Sunday Feb. 13 Mount Diablo Road Ride

[Veronica]

Meet at 10 AM at Arbolado Park, second parking lot. We'll ride up the North Gate Road. Regroup at the Junction and at the summit Go at your own pace, take pictures. Burritos, sandwiches and Cold Stone are just down the road for lunch.

Take Ygnacio from 680 to Oak Grove. Turn right on Oak Grove. Arbolado is your first left once Oak Grove becomes divided.

Really you can do it. :D

V.

[SadieKate]

Checking with Bubba, and J&J. :)

[SadieKate]

Bubba has been located and we're in. Jenny also. Jason has a team training ride Sunday so Jenny is all stoked that she's doing it before Jason (this ride being on Jason's "to do" list).

[jobob]

V mentioned cookies. I'll be there.

Jo "will climb for cookies" bob

[aka_kim]

I'll be there too. Can't we get cookies at the start, though, to help power us up the mountain? Or maybe Thom could ride ahead (like he won't anyway) and stop and hand us cookies as we pass various spots? Or, maybe I should shut up and actually try to make it up the whole mountain this time!

[Veronica]

Thom will ride ahead? What about you?!

I was thinking I'd leave the cookies in the car and we'd eat them at the end so I wouldn't have to carry them.


But then I figured you all would be unhappy with that, so maybe we'll eat half at the Junction and the other half at the top!

V.

[slinkedog]

What on earth do you think those pockets on the back of your jersey are for, Woman? COOKIES!!! Remember, chocolate chip cookies are always better when they're warm. ;)

[SadieKate]

I was thinking she'd hang them off little sticks on the fronts of our helmets as enticement to keep riding. :D

[aka_kim]

If we can't get the little sticks from our helmets to work, as a backup plan we could ask Jobob leave the kitchen sink at home and be the cookie carrier ;).

[Veronica]

Oh, I'll probably leave my big Hoss bag on Fluffy so Thom can bring 87 lenses. :p in addition to the cookies.

[jobob]

If we can't get the little sticks from our helmets to work, as a backup plan we could ask Jobob leave the kitchen sink at home and be the cookie carrier

I wouldn't trust me with those cookies if I were U
:p :p :p :p

[SadieKate]

What's the weather look like down there? I've found forecasts that include a chance of rain. :(

[jobob]

I've seen forecasts staying it'll be cloudy, w. possible rain in the evening. I think we'll be OK.

Looking forward to finally meeting you !

[SadieKate]

Good! I have the red bands packed, but, unfortunately, Bubba put a larger freewheel on my bike so I have one less excuse for not making it :p .

See you tomorrow!

[aka_kim]

So.. it's cloudy with a 60% chance of rain now, 8:15 on Sunday. Is the ride still on?

[jobob]

Yep, we're still planning to meet up at the appointed time & place, Lee & I are on our way. Perhaps we could go to the Junction?

- Jo.

[slinkedog]

So..... how was it????

[Veronica]

It was cold and foggy. We got to to the Junction and everyone but Jenny decided to head back down. It was her first trip up the mountain and she REALLY wanted to do it. She had driven all the way down from Folsom. So, thanks to her a group of us rode to the summit. I'm glad I did. I felt a lot better this time overall. There were times when the fog was so thick you couldn't see more than ten feet ahead of you. The trees that hang over the road were dripping, so sometimes it seemed like it was raining. There weren't too many cars, which was nice.

I think the best part was getting together afterward for burritos and chatting. It's a great group we've got going here I think. I really enjoyed my day.

Veronica

[snapdragen]

Sounds like you all had an excellent time! I can't wait until I've got the confidence to give Diablo a try. I'm gettin' there....... :o

[slinkedog]

I drove past Diablo yesterday on my way to Devon's danec competition in Vacaville and thought of you guys. I'm glad you had a good ride in spite of the weather!

[SadieKate]

We had a great time and will be doing it again soon. I agree about the terrific group! Lots of fun. Next time I hope to make it past Juniper, but I was pleased with what I did for the first time out.

