May 24, 2003 - Diablo Junction and the long way home 40 miles

Well we had planned to do a summit ride today; Rick and Nicole are still in Hawaii so it was going to be just JB and me. On the way to the gate I caught up with James who hasn't ridden with us in several years - he's training for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride around Lake Tahoe next week and needed some preparation. Anyway it was pretty windy and we took a very easy pace up to the bump. Then JB and I picked it up a little and lost James but didn't push it too hard. It started to warm up and the wind started to die down by the Junction so things looked good for the rest of the ride.

There was a boy scout there who was doing his Eagle Scout project and he had elected to build two benches at the Junction station and another one at the summit. As part of his project he had to raise the money for materials and build them himself so he was soliciting funds from us riders. He needed $700 and I hope he makes it - I think I'll send him a check.

Peter then came up from South Gate and said that it was really cold and windy on the summit road, and really cold and wet (!) down South Gate Road (he had already ridden NGR to Summit and descended SGR and come back up - and it was only 9 o'clock!). Peter went up to the summit again and James went down north. Anyway JB and I decided to brave the cold and wet rather than the cold and windy so we went south. Jeez - the difference was incredible! The trees were dripping condensation, the road was wet, the fog was so thick that the visibility was less than 20 feet - it took us quite a while to get down to the hole in the fence. It was quite a bit warmer and calmer around Alamo and Walnut Creek so we had a good trip back home. I rode a few laps around the neighborhood to bring my ride up to 40 miles for the day.