Diablo Summit, 16 miles

No Nicole this evening – she has too much school work.
No JB either – he decided to watch the candidates’ debate.
No Adam – lame excuse about air quality.
Robin started early – needs to do some shopping afterwards.
Jeff got there before I did – parked in the same place.

So I took off, feeling pretty good, figured I’d ride hard until I caught Jeff. The air was thick and warm and dry; there’s a fire burning in Napa county and there was just enough smoke in the air to sting the nose and throat a bit. Diablo is under “red flag alert” for fires but they didn’t close the park.

Wildlife Encounter : A pack of six black-tailed deer neer Little Pine Creek, running in that graceful jumping way that deer do.

Caught Jeff about a half mile below the Bump and then rode at his pace the rest of the way up. He’s already starting to plan for next year’s Tour de Cure so we talked a little bit about that. Came across a guy right at the bottom of the Bump on the side of the road with some kind of mechanical problem but he declined our offer of assistance. Jeff rode a little harder than he probably would have if I hadn’t caught him but I think he enjoyed it anyway.

Past Chainbuster we saw Robin coming down, leading the whole group of Diablo Cyclists who had regrouped at the Junction. We had a great view of the sunset from that last stretch near the Ranger House, then we spend about three minutes at the Junction and turned down hill. By the time we got down it was past dusk and I recall thinking that the whole ride felt like it was the last Wednesday ride of the year.