Hope to see everyone again soon.

[Veronica]

Now I did carry all those cookies to the summit...

I liked that everyone did what they were comfortable doing. Both going up and coming down. That descent can be VERY scary.

I wish the weather had been better. Maybe we'll get some pictures up later tonight.

V.

[aka_kim]

Cookies! I completely forgot about the cookies! Well, now you *owe* us cookies next time :).

[jobob]

It was great !

I had my tiny digital with which I'm getting pretty good at taking pictures while I'm riding (just so long as I have it set on wide angle and don't actually try to frame the image while I'm riding, LOL). Trouble is, by the time I got around to taking photos-on-the-fly, V. and Kim were so far ahead they were just eeensy little specs, and Thom, Sarah, Jenny, and Bill were just barely in range. What can I say, Lee and I were being pokey ! :rolleyes:

http://tinypic.com/1q34aw wait for meeeeeeee!

Speaking of, since rain was threatening I brought Pokey, with his fatter tires and fenders, rather than Dusty my light & fast 'racing' bike (no I cannot keep a straight face when I say that :D) One thing I forgot was that Dusty is geared a bit lower than Pokey and oy, I was wishing for those last couple of gears today. There's a steep switchback shortly before we reach the Junction, and today I was crraaawwwlling around it - right about then I decided, nope, Pokey and I are going to call it a day when we reach the Junction, thank you very much.

Seems like all the others were in various states of indecision about whether to continue on up - the fact that the fog was rolling in wasn't doing much for people's resolve.

http://tinypic.com/1q34g2 Kim, Sarah, Thom, and V. apparently conserving her energy

http://tinypic.com/1q34hi Jenny & Bubba

Then Jenny let on she really wanted to reach the summit, Thom gallantly offered to take her up there, V decided if they were going she was going too, Bubba said he was game, and basically the mob mentality set in and off everyone went - though Kim and Sarah wisely mentioned they were considering only going as far as Juniper camp and to play it by ear from there. Once they all left Lee and I looked at each other, he said how he'd like to head up for Juniper too, and I was feeling better so off we went, at our own typical blistering pace. :p

Like I mentioned, the fog was starting to roll in at this point. Luckily we were prepared for the cold & damp (wool jerseys rule!!) and it was really neat riding up the fog-shrouded mountain. Visibility wasn't too bad at this point, and there were hardly any cars on the road. So I was enjoying that odd sensation of being in my own little cocoon-ish world. We eventually reached Juniper, where we saw Kim and Sarah who were preparing to head back down.

The fog was considerably thicker at this point...
http://tinypic.com/1q34o0 this way up

...and it was very cold & damp and the wind was beginning to kick up so it was not a hard decision in the least to head on back down. So Lee & I said our hellos & seeya'laters to Kim & Sarah as they vanished back down into the fog, and we proceeded to put on all of our available layers for what promised to be a damp & chilly descent.

http://tinypic.com/1q381i this way down

We've done this ride enough times that we knew what clothing to bring so the descent was great fun rather than death by frostbite. After a bit Lee had a minor equipment issue so we pulled over for a few moments, and Bubba pulled up soon thereafter. He told us that it was even foggier up near the summit and the wind had really picked up (oh joy). So we set off again and eventually met up with Kim & Sarah who were waiting for us at the park gate, and we all proceeded back to where we had parked. Thom and V. and a triumphant Jenny joined us a bit later - they made it all the way up in the fog and wind. Oy.

We then rewarded ourselves with some yummy burritos. I think it's safe to say a grand time was had by all !

- Jo.

[jobob]

... was Thom able to take a movie of the descent?

[Veronica]

Nice pictures Jo. Sadly no movie. Thom thinks there were problems with the battery being cold. You are so right about wool! My cashmere jersey was toasty!

BTW I was not conserving energy. :D My knees were achy from all the manual labor I did at the Maritime Park yesterday and I was rubbing them to warm them up.

