# Hicks Road loop in SJ?



## IbisFox23

Which way is harder? Going clockwise(start in Almaden) or counter clockwise(start in Los Gatos).


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## sometimerider

Take your choice. The Los Gatos start might have some steeper sections, the Almaden start is slightly more unrelenting.

View attachment 167070


(Graph from http://www.actc.org/profiles/index.php)


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## robwh9

I go clockwise. I think the Los Gatos side is a tougher climb.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

I go clockwise as well, so as to get the insane steepness over with quickly. But what I’ve been doing as of late is taking a brief rest at the 1,200' rest stop, and then proceeding up Mount Umunuhm Road. The first 1 mile on Mount Umunuhm is tough, as the altitude gain is something like 800'. But after that, it’s all just about dodging potholes and cattle grates. Exercise CAUTION when riding back down the hill, since the potholes and cattle grates will still be there. I figure you can get to about the 2,900' level before the “warning! private property! no trespassing!” signs encourage you to go back down the hill. I’ve only done the Umunuhm run twice before. I am actually thinking I’d like to do it again tomorrow, since I am still unemployed. Will go up Almaden Expressway to Almaden Road (right turn), to Alamitos, and then a right on Hicks Road. From there (the 1,200' level rest stop), you take a left up onto Mount Umunuhm Road. A pretty good workout if it’s the hills you’re after. I’ll be tackling it with a 53/39 - 11/23, by the way.


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## sometimerider

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> From there (the 1,200' level rest stop), you take a left up onto Mount Umunuhm Road. A pretty good workout if it’s the hills you’re after. I’ll be tackling it with a 53/39 - 11/23, by the way.


Your gearing is nuts (but I know you can do it).

I'm not sure where your rest stop is, but the top of Hicks (where Mt. Umunhum Rd intersects) is just over 1400'.


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## IbisFox23

Thanks for the replies! I've done both ways twice plus some of the stupid drivers just don't get a clue to slow down. The cattle grates scare the crap out of me every time.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

Did it today, with the 53/39 - 11/23. My knees don’t hurt, but my leg muscles are still sore. It took me 47 minutes to get from my front door (Branham/Almaden Expressway/Pearl/Blossom Hill Road area) to the “rest stop” open space preserve parking lot at the intersection of Hicks Road and Mount Umunuhm Road. From there it took me about 38 minutes to get to about the 3,000' level where the “End of county park boundary line” sign is (waaay past where the locked gate is). I saw two deer, about ten fat lizards, lots of butterflies, three squirrels, many tiny birds, a very large dead snake in the road, and only three cars. It was a beautiful day. Came back down the Los Gatos side of Hicks road, such that I ended up on Camden.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

sometimerider said:


> Your gearing is nuts (but I know you can do it).
> 
> I'm not sure where your rest stop is, but the top of Hicks (where Mt. Umunhum Rd intersects) is just over 1400'.


1,200', 1,400' feet, whatever. I got the 1,200' figure from the “you are here” map at the open space preserve parking lot information sign.


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## CHL

IbisFox23 said:


> Which way is harder? Going clockwise(start in Almaden) or counter clockwise(start in Los Gatos).


Harder Way:

Start at Camden Avenue and ride past Guadalupe Reservoir. Shortly after the reservoir, the road makes a very sharp left turn (there's a small bridge I think) and the climb begins. It's steep and it's long. There's a cattle grate a short distance after the climb has started.

Easier Way:

Ride on Almaden Expressway and then onto New Almaden (the well known La Foret Noire restaurant is right in that area). Make a right turn on Hicks Road (there's a cattle grate shortly after you make the right turn). It's fairly flat for 1/2 mile. The climb starts easily but shoots up. If you can go up Moody Road you can go up this side of the Hicks.

If you go "down" the harder side, be very careful. The road winds and is of poor quality (gravel in area). You simply cannot safely make some of the turns, at the speeds you can attain on that descent. If you don't control your speed, we will read about you in the Mercury News:mad2: .

CHL


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## rensho

Yeah folks, Hicks is no joke of a descent. Keep your speeds way down, as we love to read your posts on the forum. We don't want to post about you...

North side is a little bit steeper, but shorter. The road to umuh... is tough and has turned me around on my road bike. I rode to the gate on my mtb, I never knew I liked low gears so much.

And yeah, 53/39 11/23 up that thing is pure madness. Kudos...


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## Leopold Porkstacker

I’ll be doing Hicks/Mount Umunuhm again tomorrow morning, if the weather holds up. We’ve been promised thunderstorms Wednesday through Friday, I haven’t seen anything yet though.

Oh yeah, and I’m sort of a poosie going downhill, so I keep my speeds down.

Anyone interested in meeting up with me for this ride?


