2016 SMR 06

Feels like spring!  Poppies and wildflowers and warmth. 

Wildlife Encounter:  Turkeys at Little Pine Creek

 JB's tire finally gave up the ghost... he had a rapid loss of pressure including sound effects, inspected the tire and decided not to continue.

Yup, this tire is toast,.

 Special guest rider, Hari from the office joined us this morning.  He turned around at the Junction though.

Hari

So after waiting around for JB's flat and a slower Junction ride with Hari, it was getting kind of late so I decided to just go to Juniper.

I'm out of ClifBars...went old school and brought a banana.

This lady was taking photographs for her
CYCLING HUNKS OF MOUNT DIABLO coffee table book.

Wildlife Encounter:  Jackrabbit at the Dips

Big Dog!

5

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I really love the Belgian Classics bike racing season.  It started today.

2016 SMR 05

Couple days of rain but it stopped last night and today was dry.

Road was still a little sloppy though.

8 at the Gate

This guy passed us pretty fast, but then slowed down.
We joked that he didn't know where the Summit is.
He had a fast cadence like a windmill. 

I switched my camera here from HD mode to Action mode
thinking I might get better shots on the descent.

Have you seen these 3-D profiles on VeloViewer?  COOL.

2016 SMR 04 Junction Plus Kiosk

ALMOST went out in shorts today... it was that nice.

Jim from the health club team
tells me the health club team is no more.

This guy and I both had our CAL jerseys on.
We said "GO BEARS" at the same time.

Diablo Shoutout to Kasters.
He always looks like he's having a great time. 

JB decided he didn't want to do Summit and wanted to do the Hole in the Wall.  I agreed to go down to the Kiosk and then came back up.  Got some good SGR photos.

Kind of busy on The Mountain this morning... hikers, picnickers, riders...

Later in the day, there was an injury collision near the helicopter pad (photo below).  A mountain biker was coming down the path on the right and a road biker was coming down the road, the mountain biker crossed the road without slowing down and ran into the road biker. I wish there were a way to cull the stupid from our ranks.

The Helicopter Pad

2016 SMR 03

I thought I was right on time but JB said I was late... I checked and for sure my damned cheap bike computer was 4 minutes behind.

Kind of foggy down the south side of The Mountain

JB rails Chainbuster downhill like a boss.  

I take it like a Nancy because broken bone pain 

lingers in my memory.

Hey, who're these guys?

Beautiful skies, beautiful weather, beautiful ride.

JB told me a story about hitting his head on a shelf when he was feeding his cats this morning, then he realized that he had broken a blood vessel in his eye.  By Junction it was Zombiesque.  I advised him to keep riding and not think about it.

2016 SMR 02

Still kind of wet, but not raining.

Everything is SO GREEN!

I was riding very conservatively because of the wet pavement.

2016 SMR 01

I am still here for you, loyal blog readers!


A Rainy January Commute from Diablo Scott on Vimeo.

After the New Year's Day ride on a Friday, I didn't ride on Saturday like usual.  Then came the rains and I missed the next two Saturdays also (9th and 16th)... but I did get a Junction ride on Sunday the 10th.  So anyway, this IS the first official Saturday Morning Ride of 2016.

JB e-mailed me yesterday and said "rain or shine", so I was semi-committed as well.  On my morning dog walk I eyed the skies... not raining at the moment but there were some scary black clouds.  I made the call: "there will be riding".

Lots of green and wet on The Mountain.  Just a little drizzly up to Junction, we only saw two other riders, both coming down.  OH, and some crazy MTBers on a distant trail yelling "whoop" and "yee-hah".

Roadkill Report:  an possum just before The Gate

There are two new benches at Junction - in honor of Pete Zucker and his wife Monica, whose stories have been told here before... nice tribute to nice people who brought honor to Diablo.  I don't know what happened to the Eagle Scout benches.

We weren't the only riders on The Mountain today - check out these smiling faces!

Good thing we turned around at Junction - as soon as I got home, the rain got really heavy.

Sunday Morning Junction

Too wet to ride on Saturday - actually it was just borderline but I wasn't in a borderline kind of mood.

Today wasn't bad though - not cold at all, and wet roads but no rain,.

Roadkill Report:  skunk at Moss Landing.

Yellow jackets were very popular on The Mountain this morning.

 Cleared up nicely a little higher above sea level.

This guy tried to photo-bomb my blog - so I cropped out his face!