V.

[Veronica]

Here's a link to the pictures Thom got. I'm too tired to try to figure out how to embed them in that fancy way Jo did so you'll just have to go to our website and look at them. :D They do get bigger when you click on them. Let me know if you want copies. We can e mail you full size jpgs.

http://www.tandemhearts.com/bike/diablo-1/index.html

01 is Jenny at the summit.
02 is Lee's Atlantis with his freshly shellaced cork tape.
03 is Bill (better known as Bubba)
04 is Sarah (our SadieKate)
05 is Jenny
06 is my back with condensation building up on the cashmere
07 is Jenny - still at the summit.

We didn't leave her there did we? ;)

V.

[SadieKate]

Jobob, nice travelogue! V, we heard about the cookies all the way home in the car. We feel gypped (is that how you spell it). Bubba keeps talking about how much fun he's having with everyone but he wants a cookie next time.

All the pictures are great, can you both share? You've got my address and I'll send Jenny's.

We did learn that everyone seems to be motivated by food -- promise chocolate cookies, Paydays, burdos, whatever and we'll be there. Found out that Kim also likes macaroons! :)

[jobob]

But of course! They're pretty large, the ones I posted I re-sized first.
I can put them on a CD that I could mail to you if you could send me your snailmail.
I have lot more than what I posted, including a few more of you guys as teeny leetle specs riding off in the distance. :p

[SadieKate]

Cool! I may have to print one off and post it next to the TV cuz the evil Coach Troy is going to start yelling at me this week. I'll look at the photos of the mountain for inspiration.

[Trek420]

jobob wrote: "I forgot was that Dusty is geared a bit lower than Pokey and oy, I was wishing for those last couple of gears today."

Just what I needed, another reason to lust after a back up bike...to add to the winter trainer aspect...different gearing, had not thought of that ;-)

sounds like a wonderful ride. Sorry I had to return a u-haul I'd rented to bring stuff down from Sonoma so decided to strap the mountain bike in the u-haul and ride back. Hardly scenic but any ride's a good ride.

Taking a detour I discovered where the local bmx park is and a funny moment was the warm wave from the bmx'ers as I rode by. I guess bike clothes brand me as "one of the tribe" as opposed to "riding a bike till I can afford a car or the DUI ages off the record".

Want to know "did you wear pearls with the jersey?" :p ;) :cool:

[SadieKate]

Sounds like you all had an excellent time! I can't wait until I've got the confidence to give Diablo a try. I'm gettin' there....... :o

Our March 6 ride would be an excellent training ride for Diablo. It's got some decent little climbs but they're all separated by some nice cruising. Come join us!

I didn't think I had Diablo in me either and while I didn't make it to the summit I feel darn good about what I did accomplish. I've never ridden a road bike up that many vertical feet of gain in one long climb but it wasn't that bad. You won't do it until you give it a try. My goal is just to make it farther each time. Maybe I'll get a cookie the next time. :p

[Trek420]

SadieKate wrote "My goal is just to make it farther each time. Maybe I'll get a cookie the next time."

can someone go up a day before and stash cookies around the next bend from our previous personal best? :D :cool: :rolleyes:

penciling in March 6th.

[slinkedog]

Where is the ride on March 6th? Oh, duh. I remember that I can't make that one because it got moved to Sunday. Oh well!

[SadieKate]

can someone go up a day before and stash cookies around the next bend from our previous personal best? :D :cool: :rolleyes:
Since V will always be in front of me, that is probably not a problem!


penciling in March 6th.
Yeah! Guess I better figure out what goodies I should be bringing.

Slinkedog - go check out the post for March 6 Pope Valley Lake Berryessa.

[jobob]

Yeah! Guess I better figure out what goodies I should be bringing. Heh, I'll gaze longingly at the miniature Payday bars if you bring those again ...

[SadieKate]

I've sent Bubba a special order just for you :D .