JB's out recovering from thumb surgery, so I got a late start and took it easy.
Wildlife Encounter: two young deer near the Tire Poppers - they were crossing the road in front of me and posed perfectly, but they were in the shadows and the photo didn't turn out.
The Death Ride is over, and STP is today, and it was hot... maybe that contributed to the low rider count today.
Nice weather, felt good.
JB broke his thumb a couple weeks ago and has surgery scheduled for next week. He thinks he can ignore the doctor's advice to not ride for a few months.
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| It's Climbin' Cathy P. |
HOT!
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| Can you believe it is ALMOST the 4th? |
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| Many riders training for Markleeville. |
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| Turkey parade - I stopped traffic behind me and the cars enjoyed the entertainment as well. |
Felt good - forgot to blog until a week later!
Perfect weather today - just right for arm warmers on the way up.
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| This guy was smoooooth |
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| These two put up a valiant effort, but I managed to pass them before Junction. |
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.
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.
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| 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. |
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| I was able to hang with these two riders for while despite their punishing pace. |
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| Thanks to this guy - I passed somebody! |
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.
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| My camera mount came loose and so I got this great photo of my crotch. |
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| Two guys with white shoes passed me easily. |
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.
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| Oh-oh, something's going on. |
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| Medical helicopter - could be serious. |
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| Oh, it was down there. |
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| Now THIS is what April on The Mountain is supposed to look like! |
