Diablo Junctioni after Work

Big group from the office today. All together on the road to the Gate were your author, Adam, JB, Randall, Amanda (Blitz), and first timer Laura.



















Nobody was in much of a hurry at the start and things stayed together for a while. Then Adam and JB and I pulled ahead. Before the Bump they put on the hurt and I sat up. Just after that I caught up with blog reader Douglas; he was the guy who got the parking ticket last Saturday at the South Gate Tire Poppers. We rode at a conversational pace and I enjoyed that because it was too hot to put in a big effort. Douglas first rode Mt. Diablo as a kid in the '60s on a Schwinn Varsity! We discussed his custom Waterford - a very nice TIG welded steel frame that had most of the look of a classic steel bike but with some sensible concessions to newer standards like a carbon fork and threadless headset; all Campy Record too with a triple crank and tight cluster.

I buggered up my stopwatch buttons so I don't know my Junction time. The bugs were really bad at the Shack, but I hung around for a while anyway. Douglas also told me a story he heard (confirmed by a ranger) that a rider recently got a $300 ticket for being in the Park too early. The Park officially opens at 8 o'clock in the morning and unofficially 7am is OK - I don't know how early the poor guy with the ticket was.




Wildlife Encounter: Coyote - a big one between the Ranger House and Chainbuster. He was on the side of the road but saw me right away. I stopped to watch him but then he ran up the hill into some tall grass.