Mountain biking is hard...

[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. 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.




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.



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.

There are a few other pictures here.

Veronica

[Irulan]

Good old Mt Diablo. I got married up there.