Gate - Junction - Gate

Rick and JB gave me the standard 5 minute grace period before starting without me - I rolled up about 6 minutes late and caught them just after the dips.



Third or fourth day of the heat wave - hardly cooled down at all overnight.



I was a little surprised to see Rick - he's leaving for ITALY this evening for a family vacation, but he decided he had time for a quick JuncRun.



Coming up the Bump, a guy on a sweet Moots challenged from the outside and Rick went with him. Later Rick claimed he gave the Moots guy a free ride and the dude was knackered at the Junction.



Dudley Driveby: Looks like it was warm enough for him to leave the jacket at home.



Wildlife Encounter: Black tail deer below the Lower Ranch... you'll notice I didn't post any photos.



Wildlife Encounter: Coyote near the Ranger House. Hmmm, no photos?

While I was stopped to watch the coyote, a guy came by and I started riding and talking with him. Mike from Marin was training for an Ironman Triathlon later this year with his wife who was just ahead of us.



At the Junction I talked with Dave, who used to ride with the Diablo Cyclists on Wednesday nights. Haven't' seen him for a while. He was promoting a new kind of oxygenated water sports drink and thought I might do a product review on it. His enthusiasm for the stuff was infectious and I lost the card he gave me with the info, but a page of Google RESULTS convinced me that any effect was placebic.



Rick wanted the Dip Sprint today so I gave him a good leadout and he handled it nicely. Afterwards he said he didn't think my run-up was fast enough, but when he barely got around me for the jump he changed his mind. Then we did a hydrant sprint too and I went early to see if he would know how to respond and he got me by a bike length. He'll cat up real soon.



OK, why no coyote and deer photos? It appears my camera finally crapped out. Tried to upload them to my computer and I got a message about an unformatted card. The photos were viewable on the camera but my computer couldn't see them. They weren't that good anyway, so here's a photo from Mother's Day on the Mountain last week (when it was actually cold!)





Going to use those Amazon coupons on a new camera... probably by next Saturday.