Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/05/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 5/21/05 2:04 AM, Nathan Wajsman at nathan.wajsman@planet.nl wrote: > ...on bicycles! > > One summer in Switzerland, I rode my motorcycle to the Gotthard Pass. On > the way up I passed several cyclists and was very impressed by the fact > that a seemingly sane person would subject himself to a 17-km climb. On > the way down I was riding conservatively--it is a curvy mountain > road--not exceeding 80 km/h. At one point I was passed by a BICYCLE! > > Nathan > Maybe I should mention bicycling on Mount Diablo... when Adam Bridge and I went to Reed's last year in Walnut Creek for the DMR (on topic!) demo we had some time to spare before the demo so we took a drive up the mountain. Rising about 3800' above the surrounding east bay area communities, it's the highest point in the region; from the summit on a clear day you can see hundreds of miles, even into Oregon and Nevada. The road to the summit is narrow and winding and I believe Adam's car was totally in its preferred habitat. On the way down the mountain we saw several cyclists headed up... straining hard for headway up the road, sweat running off their clothes (or was it runoff from the rain?), and each one of them had a silly grin in anticipation of the ride down. Hard to believe that several years ago I made the same ride, regularly. The ride down the mountain is a BLAST! Not once in the half-hour from the summit to the north gate did I have to pedal the bike. Brakes smoking, eyes popped open in terror, screaming the whole way down (perhaps I'm exaggerating), once I reached the north gate entrance to the park my only thought was "that was GREAT! Let's do that again!" Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://www.wildlightphoto.com