Detour

Took off from work a couple hours early and rode with JB up to the Dumpster Gate

This is not the Dumpster Gate, it's some other Gate I've never noticed before.

The real Dumpster Gate is long gone - both the gate and the dumpster.

On the way home, happened upon blog reader Lance Oldstrong and we swapped a few bike stories in my driveway.

Quickie Junc Run

Me, Rick, JB

Foggy but not too cold.

Wildlife Encounter: Biggest flock of turkeys I've ever seen - at LEAST 30 of them between the Ranches just about where the fog started to thin out.

Rick's new bike won't be ready for another month or so. The bottle cage on his seat tube was cracked so he was hoping to get a new one for Christmas.

Home early to do Christmas prep.

Bridge over the Blvd Treat Update:

Some pavement repair around the columns and some new formwork on the north side.

Might be my last post of the year. Thank you for reading.

Cold Wind Rain Snow

I knew it was going to be just me this morning. Started up about 45 minutes later than usual... on purpose.

It's been cold ever since the snow on Monday, but since then we've had quite a bit of rain, so I was hoping there'd still be some snow up there.

Saw about 5 guys riding down, and about 7 joggers coming down. More weekend athletes than vehicles. We all acknowledged our respective nuttiness being out there in this weather.

So mostly drizzle up to Junction. The Summit Road got really windy and the rain got heavier. First started to see a little snow in the ditches below Juniper. Got up to Muir and was hoping for a good snow photo op, but there was nothing. Rode another mile to get this shot and decided I'd had enough.

Please click on my Vimeo movie!

Snow Ride Dec 2009 from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

Cold, wind, rain, lonely, snow.

For weather conditions (at the Summit): 925-838-9225

For road closures: 925-837-2525

For a park ranger: 925-837-0904

OK, way OT... found this REALLY funky orange on my tree Monday. Did a little research and found that navel oranges are all clones of a single Brazilian freak mutation that had a "semi-undeveloped Siamese twin" and every once in a while the twin pokes his head out... several photos on the web, but this one is the kewlest.

Cut it open and ate it... the orange part only... the green part didn't have fruit inside.

Gate Junction SGR Gate

Big storm was coming in Friday morning when I took this photo...



Lots of wind and rain but it was all over by late afternoon and today was cold but pretty nice.

HEY! They painted the Gate green! Looks nice but didn't seem to be necessary as far as I can remember.

Also, they added a thick stripe of Bott's dots at the exit - probably to slow down bikes... I don't know why they worry about that so much. Anyway, they put them in nice parallel diagonals so it's pretty easy to ride between them.

JB and I rode to Junction. Chris Horner guy passed us and one guy coming down near the Lower Ranch was in camping shorts with no shirt on.

Lots of people came up from the South Side while we were there. JB had a house project he needed to get to so I went down SGR.

It was a lot wetter over there.

Went a couple miles down past the Kiosk and decided to turn around. Chris Horner guy was coming down from the Summit already.

Just before I got back to the Junction - Chris Horner guy passed me again! He voiced a mild disapproval of my position on the road, which made him require changing lines as he came around, but I didn't know he was there.

See 'em?

Treat Overpass update photos:

North side

South side

Nobody was there, but they left the construction fence open just for me!

Gate Junction Juniper Elbow Gate

Met JB at the Gate - he has a new Blackberry wtih GPS and he started recording as we left.

Nice and sunny.

Roadkill Observation: OK, this is a new one... a Great Blue Heron?

• Hardly saw any cars on the way up NGR. Any bikes either for that matter - very quiet.

• Past the Ranches it started to get a lot colder and we could see some dark clouds ahead and to the south.

• We didn't stop at Junction long because of the cold, but while we were there we saw about 20 vehicles full of US Marines going up Summit Road and wondered. We waited for them all to go by before we started up. Also, JB realized he hadn't started his GPS after all - there was like another screen that was waiting for an input.

• The fog cleared up a little higher, but it got even colder and more windy.

• Then at Juniper we saw all the Marines - doing some kind of physical training - it was a little less intense than boot camp but they were pretty serious with yelling and push ups and stuff.
  
  
  
  

So when we got to the Elbow, we decided to turn back.

JB was ahead of me and almost ran into one of the guys from the Marines - they were hiking up and taking over most of both sides of the road and he didn't see them around a corner. I don't think they still understood how stupid they were being.

The rest of the way down was uneventful.

Photo Update on the Treat Overpass:

Gate Junction Kiosk Junction Gate

Met JB at the Gate. We were joined by Kid Kulaki who rode with us for a mile or so before he got bored. I told him I could probably keep up if he had brought his daughter in the trailer along.

Started off pretty cold but my jacket was a little too much insulation and it got unzipped early on.




We joked about the fickleness of Mark H - all gung ho for two weeks then he disappears.

No tarantulas left on the Mountain... I wonder if they hibenate.

Nice and sunny when we got to the Junction, but SGR was cold and soggy.

I turned around at the Kiosk and went back up but JB kept going to Danville.

Some decent progress on the Treat overpass.