Diablo Junction plus Hole in the Wall – 33 Miles

Rained overnight but things were pretty much dried up this morning. JB and I met up at the Gate and set off for a leisurely one. Last week Adam said he thought he could do a faster time on a morning ride; this morning JB said he’s never as good in the morning as in the afternoon.

So we discussed financial planning and the weather and just about everything except riding and it was a nice mind clearing ride and we finished in the high 40’s. We hadn’t seen more than three or four riders on the way up and there still weren’t many riders at the Junction. We didn’t know if the overnight rains kept people away or maybe last Saturday’s weather was so good that everyone came out on the same day. JB also asked the ranger about repaving and he said that the bid went out and they did get some bids and he thought the schedule said to start in June. Summit Road is getting pretty cracked up so if that’s all they do I’ll be pretty satisfied. The lower part of South Gate Road – down below the tire poppers, is really bad but that’s a political issue since it’s privately owned… not sure what the deal is there.

I told JB that Rivendell was having a garage sale today and they advertised all kinds of bike parts new and used, so we decided that would be a good thing to do but they didn’t open until 10 o’clock so we went down South Gate and through the Hole in the Fence. There were many more riders coming up now, and this side of the Mountain was a lot more foggy. I never know quite where I am in those Alamo neighborhoods so I always let JB lead the way.

We got to Rivendell’s shop about 5 minutes before the official opening and they had a boss guy there who wouldn’t even let people look at the merchandise until ten so we checked out their show room which is actually pretty cool – way better than they’ve had before. At ten o’clock they let people start rummaging through the boxes and it was really a bit of a hectic scene with all the Rivendell groupies there. They had dozens of tires for $5 each so I picked up one Speedblend Pasela and JB bought two regular Paselas (but he had to borrow the money from me). They had boxes of derailleurs, handlebars, shifters, brakes, and all the assorted bits you might find in somebody’s garage except a lot more of them. Wheels were $20 each and they were a popular item. Neat idea on Grant’s part.