NorCal (Bay Area) DRIVE Chat Thread

[finch1750]

Glad you made it out @Simpleviet. Been too long.

The only ones I can help on is @Pish aka Josh was the one holding the clipboard on stage haha

[PMok]

it was great seeing you too @Simpleviet haha almost shocked to see you with long hair, it's been too long. Glad you made it out to hang with us for a bit.

[Pish]

Originally Posted by Simpleviet

22 October 2016

Instead of usually leaving at 0530 for Mission Peak, I left at 0650 and arrived 0715. Knowing Saturday at Mission Peak, it’s packed and finding a parking spot sucks. I did several form of stretches before I began my hiking adventure. 0730, was the time I started hiking up the valley. The terrain was covered with tall yellow grass, few very tall dark green trees in some spots, few different size bushes, and boulders varied in sizes. The dirt trail was dry with many bumps in form of rocks as large as a double-double hamburger from In and Out. Be extra careful not to mix cow-pie as rocks. The trail zig-zagged up towards the peak of the valley with some benches where you could rest and stop at the end of almost every turn. Forgot about the bathrooms, there are two key places; the base of the valley before you hike up and farther up you will reach the 2nd base of the peak. Those that do run with minimalist shoes, be careful as you literally can feel what you step on. The air was cold with some light winds. The stratus clouds across the blanket blue sky was pretty sparse. As I hiked up the valley, I took some pictures which overlooked Fremont and Milpitas cities. Gorgeous views my favorite would early in the morning where the day is still dark and you could see the cities lights shine. Along the way, you may see several turkeys roaming together and cows that may just moo you on over. Okay that was bad… haha. I sped hike up Mission Peak because it all started from a friend that I invited one time to go on Mission Peak together and he was fit…I didn’t figure he would hike fast. Luckily for me, my workout was 2 weeks in if it hadn’t been for my workout, I would’ve died…Not only that, he ran all the way and I couldn’t keep up with him but I was chugging along with my slow run. The bastard tried to kill me… He would give me high-fives and positive words like “great job”, “you did it!”, and “you made it! “Sure I appreciated the motivation at the same time I wanted to kill him with my hatred haha. We both made it down and I was out of breath. He was fine and dandy. Since then, that’s what I did hiked up as fast as I could and run all the way down. One day I will run the whole thing. I met this guy named Subu before the 2nd base of the peak and he and I silently raced up the valley together. Although I passed him and he passed me several times over the course of the trail, he had more stamina than I near the end of the peak. We both ended up thanking one another for motivating each other to get to the top. Pretty chilled guy. He was waiting for his friends to meet him at the top. Skipping details of my hike up, when you reach the top you will see a pole where you could do whatever you want on that pole and when you want to depending on the time there may be a line or none at all. The view is awesome on all sides of the valley. Just beautiful…its quiet when the air is calm and nobody is around. Afterwards, I ran all the way down ending my hike at 0900.

I drove home, took a shower, and checked the time for the 86drive’s End of the Summer Celebration. At first, I thought it started 0800 or something like that. It was at 1100. Sweet I could make it there! I drove to In and Out bought 3 double-double protein styles. For several months I haven’t drive in so long which brought out my speed inner demon to go fast on highways and main roads from time to time. Safely of course… Ahem, I began my adventure driving up Mount Hamilton from the San Jose side. I drove on Quimby Rd, if you like to do some fast sightseeing there’s a cool looking Sikh before it. The road was on an incline with one lane on either side, trees and houses nestled along the early parts of the road, some snake shaped and 3 tight u-pins roads, and a section of the road there’s no lanes so be careful when driving… Who knows what’s coming! At the end of Quimby rd, I made a right turn thus began the actual Mount Hamilton drive. The farther I drove on Mount Hamilton road, my passion for driving ignited the flames inside. It brought out large smile on my face and excitement while my hands gripped the wheel turning on every turn whatever challenges lied ahead of me. I missed this feeling of having fun on drives where this particular road takes you away from the cities and into the wilderness. How the road cuts through the valley, into mountainous areas, and wrapped around the Mount Hamilton like a snake constricting your arm. The roads were smooth with least amount of gravel. There are spots around the areas where you could go on hikes or if you’re into bicyclist you could travel Mount Hamilton as your challenge! I’m still on my first stock tires and pretty worn down. I didn’t want to drive too fast where I would lose control and fall off the cliff into a valley and never be able to get help ever haha because of no signal for the cellphone. I believe, I was driving 45 to 50 mph majority of the time and I was having a blast! This car’s handling still after 3 years is still amazingly awesome. It can turn on a dime and you can fully trust your car will turn when it’s told to turn. You certainly could feel the road and the way this car could hug the road makes you just want to let out a wide open throttle and zoom on by! A light slip of the rear wheel and the screech of rubber on asphalt as you right foot flat causing the tires to spin too fast for it to quickly realize the rubber needed to the grip the road before it could move the car. Perhaps it’s the perks of having a worn out tire haha. There was a fair amount of bicyclist on the road given time of day. I want to say there was maybe 6 – 7 tight upin spread across Mount Hamilton. The landscapes are beautiful, some parts the terrain looked like you’re driving through the African Savannah while others felt like a car commercial driving on a stretched road middle of nowhere far from everything. Pictures would be able to describe it a lot better than I could put in words. I made a stop at the at Lick’s Observatory, very top of Mount Hamilton, and ate my first double-double on top of a mountain. I noticed few hungry eyes darting at my hamburger or perhaps my gorgeous looks just kidding haha. It was delicious; thin sliced tomatoes, freshly sliced onions, 2 beef patties stuck together with 2 melted cheese, awesome spread sauce unchanged since 1948, and finally all held together neatly by 2 crisp green lettuce. As I was eating out on the white rails with sauce dripping down like Carles Jr’s commercial, I saw another car group making their way up towards Mount Hamilton. 15 plus Mustang different colored vehicles traveling together in a line with their engines roaring letting the mountain know we’re climbing up. The group reached Lick’s Observatory and drove around the building like a parade to park. It was time for me to head out. I gave them a thumbs up and they returned the same greeting. I continued my journey towards the Junction.

