South of the 280, it's really a different area. There are very few cars, and the roads are often barely narrow enough for a lane each eay. Most houses are gated with fancy little security keypads outside the gate. Houses are huge, and real estate agents are everywhere. The roads are very quiet. There are golf courses. Most of all, everything is steep!
The conditions were good (the weather was a bit warm, but still reasonable), and I biked up and down hills very comfortably for about an hour. However, I wanted to get into high hills and I just couldn't find them. I was stuck around the foothills. My searches led me to loop and backtrack very often, but I didn't mind because the whole experience was so enjoyable.
I lost track of time. After crossing the 280 a few times, I found a street named Moody and decided to take it. The name sounded promising, and that's exactly the nature of the road: promising but never delivering. I spent at least 45 minutes going up the enormous, steep hill. Pure uphill. As in, nothing but up.
The worst part: the road was extremely windy, so I could never see around the next corner. I'd convince myself that the next corner was the last, and I'd bike around only to find that there was at least one more. After the ninth such occurance, I took a photo, thinking it was really the last. Ah, I was so naive back then!
After ages of climbing, I came upon an intersection. At the intersection were two other bikers. I biked onwards and upwards, and they biked behind me. At one point I stopped to take a picture of the view and they caught up.
I began talking to them: friendly bike banter ("My bike sucks, this is my first big ride and I'm having a blast. Oh, by the way, do you by any chance know when we'll reach the top of this enormous, ridiculously steep hill?"). The man (it turned out to be a man and his daughter) told me that I was nowhere near the top. We contined talking, and I learned that he's a professor at Stanford. Besides being the professor of some of the most well-respected googlers, he also was one of the key contributors to several fascinating projects within Google! (I wish I could talk about them, but of course I can't.)
His daughter gave up and left, and then we sped up. We talked about Google for a bit as we climbed. However, I soon learned that he was a much better biker than I was, in addition to his having a better bike. I was holding him back, and I was pooped. I had been climbing for about 45 minutes straight! I said goodbye, turned around, and zoomed down the hill, stopping for pictures along the way. The down part of the ride was well worth all the climbing.
When I got home, I checked the time. I had been biking for three and a half hours. Pretty good for a first biking adventure with a crappy bike! Next time I'll climb to the top.
My photos are available in my first biking photo album. There aren't many: I was too busy biking to snap photos.