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## Leopold Porkstacker

No takers? OK, I’ll be going at it alone then.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

OK, so I took Mount Umunuhm Road all the way to the top this time, “all the way to the top”, meaning, all the way to where the yellow painted steel gates, motion detector, and camera are set up. I can guess that is pretty much at 3,260' altitude. From that vantage you can clearly see just how large “the box” (giant concrete structure on the top of the hill) is. I need to bring my digital camera next time, although I attempted some shots with the built-in crappy cellphone camera (I ended up deleting them all, unfortunately). Let us just accept the fact that the view from the top was great—turn to the left and there is what appears to be the Santa Cruz area and the ocean, and then pan 180° back around and you see the dingy dirty valley.

Oh, on my way back down I started conversation with a bloke named Doug (I am pretty sure that was his name) on a Cervelo, and he apparently makes cool stuff out of carbon fiber (he pointed toward his custom looking carbon brake levers). His company apparently is called “Fiber Lyte”, or is it “Fibre Lyte”, something along those lines, I don’t recall now.

So, a 53/39 - 11/23 setup CAN in fact go up to the top of mount Umunuhm… you just need to find a pace and stick with it. I am thinking of making this a regular (2 - 3 times per week) ride.

The whole ride (including stopping to jabber with Doug) from my house, up to the top, and back down again took 2 hours and 40 minutes (including brief rest intervals), so a pretty vigorous workout.

Woops, had to fix some typographical errors.


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## sometimerider

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> So, a 53/39 - 11/23 setup CAN in fact go up to the top of mount Umunuhm… you just need to find a pace and stick with it. I am thinking of making this a regular (2 - 3 times per week) ride.


That does it - I'm not riding with you anymore.


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## ukbloke

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> So, a 53/39 - 11/23 setup CAN in fact go up to the top of mount Umunuhm… you just need to find a pace and stick with it. I am thinking of making this a regular (2 - 3 times per week) ride.


Impressive! What's your typical speed on the steeper parts of the climb with that gearing? It sounds like a really good drill to build up leg strength.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

I honestly have no idea what the speeds are since I don’t own any sort of cycling computer. I would guess it’s pretty slow though. I am under the impression that my legs are getting stronger now though. No knee joint pain yet, but I am worried about blowing my knees out… I think that as long as I take 30 minutes to stretch before riding it shouldn’t be a problem though.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

OK. Tuesday morning (June 09, 2009) I am going to take on Mount Umunuhm Road again, from the Almaden Expressway direction. Anyone interested in coming along, or do I have to do it solo again?


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## CHL

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> OK. Tuesday morning (June 09, 2009) I am going to take on Mount Umunuhm Road again, from the Almaden Expressway direction. Anyone interested in coming along, or do I have to do it solo again?


Hi Leopold:

I can maybe do it Saturday morning (early). Did you manage to go up the harder side on the 11-23 cassette?

CHL


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## Leopold Porkstacker

CHL said:


> Hi Leopold:
> 
> I can maybe do it Saturday morning (early). Did you manage to go up the harder side on the 11-23 cassette?
> 
> CHL


Saturday is the “big ride”—the RBR ride in/around Los Altos/Woodside/Portola area. I’ll be riding there from San Jose and back.

As for which is the “harder” side, it’s really up to interpretation which side is “harder”, considering the fact that I’ve gone up all the way to the top of Mount Umunuhm… I’ve never gone up the other way (Hicks Road, that is) before. Getting to Camden from my area is sort of a biatch, since I have to “merge” with traffic getting onto Highway 85 North in order to get over to where Camden is, just to get to Hicks Road; going the other direction enables me to round the right turn onto Branham from Camden without having to jockey around with cars nailing their throttles balls-out.

Anyhow, I plan on tomorrow morning (Tuesday) as well as on Thursday morning, as I pledged to get in regular “two Umunuhm” weeks until either my knees give out or I get killed by a ******* in a jacked-up 4x4.


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## Leopold Porkstacker

More pictures


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## Leopold Porkstacker

And more


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## Leopold Porkstacker

And even more pictures


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## Leopold Porkstacker

OK, last one, I promise


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## mohair_chair

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> I’ve never gone up the other way (Hicks Road, that is) before. Getting to Camden from my area is sort of a biatch, since I have to “merge” with traffic getting onto Highway 85 North in order to get over to where Camden is, just to get to Hicks Road; going the other direction enables me to round the right turn onto Branham from Camden without having to jockey around with cars nailing their throttles balls-out.


Oh come on. That's no excuse! Take Meridian to Blossom Hill or Coleman. Or there is a pedestrian crossing for Hwy 85 on Dent Ave, next to the high school.


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## CHL

SantaClause:

I honestly don't know the legal claims to the road or the land in question. Does this article basically explain why the road is "private?" 

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/153994/mount-umunhum.html

From what I gather, the road leads to the summit where the United Air Force once operated a base. Since the only way to reach the base is through "privately owned" land, the road is off limits except to its legal owners.

CHL


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