet, not 1100 feet.  This was a fantastic day.  When we departed at 9 am the sun was starting to come out from behind the clouds and the sky was blue with white puffy clouds. The temperature was nice and cool in the low 60's. It seemed the route was down hill with the wind to our back.  We made great time averaging 14.3 mph. We followed  Alameda de las Pulgas and Junipero Serra and a bike trail to San Antonio Road, then rode a short distance to Central Express Way at the train station.  We passed by the previous Motorola office off Page Mill Road at about 9:53 am.  The ride on Central Expressway was very fast. Our average speed got up to almost 15 mph.  We passed by the current Motorola Office at about 10:22 am.  Upon entering Sunnyvale we waved to Frank.  We missed the Montague Express and turned on Tremble to Zanker Road. Then made our way down past San Jose State University to Hellyer Park where the Coyote Creek trail starts.  We took the trail to the east side of the valley and then turned west to Morgan Hill where we got on the Monterey Highway to Gilroy and the turn off to Casa de Fruta. We saw some great sites and the weather could not have been better. Riding time was 5 Hours 48 minutes and the actual time including stops was about 7 hours.  We arrived a little before 4 PM.

Day One - 4/22/2003

Belmont Departure at 9 AM