Saturday, February 18, 2006

Diablo Junction 23 miles... IN THE SNOW!

A little late getting to the start today because of demanding females in the house, but it was a righteous start. No rock on the post so I took off not knowing if anyone else was coming. Overnight weather forecast was for thunderstorms but none were obvious so I figured all systems were go. It was dry but the clouds were low and I couldn't see the mountain's top from anywhere on the ride. Just before I left, DW said "Mt. Diablo's closed because of snow" and I said "No way, you were watching news of Mt. Hamilton or something." Once again, had to eat my words, sort of.

About a half a mile up I encountered JB and he told me to wait for him so he went back to the shack and reset his computer or whatever and caught up to me near Moss Landing. He was packing for severe weather and wasn't in any shape to challenge me for the sprint so we had a cordial ride. Still couldn't see the snow though and questioned whether it was really there. He said we should ride until we get to it and I said as long as it's at Junction I agreed - not actually thinking that were the case.

We got around the Upper Washout and saw that the snow line was down below Junction and realized that this was going to be a really memorable ride. We were being passed about every 30 seconds by an SUV with kiddie sleds inside and just tried blending in. A few hundred meters below the Junction we saw a Ranger directing people where to park and a few hundred meters beyond that we saw the point where they stopped traffic all together. No vehicles, two or four wheeled, were allowed past the Junction on Summit Road. There were dozens of autos parked in places where autos never park and there were kids sledding down the hill from the picnic area just up the hill.

Shot the shoot with a few other riders near the benches and then split up to go home. What a fun day.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Scott, I just found your blog (searching for leipheimer "rain bike", I wanted to see his Landshark built up) and I was on Diablo the same morning, 2/18, for the snow. I was doing early morning hill intervals. Here are my pics:

http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/diablosnow06

I was doing 3 x 30min, so I only got up to the snow line each time.

Let's ride sometime. In WC every day,

Morgan

Diablo Scott said...

Hi Morgan - We've had some exchanges on ba.bicycles - about Mountain Lions, Iron Horse trail, your commute down Pinehurst etc.

Nice photos. I especially like the trail a bike ones - see "MY PHOTOS" link up to the left. We've done lots of the same rides.

Who's your coach?

Diablo Scott said...

BTW - looks like another snow ride this Saturday. This time I'm bringing my camera.