The shape of the roads were less jaggy compared to the first half of Mount Hamilton drive from San Jose side. I was enjoying the drive with roads that had slopes that went up and down, few huge curved road, and many straight roads with ease in turning. Eventually, I arrived at the Junction and it was packed! Luckily, I parked near them mailboxes although I sort of felt making it harder for them to get their mail. The 86 community sure gotten much larger compared to 2013. Many new faces with some old. I believe the blue 86 was the most popular color I mean it had their own section where it was just all blue with a random white and asphalt haha. Not just 86 drivers we also got bikers too. Pretty crowded in a tight space and the restaurant there was packed. Lucky for me, I had extra Double-Doubles. I got to say hey to Plato, Garland, Jesse, Ed, Finch, and Javier then meeting new people too ie Prince and the guy with the fancy camera whoever he is… I wasn’t there for the prize of course I was there to see how large the community have grown. It was pretty sweet. Congratulations to those that won the prizes. Fancy mugs, t-shirts, Man-Engineer swag, and the rest. I may be late to it but hell, I like to extend a warm welcome to all the new faces to 86 group. Welcome! Drive safe and have fun! I want to say thank you for the people who made it all possible for the event. You know who you are! By the way, Garland rigged the system hahaha. It was great seeing you all! I decided to head back home after everything was done.

I head back through the route I came from. I made some stops to take some pictures and few minutes later I heard some rumbling thunder from distance. Vroom Vroom as they drove by fast. I waved at them to greet them but I suppose I looked like I was asking for helping or something. Took some more pictures then walked back to my and drove. I wanted to make a stop at Lick’s Observatory to take another picture before leaving. Lord and behold, I found the cars that passed me were here behind the building. Javier, Prince, and the other 3 guys which I forgot their names forgive me. One is a retired martial artist, one is OCD about his blue tapered bumper, one had a noticeable crack on the windshield driver side. I ate my 2nd and last Double-Double on top of the mountain. Oh the last person to arrive was this guy forgot his name but he was up on stage holding a clipboard and he brought his family along for the trip. It was enjoyable hanging out with them before we all left. I was 2nd to last to leave because I wanted to take more pictures as I drove home. I didn’t want to slow them down. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Overall, I had a great fun time driving with my car through Mount Hamilton away from the cities. Meeting new people and catching up with the old. I hope the community continues to prosper in open arms and continue the drive as well as the yearly End of the Summer meets. See you when I see you. Have fun and drive safe. Peace. Forgot to say thanks for the gift Garland lol….

If there’s anything wrong with my writing let me know. I didn’t check my grammar this time around. I’ll do it later.


In no particular order.

No worries! I was wearing a mask the entire day because I was sick so my identity was concealed haha. We met a while back at the Off the Grid meets I hosted; glad to see you again!

[Pish]

@Simpleviet Here is a picture of you at a different vantage point (with my crap replacement phone camera lol).

[driggity]

Originally Posted by driggity

A road works project that took longer than planned? Shocking.


Looks like November 7th is the new target date.


http://www.acrcd.org/NewsEvents.aspx

I'm not sure exactly when it happened but yesterday evening I noticed that the road closure sign on 680 was gone and that website says that Palomares is now open.

[PMok]

Originally Posted by driggity

I'm not sure exactly when it happened but yesterday evening I noticed that the road closure sign on 680 was gone and that website says that Palomares is now open.

Awesome! I think I will take a little cruise down Palomares this weekend... Who's interested? Sat or Sun morning?

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by PMok

Awesome! I think I will take a little cruise down Palomares this weekend... Who's interested? Sat or Sun morning?

Hmmm, I'm probably in. Either day is good with me I think.

[MisterSheep]

Originally Posted by PMok

Awesome! I think I will take a little cruise down Palomares this weekend... Who's interested? Sat or Sun morning?

I would go.. but I'm going to be in sac all weekend. With that said though how many of you out there go on drives during the week? I have Monday the 14th and Wednesday the 16th off and would be cool to organize some sort of drive.

[BigFatFlip]

Originally Posted by MisterSheep

I would go.. but I'm going to be in sac all weekend. With that said though how many of you out there go on drives during the week? I have Monday the 14th and Wednesday the 16th off and would be cool to organize some sort of drive.

I'm in Sac and I go out for drives during the week since I'm/was unemployed. Too bad you weren't around this week, I just did lake berryessa again yesterday since I start work on Monday. Trying to decide where to go tmrw.

[Pwolf]

I'm down for Palomares. What time? Buddy of mine is in the bay area for the week so gonna try and make my way out that direction anyway.

[PMok]

I'm thinking Sunday. Palomares is kind of short on its own, do you think we should do it in combo with say, Redwood? We could start down in Sunol and go up from there... or start in CV and do Palomares both ways, then up to Redwood...

7:30AM?

[Aussie]

I'd like to come along on Sunday.
Thanks

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by PMok

I'm thinking Sunday. Palomares is kind of short on its own, do you think we should do it in combo with say, Redwood? We could start down in Sunol and go up from there... or start in CV and do Palomares both ways, then up to Redwood...

7:30AM?

I mean I'd probably just run Palomares both ways anyway so I vote for that lol.

[Pwolf]

7:30 it is. Where we meeting?