Last few mornings have been really foggy; today too. Me and JB estimated at what elevation we would pop out of it and I guessed Diablo Ranch, but it was way lower than that. We were above the clouds with clear sky well before The Bump.
We got passed by about 70 riders right at The Gate, pretty impressive group.
At Junction a guy asked me about my Eddy Merckx and I said it was a 1990 model, which was the same year as I graduated Cal, and his buddy had a Cal jersey so we talked about the old days and earthquakes.
JB went down to watch football, and I did a few Bump repeats, and then got hassled by a Ranger. Click on the video and leave a comment!
I checked the stats before I started. Brian H had 55 times and I had 51; that meant 4 to tie and 5 to take first IF he didn't ride today... I should do 6 just to be sure... but it got dark on #5 and I quit, and Brian didn't ride so your humble blogger now has bragging rights to the toughest mile on The Mountain.
This guy said "nice old Merckx" in passing... autoblog.
Me and JB today. We groused about aches and pains, road conditions, and Halloween kids.
Last ride before Daylight Wasting Time begins.
Wildlife Encounter: deers - some of them doing that cool deer gallop thing.
Tarantella Tally: one squished near the 2000 ft rock.
All that rain we had last week turned everything green again, and that was very nice. Just a trickle of it is still flowing in the creeks.
At Clavicle Cracker I heard a siren and thought it was maybe an ambulance so I got ready to pull over. But then a crazy guy in a pickup coming down almost drove off the road. We yelled at him, and then a Ranger pickup came down chasing the crazy guy so we figured it must be more than just a speeding ticket. The video doesn't quite capture the excitement of it all, but go ahead and click anyway: one minute long:
Later, Blog Reader Mike posted on his Strava that he saw the guy crash his pickup, get on a bike he had in the bed and ride away from the law on the trail to Castle Rock. I'll be watching the news for stories of criminal activity on The Mountain.
