2023 Diablo Day 08 - Saturday Junction

Weather was GREAT. I felt about average. Road surface is getting worse. Poppies were all over The Mountain.

JB discussed his recent medical procedures, house projects, and clothing gear choice.

At Junction we met a guy who saw our steel bikes and we talked about old-timer stuff. He said we convinced him to ride his custom steel bike up next week.

2023 Diablo Day 07 - Saturday Junction

Felt good, but not fast today.

I'm pretty sure this'll be the last season for these tights. That's my knee brace visible through the hole.

This rider was smooth and fast and sweaty.

Places like this are why I'm ultra careful descending - you never know when you need to do a quick maneuver and you don't want to do it on a slippery bendy section.

These guys were interesting utilitarian types - they were talking about riding to work, they had flat pedals, asked JB about his waist pack. They didn't know the road though, so I launched an attack with about 1km to Junction and declared myself victorious.

Rain was pretty much over by 10am, but the fog persisted.

Some kind of vintage car club was having a parade that nobody was watching... there were about 8 of these things.

2023 Diablo Day 06 - Wednesday Junction

Nice riding weather. Me, JB, and Charlie. We talked about Chinese spy balloons and Turkish earthquakes.

Ran in to this guy on Walnut - let's just say he looked faster than he was. 

Stopped for some stretching at The Gate.

This lady told us the dog is named Pablo, he's available for adoption, and currently kenneled at North Gate Kennels. Very friendly with people, not sure about other animals.

I have no idea what this guy was doing.

Hey, here's that guy from Walnut Avenue again - a photo at the 1,000 foot elevation sign is an indication of newbness.

No progress at this damaged section of road... please submit your suggestions for a location name in the comments... I'm thinking it should contain the word "gulch".

Random rider on red bike.

At Chainbuster, I still had Charlie in my sights. My plan was to catch him by the Ranger House. My plan bore no fruit.

I'm pretty sure e-scooters are not allowed up here... but enforcement is lax.

This is about the best pavement on NGR atm.

This section will be undrivable pretty soon. Perhaps they'll close NGR to cars... uh huh.

2023 Diablo Day 05 - Saturday Junction

 

Kind of a gloomy winter day... only a bike ride could make it nice.

First guy passed us within 30 seconds of The Gate... OK...

Second guy passed us a few minutes later. Probably I shouldn't keep track any more.

Coming down I see some guys that might need help. Then I see one of them is my neighbor Mark and I stop to check and they didn't need anything.

Turns out Mark just stopped to help the guy too, and didn't know him. Then he caught me just before we got home.

The poppies are still there!

2023 Diablo Day 04 - Wednesday Junction

I'm getting used to this dry weather! Still a couple months away from taking the Klein off the hooks for the season though.

First poppies of the year! Actually I noticed these on Saturday's ride but forgot to blog it - so the official date is January 28 - several weeks earlier than usual. Also lots of green so there was a good mix of storm destruction and natural renewal.

Me and Charlie today - he waited until about 3 miles to go before he dropped me for good, but I only lost about a minute and a half by Junction. Charlie said a friend of his gave him a half-dozen old GoPro's of various models so he had one under his saddle as well as one on his handlebars. All of them had internal permanent batteries too and neither of us likes that.

My knee surprisingly didn't hurt at all, but it didn't feel right either - kind of lumpy and feeble. Anyway, no pain is a good indicator.