2022 Diablo Day 55 - Wednesday Junction from the Easy Side

No time constraints today. I went late morning because the hot is coming. NGR is still closed to everybody for bike turnout lane construction, so I drove to a soccer park near South Gate... worked fine.

SGR is of course easier than NGR, but not by that much - it starts at a higher elevation so the total climbing is less, and it's a little shorter and the tough sections aren't as tough as the NGR tough sections, and there's more shade and smoother pavement and less gravity... but other than those things... it's almost the same experience.  Hopefully NGR will be open by Saturday.

The turnout lanes are finished except for the striping.

This rider gave me the four-finger wave...
I pretended I was familiar with this greeting and returned the same gesture.

Cal Jersey Autoblog.

Have a patriotic Labor Day my friends.

Cal Jersey Autoblog

Pig Farm and Bears CounterClockWise

Bike turnout lane construction on Northgate Road is going on so JB suggested this alternate ride.

I thought it might be a little too much since I haven't done much besides Diablo since the patella incident... I climb just fine but don't start and stop without some pain and wobbliness. No worries though, I did fine and enjoyed the change of pace.

Just before Pig Farm, JB got a flat, and then his spare was bad - there were about 5 patches on two tubes - so I gave him one of the two unused and perfect tubes in my saddle bag and we continued.

We met three women going up who said they were in town for a wedding and hadn't been up this famous hill before - so we confirmed that this was the one they were looking for... although we were doing it from the easy side.  Then JB's flat happened and we didn't see them again.

The Pig Farm building is only recognizable to real old timers... that's' kind of what makes it fun.

Lots of curvy windy roads in wooded rural areas made it really fun. Bad pavement and narrow lanes reduced the fun factor a bit.

Happy Valley Road was a little tougher than I remembered, I paced myself good but I didn't have much left at the top of a couple climbs.

Then we were back in Walnut Creek and familiar roads - we rode on the trail past the old office, my old apartment, my old commute route, and back home.

Good to remember that there are some alternative routes when Diablo isn't an option.

Yes, this IS the climb you're looking for.

Yup... it's flat.

Pigs for Sale

 Home is that way.

2022 Diablo Day 54 - Saturday Junction

Super hot today.

Lots of construction vehicles getting ready to construct the bike turnout lanes on North Gate Road next week - NGR will be closed starting Monday; we're still thinking about alternate rides for next week.

I did better than Wednesday, but it was a tough ride.

There was a pleasant group of Oakland Yellow Jackets at Junction - mostly folks with many years of experience and they had some good stories too.

Telefonica jersey because VUELTA!

OK, so I should be recovered in time for Wednesday's ride.

2022 Diablo Day 53 - Wednesday Junction

 First ride since my cataract surgery - which went very well... the surgery not the ride.

Today's excuses for being so slow:

1. Just had cataract surgery
2. Knee hurt
3. Two weeks of sloth
4. Humid (!)
5. Forgot water bottle

Wildlife Encounter: deers and turkeys.

Roadkill Report: rattlesnake... just the rattle end, the rest of him might still be crawling around.

Me and Charlie talked about skin cancer and road repairs and rattlesnakes and cell phones.

We got passed by a guy with a pretty cool eBike - looked like he was using the minimal boost and having maximum fun.