TELLS ABOUT AUTO RUN OF INTEREST NEAR OAKLAND
William M. Gardner Thinks He has Found Road to Furnish Test for White Automobiles
"Well,"
said Wm. M. Gardiner of The White Company, the other day subject of hill
climbing
when the stunts came up, "I had a little hill climb of
my own the other day followed by a hill drop which beat anything I ever
tackled before.
"Last week was an unusually hard week with me, and by the time the week was over, I felt the need of a half holiday, so took a friend in my runabout and started for an afternoon across the bay. Something put it in my head to climb Redwood Peak. I hadn't been up there since I was boy. I just thought I would see what it was like.
"I took the course out out Thirteenth avenue, up through Dimond canyon and turned off to the right just beyond the rock quarry. Just after turning off the road divides into three forks. I had forgotten which one was the right one and after trying the other two, I finally got the proper one which is the lowest road-the first turn off to the right. There is a better road which leads into this one further on, that runs up the other side of Dimond canyon.
"Once started on the right track the running is plain. We went past Joaquin Miller's place, looking as it had years ago.
"This run is often taken by people who leave Redwood Peak on the left and go on over to Haywards, but we turned off there to the left and got a start up the peak. I had forgotten the lay of the land a little and the first place I bumped into was a little farm house to the right hand side of the summit. I went back, took an- other road and struck a well-kept place just at the summit. I was about to descend as we had come, when I saw a little road leading off to the left in the opposite direction and just for fun I thought I would follow it. I had only gone a few hundred yards when it developed into an unused track. There were signs up that this was the property of the Realty Syndicate. The whole country had been planted with small pine trees and this road had evidently been graded out as a basis for operations with the idea of subsequently utilizing it if there should ever be a demand for residence property so high in the clouds. I really had no business following it any further but just for fun I did so and had an experience. That road will be a famous road some day. It winds along the northern crest of the ridge and all of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda and San Francisco are spread out before one with Tamalpais and the ocean still beyond. I doubt whether there is a finer view anywhere around this section, but that road was a fright. It was so badly grass grown that in places it was like following a blind trail, in the grades there were wash outs, but by some sort of luck I can only attribute to the proverbial White luck, no place was washed out quite enough to prevent squeezing through."
"I had
more luck on the subject of tires. I had forgotten to take even an inner tube
or a repair outfit, but there was never a bit of trouble. In fact I seemed to be
fortunate in that I very seldom have any tire trouble at all. This may be
partially attributed to the fact that White cars are very easy on tires. But
the joke of the whole matter was that I never knew where I would have to turn
around and re-climb that hill on account of the road giving out. Had this
occurred, I would have been strictly up against it for had a bad leak in my
condenser, the result was that almost my whole supply of water had been
exhausted, where originally I would have used only a few inches out of the
tank. There was no water water anywhere around and insufficient to make the
re-climb, so necessity compelled going ahead. Several times that road seemed to
vanish, but in each instance it took a fresh lease of life. All through the
road was very narrow and the turns were particularly short. Finally, the road
lead right straight into the canyon and I remarked that if it didn't stop
there we would soon be out as it must go down the canyon. Sure enough it turned shortly to the left and made a drop into the canyon. I say 'drop'
advisedly, for I don't think I have been down so steep a chute in my life. The
road was just wide enough to hang onto, yet it was so steep in the number of
instances I had hard work to help the machine from sliding, and in one or two
instances, I had to release the brakes at the expense of momentum in order
to keep from sliding. I drew a good breath of relief when I got down that
chute. Then I came into a well traveled road, which in a few hundred yards
lead out on the new Moraga road which in turn met the Jack Hays canyon road a
little further on, and when I struck the last named road, it appeared that I
came out only about three hundred yards from where I left it, having completed
a very wide circle.
"That road is certainly a corker. I am going to
keep it laid up for future reference. I venture to say that my White runabout
is the first automobile that ever went up, down or across it, and when I get
hold of a particularly recalcitrant buyer on whom all other demonstrations
have failed and want to show off the flexibility and ease of control of the
White car to the utmost, as a last resort, I am going to take him over that
course. If that does not get him, I shall consider him a fit candidate for no
automobile at all."
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| Gardiner's route was likely up Thirteenth Avenue, up what's now Park Boulevard, what's now Mountain Boulevard, what's now Joaquin Miller Road, left on the road that was replaced in the 1920s with Skyline Boulevard ("That road will be a famous road some day.") then up to Redwood Peak on foot. He would have walked back to his car, and that was his viewpoint when he wrote "I was about to descend as we had come,
when I saw a little road leading off to the left in the opposite direction and
just for fun I thought I would follow it." I think he went down the old logging road that is now Castle Drive / Castle Park trail and what's now the Cinderella trail, Sinawik Trail, Palos Colorados Trail, returning on what's now Mountain Boulevard. Here is my imagining of his drive, based on the contemporary Map of Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley. Copyright, 1906, georeferenced here, which shows roads matching my theory and Gardiner's words. As my friend Mudrak used to say, it's hard tellin', not knowin'. |
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