When Sarah posted she’d be riding Diablo on Friday I thought, “Hey this is my chance to ride over to the mountain from my house – and not HAVE to ride back.” I have a choice of two routes neither are especially easy, but I decided to ride up over Morgan Territory. It’s a beautiful, mostly single lane, very bumpy, little traveled road that climbs up about 2200 feet or so. The payoff is the descent down into Livermore. Local cyclists call it the Plunge. It’s a fast descent on good pavement, with good site lines into all the curves. I’ll work my way from Livermore over to Danville. Then I’ll climb up the South Gate Road of Diablo and meet Sarah and Bill at the Junction and ride to the summit with them.
It’s a beautiful day – perfect riding weather – sunny but not too warm. Because of all the rain we’ve had everything is so green. I leave my house a little after nine and head over to Deer Valley road. Kaiser has just built a facility on the Antioch end of this, so initially there is good pavement and a lane to ride in. Once you pass Kaiser, the lane disappears and you have to ride with the cars. I deliberately waited until the morning commute was over to start. Here’s my objective.
Once summer comes this road can be miserable to ride, no shade and everything is brown. There’s a bit of traffic today but the drivers are giving me plenty of room. There are two short but very steep hills on Deer Valley. I know I can power over them in the middle ring, but I decide the wiser course would be to spin over in the grannies. This is the ridgeline I have to cross.
The first climb has an S curve at the top so you can’t see the summit. As I enter the S, I hear a truck behind me. Nice guy, stayed back until I was over the summit and flying down the other side – hit 40 MPH here. The mountain is still pretty far away.
The second hill comes up quickly. This is a straight climb. I always think going this way, that it’s the worse of the two. Turn right at the bottom of the hill and now I’m on Marsh Creek Road. This is a very curvy road with rollers, but overall is a climb. It’s still a narrow road with very little or no shoulder. It’s here that I have two trucks beep as they pass me - one at the start, the other a little later on. Do they really think I can’t hear their loud engines? Or does it make them happy to see me jump? I missed the opportunity to get a picture of the creek. It was flowing pretty heavily. About 5 miles into it I get another view of the mountain. It’s closer now.
Just before the turn onto Morgan Territory Road, there is a vicious hill. It’s long and steep, gets two chevrons on my Krebs map. Again I decide that I’m not looking for speed at this point, I gear down and spin my way up it.
Left hand turn onto Morgan Territory Road - this is horse country. Beautiful homes, for the first 4 miles, good pavement, it’s a pleasant ride. About 3.5 miles into it I see a sign saying Road Closed Ahead. Of course I don’t want to believe it, so I continue on. A hundred feet or so later, there is another. I round the corner and just where the road turns to a single lane, there is a barrier across it and a sign.
I call Thom and let him know that my route has changed. He thinks I should ride up and see why the road is closed. I decline. Turns out, 70 feet of the road is washed away and it’s going to be closed for several months. I call Sarah next and let her know I’ll be meeting them at Arbolado Park instead of the Junction.
I backtrack down Morgan Territory and turn left on Marsh Creek to head out to Clayton. I immediately have a pretty big hill and there are some cars stopped in the middle of it one on my left, two on the right. A guy from the left comes across the street and asks me for directions to the shooting range. I tease him a little about making me stop in the middle of the hill. There is no lane for me to pull off into, but there’s no traffic so no biggie. But when I go to leave and look over my shoulder, there’s a CHP guy there. Oops. I guess the other two cars had an incident.
From the top of this hill, you fly down into Clayton. A couple of turns and I’m on Pine Hollow. A bicyclist passes me just before the turn onto Ygnacio. We chat a little bit at the stop light. I wasn’t thrilled about climbing up Ygnacio, but it wasn’t too bad. Another flying downhill and I need to turn left onto Oak Grove. This is hairy, two lanes of traffic to cross, but I make it. A mile or so later and I hook up with Sarah and Bill.
A spring climb up Diablo requires a lot of extra stuff, arm warmers, knee or leg warmers, a jacket, long fingered gloves, all for that 12 mile descent! So where’s the kitchen sink going to go?
Bill, Sarah and I stay together initially, but once we get into the park Sarah takes off and Bill soon follows. My legs are beginning to feel all those other miles. I have no power to accelerate, I’m already down to my smallest gear, but I can spin. So that’s what I do – spin and enjoy the scenery.
Bill and Sarah are waiting for me at the Junction. I have a Red Bull and then we continue on the Summit. Sarah again took off – man she’s got a lot of energy. :D Bill stays with me for a little bit. I’m really just grinding it out now. But I know this mountain and I know I’ve got the determination to get to the top today. It ain’t going to be pretty, but it’s going to happen.
Halfway between Juniper and Devil’s Elbow I decide I need a break. I stop, snap a couple of pictures, it’s getting a bit hazy now, eat half a granola bar and then continue on. I see Bill ahead of me at Devil’s Elbow, about a mile away. He’s wearing red so he’s easy to spot. Grind, grind, grind. I’m talking myself through this section. I know it’s steep, but once I make the corner at Devil’s Elbow, it levels out. Get to the Elbow and I’m golden.
A guy passes just after Devil’s Elbow. I ask him for a tow rope. He laughs and says, “Sorry, no.” Darn. I get to the lower parking lot. I usually stop here, let my heart rate come down, get a drink, make sure I’m really in my lowest gear and then head up to the Summit. I do all that and I’m thinking, “Man, am I going to be able to do this? 17% is HARD. But if I don’t get there, who will take Sarah and Bill’s picture. You have to have a picture when you make the Summit.” The lower section isn’t too bad, but by the top I am crawling. I credit Coach Troy’s Hill Climbing video with getting me to the top. Bill and Sarah's cheering helped too.
The Summit exhibits haven’t been open in months, but we got lucky and they were this day. I got two pictures of Bill and Sarah, one inside at the VERY top and one by the sign outside – which Bill pointed out is actually below the parking lot level.
Inside
Outside
The descent was rocking as usual. Bill gave me a new nick name – Zippity Doo. I like it. I averaged 21 with a high of 31. Thom was waiting for me at the bottom with more Red Bull and Cheetos.
I was in bed by 8 and slept like the dead until 6 – late for me. Today we’re going to mountain bike Diablo. It’ll be easier right?
V.
