2018 SMR 35

I woke up this morning feeling GREAT!  I was literally dancing around in my boxers with my earbuds in while I made coffee and oatmeal and prepped for my ride.  My greyhound Isaac got a zippy walk and then I was on the road.  It was a little cool, so I went with arm warmers and a wind vest, but no knee warmers.

JB was a little late and I saw a few of the Saturday Morning Regulars start up while I was waiting.  Pretty windy the first few miles and it looked like it was actually raining off in the distance... but nothing was going to spoil my mood.  After the Ranches though it got a bit nicer and sunny and things just kept getting better after that.

At Junction, I was eager to get going ASAP but we did a normal amount of rest-stopping anyway.  By Juniper I could hardly keep the enthusiasm curbed, and by Devil's Elbow I unloaded my full load of exuberance and practically sprinted to The Summit.

All SMRs should feel this good.  And home before 11 to top it off.

2018 WNR 11

Lots of riders coming down, but nobody but me most of the way up - I passed one guy on a mountain bike, then another roadie just before Chainbuster.  He was a friendly guy about my age so we talked about bike crashes and injuries and experience with emergency doctors.  Another guy came up from SouthGate with the loudest bike speaker I've ever heard outside of Critical Mass... the whole Mountain was shaking.  He added that he had a cobalt hip.

Then on the way down, just past Chainbuster, I recognize Justin from my old company and I turned around and rode the last mile or so with him.

Pretty dark on the way down, and the sunset was right in my eyes in some sections - it's weird that looking into the sunset kind of takes away your depth perception.

Had my rear-view camera mount on tonight.

2018 SMR 34

Yesterday was HOT!  Today started off a little cool - I decided on arm warmers.

Got a flu shot on Thursday... felt just the tiniest bit crummy, and my arm is still a little sore.

JB turned around at Junction with too much stuff to do at home.  As I was conjuring my motivation to continue alone... I see ELMAR who arrived a few minutes behind us.  Elmar and I rehashed old times when we both worked for the same company, and then we went UP.

Elmar's been doing short triathlons and he does Diablo for training and he takes BART from Berkeley so he's self-motivated.

Wildlife Encounter:  usual turkeys in the usual place.

Right about here, it occured to me that Elmar's jersey was "sky-blue".

2018 SMR 33

Started off kind of cool... arm-warmer cool.

Nice and warm by Junction, almost hot at Summit.

Tarantella Tally:  Two dead ones.

There were a lot of riders hanging out at Junction... seemed like more than were actually riding.

Saw a guy walking downhill near the Ranches... he said he had two flats and only one tube but had already called for a ride - so if I gave him a tube it wouldn't have helped.  I almost always have TWO tubes... because two flats in the same ride sometimes happens... or a buggered up repair.

I like to post photos of guys passing me - keeps my head from getting too big.

And if the guys passing me are wearing Triple Crown Jerseys... it's not too deflating.

I always catch a little air going over this sink-crack.

2018 WNR 10

August 27, 2018... time for a cleat replacement!

I got these a year ago and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity.

I think it's fair to say I got the maximum life out of these old ones.

Tools needed:  one Allen wrench.

Neat trick to get your cleats aligned quickly - mark the profile of the old ones first.

And a little Phil Wood grease in the threads will make the next cleat change easier.

Sweeeeet.  Time to ride!  Probably should think about new heel pads one of these days.

Tarantella Tally:  One crawler, one corpse.

Oh boy, two hammer heads tonight.... gonna be a hard one.

By Split 2, I was in third place - red-lined the whole way.

Orange Socks passed me easily on the descent.

Yeah, gettin dark earlier... not too many WNRs left.

Cal Jersey Autoblog

2018 SMR 32

Today was not supposed to be a Spare the Air day, but I think it should've been.  Smoke is at least as bad as it has been any day in the last couple weeks.  

JB was waiting for me at The Gate, and then another guy rode up and he looked like about our speed so I invited him to join us and he agreed.  Parry moved here from Boulder CO in March and has been enjoying Diablo ever since.  He had a cool story about riding a couple weeks ago with this guy who he found out later was Barry Bonds.

Wildlife Encounter:  a single deer at Little Pine Creek.

There was a fire on Thursday at Muir Picnic Area - CalFire got it put out real fast - THANK YOU!  There are a lot of people who love this Mountain!  On my way down, there was a crew there checking for re-ignites.  One of the guys told me they didn't know how the fire got started.

Parry says he meets the nicest people on The Mountain.

Klein fan autoblog.

Left-over fire retardant on the road.

I did this video direct to YouTube... quality sucks worse than the air does... but click anyway.

Tarantella Tally:  one dead one at Junction.