Mountain biking is hard...

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but also lots of fun!

Christmas Day ride - 12 miles, 2100 feet of climbing (and descending! :D). Most of the climbs are a 12 percent average grade, but there is one half mile section we did yesterday that is an average 16 percent. Of course just at the top of the steepest section, there is a cattle gate. I got to it first yesterday and couldn't open it. I thought it was because I was so oxygen deprived that I couldn't figure it out. Actually, it was jammed. :p

Veronica

Sounds like a great ride Veronica! I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying riding in the dirt:)

Veronica, it sounds like fun! Also amazing that you get to ride during this time of the year with so few clothes :)

Another 12 mile ride today, this time we went to a different park. We have been riding at Black Diamond - our nearby regional park. It's like 4 miles away. We do drive to it, but we bought a park pass so we can park inside the gates and support the park. I really don't like riding my mountain bike on the road. Black Diamond Regional Park connects to Mt Diablo State park and you can ride your mountain bike from one to the other. That's an epic ride! I think I'd have to stage a car, since getting back would be tough. It's about 12 miles to the base of Diablo and of course once there, you have to ride up... Someday!

Anyway... today's ride - we went to Briones Regional Park. It's about a 20 mile drive, but Thom wanted to go somewhere different. We hadn't been to Briones in years. It was a good ride. We climbed up to the top of the ridge and then rode rollers for miles. These were some steep suckers though, up and down. Thom forgot his camera, so no pictures today. It was very pretty with views of Suisun Bay and Mt Diablo.

Veronica

Today we headed off to Mount Diablo with the intent of riding the Oyster Point single track from the Diablo side. We had found it too steep from the Morgan Territory side and not much fun. The Diablo side really isn't any better. :rolleyes: Although we did see a group of about ten, twenty-somethings head down it. I hope they like it, because I didn't. The single track was a deep rut, about a foot deep, maybe a foot wide at the top, rocky and rooty, with death to the left. It was downhill with an average grade of over 15%. I rode it until I just couldn't take the stress anymore. Thom went a bit further and said it didn't get better. Since it is an out and back route, we just turned around. We went in about 3 tenths of a mile.


To get to the single track required riding about two and a half miles, mainly downhill, average grade of about ten percent. After a snack we rode a loop that was really beautiful with some awesome views of the park.

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The picture is from the loop and you can see the fire road we took in and out in the distance and beyond that is the Diablo summit.

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I'm glad we tried the single track. We've now looked at it from both sides and decided it's just not for us. Thom might try it on his own, but it's not what I'm looking for when I ride. I would do the rest of the ride again for sure and look at some of the other fire roads in this area. The views were incredible and the climbing was easier than what we have been riding at Black Diamond. :D

There are a few other pictures here.

Veronica

Good old Mt Diablo. I got married up there.:D

Looks like beautiful weather and still a nice ride.

I like that pink jersey.
The scenery looks pretty awesome, too.

That is my favorite shirt for mountain biking this winter. It's an an Ibex Indie and it's just the right weight, keeps me warm even when I'm sweaty.

Veronica

Today we rode from Black Diamond Mine Regional Park to Clayton - the base of Mt Diablo and back - 11.5 miles, 2400 feet of climbing. There were some pretty "interesting" sections of trail, one very steep, very rutted descent, with the ruts running diagonally across the trail. I was kind of inching my way down and had not picked a great line - I'm not sure there was one! In retrospect, I'm amazed I didn't get off and walk it, but I didn't even consider it. About halfway down, I just let the bike go, I could see I would have some run out.

I'm definitely not ready to add climbing Diablo to this route yet. That will double the mileage and double the climbing, but I'm really glad we scoped it out. No pictures, we were too busy riding today. We had some nice views from the top of the ridge line out over the Delta.

Veronica

Sunday's ride was short, just 6.75 miles and just over 1,000 feet of climb and descent. I wasn't feeling great so I didn't want to work very hard. We took the easiest possible route up to the ridge. There really is no "easy" way to climb 1000 feet in 3 miles, but some are less stupid steep. The ridge itself is really quite narrow, so every way up has some ridiculous bit near the top. Yesterday's route had an 18% section for a little more than a tenth of a mile. AND, it's the "easy" way. There is one single track trail at Black Diamond that is bike legal - Corcoran Mine. It's 3/4 of a mile long with an average grade of 18%. We decided to go down that way yesterday. I had never gone down it before. Years ago we had gone up it with our bikes, walking much of it. Down is a lot more fun. It was almost all rideable - except for one tenth of a mile that my Garmin says had an average grade of 43%. It was like walking down the side of a cliff. It was all exposed rock with ledges, holes and ruts. It's the kind of terrain that the bike needs some speed to get over, but at the bottom of it is a sandy narrow switchback. I doubt I'll ever ride that bit. But the rest is great for working on single track skills. It's rooted and rocky with some exposure - really quite nice.

Veronica

We went out for more fun at Black Diamond yesterday and today. I finally conquered the Old Homestead Trail. The final pitch is 16% average grade for three tenths of a mile. We had been up it twice before and both times I had to stop before the top. I was pretty giddy to finally make it. One nemesis down, several still to go. :D

Veronica

I love it!! Good work.

This weekend I went back out to an area that I haven't been to in 2 years and I was amazed at the improvement in my skill level in that time. Sometimes it's hard to see the changes when you're riding in the same areas frequently. It's always fun to see yourself improving and mountain biking is great for that.

Have fun out there.

Wow! I'd like to do that someday. Nice view. I've tried biking cross country but never that difficult. I'll give it a shot before I get home.:)

We were off the bikes for a few weeks. The last weekend in January we went for a hike to do some recon for future biking. The first two weekends of February we had rain. Presidents' Day weekend Thom's folks were here visiting, but we went anyway. :D They walked around the reservoir while we rode for abut an hour - 6.3 miles with 830 feet of climbing. Because of all of the rain the cows have really chewed up the trails. It's like riding in a rock garden. It makes all that climbing more work! I'm really glad I have a fully suspended bike now.

Yesterday we went out to Round Valley to find someplace a little flatter to ride. It's about a mile and a half out to the valley which has a three mile loop. We did the loop three times. Thirteen miles and only 530 feet of climbing. We were going to head from Round Valley up towards Morgan Territory, the trail we had reconned in January, but the trail was closed on Feb. 4 for Golden Eagle nesting. We discovered that when we got to the trail and saw the closure sign.

Thom did take 120 photos, which we narrowed down to three. :p

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Veronica