2025 Diablo Day 24 - Saturday Morning Junction

After DNFing last week from the heat, I was ready for today.

JB and I decided to go a little earlier just in case we got another heat wave.

Weather was a little chilly at the bottom, then sunny and a little warmer at altitude.

I had a spinal tap for my research program on Wednesday and I was still a little sore.

OK, no more excuses.  RIDE!

Wildlife Encounter:  half a dozen turkeys.  Two of them had their necks wrapped around each other and I couldn't tell if they were fighting or mating. Interesting parallel with my date night movie later in the evening: Fatal Attraction. Unfortunately the Diablo Bike Cam missed the shot.

2025 Diablo Day 23 - Mission Unaccomplished

 First heat wave of the year and I was un-ready. I thought I was doing everything right, but a couple miles in the sun and the steep and I started to feel queasy and dizzy and I didn't feel safe to continue so I turned down.  Hopefully I will acclimate and won't have to abandon every time the temperature goes up.

Roadkill Report:  a California King snake - I had to turn him over for a good photo and he didn't flinch so he was most sincerely dead. 

2025 Diablo Day 22 - Saturday Morning Junction

Memorial Day weekend, and I couldn't find my patriotic socks.

I packed an extra Hammer Gel thinking I might attempt Juniper today but my knee was complaining too much. I'm starting to think I've got nothing but more pain to look forward to - the best I can hope for is a slow decline.

 

This RAT was one of the biggest I've ever seen. He looked like he was about ready to die; must've been internal injuries because I didn't see any external damage.  He could crawl but not scurry and didn't even try to hide.

I was able to hang with these two riders for while despite their punishing pace.

Thanks to this guy - I passed somebody!

2025 Diablo Day 21 - Saturday Morning Junction

Today I put away the winter bike and prepped my Klein for the season.

It started out kind of windy, but then got nice. There was a big group of riders from San Jose I crossed paths with several times - about half of them had electric bikes. I talked to one rider who said she usually rides Hamilton so Diablo wasn't intimidating even though it was a little steeper.

2025 Diablo Day 20 - Saturday Morning Junction

2025 Diablo Day 19 - Saturday Morning Junction

2025 Diablo Day 13 - Saturday Morning Junction

 

Nice day - getting close to shorts weather... time to get my summer bike prepped.

JB's still training for Grizzly Peak - lots of extra climbing and lots of extra miles... I was no help at all.

Lots of poppies still out - but I stopped to pick some lupines for my kitchen vase (soda bottle).

My camera mount came loose and so I got this great photo of my crotch.

Two guys with white shoes passed me easily.

Two guys with black shoes passed me easily. There seems to be a pattern here.

Lupines just begging to be picked and arranged.

2025 Diablo Day 12 - Saturday Morning Junction

 Not quite warm enough for shorts, but pretty damn nice.

I was feeling like a slug... I think all these years of work from home have caught up to me.

Some kind of trail running event going on; looked to be well-supported but it didn't look like anyone was doing serious competitive efforts.

Oh-oh, something's going on.

Medical helicopter - could be serious.

Oh, it was down there.

Now THIS is what April on The Mountain is supposed to look like!

April 01, 2025 Mount Diablo Trumpization

Federal Government will take over MDSP and turn it into a National Park so they can fire all the employees, cut off funding, and rename it Mount Donald J. Trump.

Also, he'll order the federal employees at Mt. Rushmore to "tear down those heads" and then he'll fire every one of them. He'll fly the granite rubble to the newly planned "Mount Trump Royal Airport" at the Summit, have his DOGE team reassemble them into the shape of a deformed Cheeto, and voila - we have Mar-a-Lago Contra Costa... membership fees will keep out the riff-raff.  Cyclists will be banned of course.

Idea: paint the road red to look like a long necktie!

Elon Musk will have his federal workforce of H1-B darkies mine The Mountain for rare earth metals to use to power his crypto machines so he can make enough money to buy that guy's property with the easement fence on Mt. Diablo Scenic and make sure that gate never opens.

2025 Diablo Day 11 - Saturday Morning Junction

Charlie came today - he was texting about doing sub-40 so I figured I needed a head start... which I did, but then I just twiddled up and he caught me anyway. Then we all connected at Junction and descended SGR together - check below for a video link!

There were a bunch of campers going up with firewood and backpacks and tents and stuff - Charlie thinks they may be Scouts.

Fun video of the descent - should open right up on your phone - totally click-worthy!

South Gate Descent

2025 Diablo Day 10 - Saturday Morning Junction

REEEALLY nice weather today. I didn't even wear a jacket, just a long sleeve jersey and my holey tights. It was a little chilly until about 1000 feet then it was great.

There was a group of about 6 guys who kept passing me and then stopping for a break and then they'd pass me again a mile up the road. They were friendly but I didn't understand that training regime. I finally got ahead of all of them for good, except 1 guy - his name was Carlos and we were riding together at about the helicopter turnout and we saw famous Cathy make a U-turn coming down to go back up. I told Carlos to say "Hi Cathy" as he went by and that she'd like that... because she's famous.

Had a decent Junction time and felt pretty good. I did an inspection of my tires though and there's only a few more rides in them... sew-ups are getting harder and harder to find too... I better get busy.

Photos in reverse order today - I can never figure out how Google sorts them when I click.

I stopped to pick a lupine.

I stopped to pick a poppy.

Wearing bright cycling clothes is a good way to get posted in
  Diablo Scott's Bike Blog

This is the payoff for a long, wet, winter...
a month or so of verdant hills.

I watched this guy for a while - it looked like he was just learning how to ride with Tri-bars... he was tucked really well but didn't look comfortable and he wasn't fast.