Sheldon Smith leads the parade at the July 25 opening ceremonies for the new footbridge over Highway 17.
For most bicycle riders, a trip of a few miles--say from Los Gatos to Saratoga and back--might be considered a good day's exercise.
Sheldon Smith of Los Gatos, who turned 65 in April, thinks nothing of pedaling 100 or even 200 miles and more. He is a "serious" cyclist, as differentiated from those of us who ride a few blocks around the neighborhood. Though "Shel" Smith hasn't kept track of his total mileage, he puts it at "easily over 10,000 miles."
Eight or nine years of commuting by bicycle to his job as a space scientist for NASA at Ames Research Laboratory, Moffett Field, was merely a warm-up. Since his retirement after 31 years, from NASA and a later private contracting business, he has ridden in numerous long-distance races. He rides an aluminum Quantum bike with regulation (not mountain) tires.
Smith is now "vice-president emeritus" of the Almaden Cycle Touring Club.
In addition to his serious cycling, Smith is a nearly constant crusader on behalf of more and better bike paths and pedestrian trails. As a member of the Los Gatos Trails and Bikeways Committee, Smith, who recently became chairman of the committee, consulted on a master plan to develop and extend the Los Gatos Creek Trail. In a time of fiscal austerity, he signed up volunteer groups and individuals to take responsibility for segments of the trail.
A ceremony July 25 officially opened a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Highway 17, spanning from East Mozart Avenue to the Los Gatos Creek percolation ponds. The bridge was constructed under the direction of the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority. Smith had a lot to do with needling the Authority to build the overpass, working with, among others, Will Kempton, the first traffic authority director.
"The proposed location was changed twice," Smith said. "I said to Will, 'Let's end it in the percolation pond. Ducks don't vote.' "
It was Smith's idea for another project he is especially proud to see under way. Under construction on the face of Lexington Dam is a bicycle path, to be asphalt-paved, that will enable Los Gatos Creek Trail riders to cross a concrete spillway and pedal a slanting 8-foot-wide path to the top of the dam and onto Alma Bridge Road, which skirts the dam on the east. The project by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Commission and the Santa Clara Valley Water District is headed for completion by next summer.
"Building the dam in 195051 blocked the way for cyclists to go on to the Santa Cruz highway," Smith said. "Now, for the first time since the dam was finished, we'll be able to continue on to Summit Road and to Santa Cruz and the coast."
He worked closely with the water district on plans for the dam path.
Smith, who can sound happy as a youngster with a new bike while describing the joys of long-distance cycling, didn't ride a bicycle when he was a kid in St. Paul, Minn., where the climate inclined him to ice and snow sports.
He came to Los Gatos in 1940. His father, an officer in the Minnesota National Guard, was helping defend the Pacific Coast from a feared Japanese attack.
He has been an enthusiastic skier for 45 years. "I started a year or so after Alex Cushing first opened Squaw Valley," he said. "Squaw is still my favorite for downhill skiing." Every winter, he leads a group of fellow ski enthusiasts (their bus is named "the Snoball Express") to Squaw Valley and other resorts. His Snoball Express card calls him "chairman of the boards."
It was his son, also named Sheldon, who turned him to long-distance cycling. The younger Smith is dean of students at Atascadero Junior High School. Besides his son, Smith has two daughters, Christina and Jennifer.
On Memorial Day, Smith met defeat, unable to finish a race for the first time. But it wasn't due to any lack of effort on his part. A late Colorado snowstorm brought a halt to a 47-mile Iron Horse Race as about 1,000 cyclists tried to beat the narrow-gauge Durango train running between the historic mining towns of Durango and Silverton.
"About 200 riders got over the top, but the rest of us were left behind when the Colorado Highway Patrol stopped the race," he said. "It was a tough climb, up about 5,500 feet and nearly vertical."
Because of the terrain, the road is some distance from the track, so they were out of sight of the train. Smith displayed a copy of the Durango Herald with the headline "Storm stops Iron Horse race."
"I have ridden in rain, but I never went through snow like this before. It was two feet deep on the road. I couldn't see the riders ahead of me. I had to follow their tracks.
"They said a snowstorm couldn't happen two years in a row, but it did." Because of temperatures of 32 degrees, with winds of 20 to 40 miles an hour, a few of the riders were treated for hypothermia, he said.
His love of both cycling and skiing has taken him twice to Europe.
Two years ago, there was a summer trip with six members of the Almaden Cycle Touring Club who rode their bikes on the same route followed by racers in the Tour de France, partly through the Alps and Pyrenees. Then, six months later, with members of the "Snoball" ski group, he fulfilled a dream by skiing on the Matterhorn out of Zermott, Switzerland.
As he had for 10 years, Smith took part in the annual 200-mile "Double Century" race this spring, from Davis to Clear Lake and back. This race includes an overnight stop before it resumes the next morning.
Besides covering much ground on wheels, Smith has also reached for the stars as a professional research scientist.
With his background in science, he finds time to volunteer as a docent at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, where he leads tour groups, explains exhibits and occasionally gives talks on solar physics and such topics as observation of the sun. (His career included three years with the U.S. Navy as an astronomical physicist.)
As a space scientist with NASA, specializing in astronomy and solar photography, Smith helped develop the first airborne astronomy.
You can see and study the stars much more clearly when you get entirely above the earth's clouds," he explains. "So we figured, why not mount a telescope on an airplane?"
After initial experiments with a telescope aboard a 707 proved successful, bigger planes, a C141 and finally a 747, and stronger scopes were employed. These flying laboratories have given scientists a much better look at the heavens. They are also used for studying such phenomena as eclipses.
"With a plane you can chase an eclipse and position yourself anywhere to observe it," he said. Instead of being rooted in one spot, a plane permits observations from any part of the earth where an eclipse shadow falls."
Among the people he worked with at Ames was Emerson Shaw of Los Gatos, a professional photographer.
As a serious cyclist, Smith is concerned about safety. He urges cyclists to pay close attention to traffic, to ride with the traffic and to obey all traffic rules.
"Two of the people who were killed a few years ago when a motorist ran into a group of cyclists on a highway were friends of mine," he said. "The most common response of drivers after a bike collision is, 'I didn't see him.'
"You have to be aware of cars emerging from side streets. If you move with the traffic and give clear signals so drivers know what you are planning to do, you'll be OK."
The Los Gatos ordinance against bike-riding on sidewalks is being widely ignored, Smith charges. "It ought to be enforced. The police say they don't have enough personnel. But something ought to be done. I'm disappointed at the lack of enforcement."
Because bikes move almost silently, they can be a menace, particularly to the elderly, he added.
Smith said he enjoys living in Los Gatos. He considers the Los Gatos-Saratoga-Campbell-Almaden area great for cycling because of the roadways, the scenery and the nearly ideal climate.
Hundreds of local area cyclists would no doubt agree. "When I go for a ride, I nearly always run into people I know," Smith said.
"Don't take that 'run into' too literally," he added with a grin.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, July 31, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved