Diablo Ride - Sat. Dec. 8

[aka_kim]

Jo, you asked about the Pink Lady. Check out Bike Bits Vol 9 No 20 and Bike Bits Vol 9 No 21 from the Adventure Cycling site.

[snapdragen]

This is good, one of the links in the Adventure Cycling Bike Bits

http://www.teamalameda.com/FlashBlog/?p=14

[aka_kim]

Oh, sorry snap. The Pink Lady you were probably looking for is here.

[snapdragen]

:d :d :d :d :d

[snapdragen]

[Bike Goddess]

It was pretty darn cold here when I got up and after I figured out the bus schedule to get to the Pleasant Hill BART and then after the ride home, I figured it would be a bit complicated. So, I did my usual Gordon Valley Rockville ride. It was cold and windy down here and I wondered how you all were doing UP there (I could see Diablo from Fairfield, Rockville and on the way home).

Good that you didn't test yourself Veronica. I know how you feel- once you get to the lower parking lot, it's pretty hard to resist the summit run. I tried walking it a few weeks ago and decided that was harder than riding!

Anyways, sounds like you all had a good time and you got a good ride in which is really what matters.

Hopefully I'll see you all one of these days- mountain or otherwise. I'll most likely go up next week when the winds calm down and it's (maybe) a bit warmer (ha, ha, ha!)

[jobob]

Hee hee. Nice articles, thanks.

So the Pink Lady has a name, and her name is Alison.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck we're talking about, Veronica, Kim and I passed by said Pink Lady, who was ascending the south side of Diablo as we were heading down.

Her bright pink panniers were bulging and I almost asked if she was carrying brownies again. (Some time ago a bunch of us accompanied her on the final stretch up to the Diablo summit, and at the top she pulled out a box of home-baked brownies and passed them around. Yum.)

But, if she said she had brownies, I would have been faced with a hard decision - continue the fun descent, or stop and turn around and follow her back up? Such a quandry.

So instead I just waved hello as I passed by.

[Veronica]

I saw her and got a big grin on my face. It's hard not to smile at bright pink panniers.

V.

[deedolce]

Geez, I WAS on the same mountain wasn't I? I never saw the Pink Lady either! Is the Junction where those bathrooms and little ranger station is? I didn't realize you didn't have to go all the way to the peak (I assume that's where the little round brick thing is) to go down the other side.

I'd definitely be up for another try! I'm not suprised we didn't see each other, since I left later, and went up and down the North side. Having never ridden it, and coming from a place where a 'hill' is an overpass, it seemed pretty darn endless! Came down pretty slow too, since it was all unfamiliar with lots of turns, I had to stop a number of times to uncramp my hands!

[jobob]

For the record, we did not enter Dublin at any point - Diablo, yes. Dublin, no.

Argh, I meant to say Danville. I often get Danville & Dublin mixed up. The Senior Moments are coming fast & furious.

[jobob]

Is the Junction where those bathrooms and little ranger station is?

Yes indeedy.

[Bike Goddess]

I was at REI today (the Concord one) and a guy was showing us topo maps on the computer. Evidently you can buy a program that will map routes on a topo map for you, determine elevation gain, etc. My pal Mick (who works in the bike-now ski shop) asked the guy to do a route up Mt Diablo using the roads instead of trails. So, first he did the south side route and then the north side. Turns out the average grade (from the bottom of the northgate route to the summit) is 11%. That makes sense since there are a couple of nasty U turns as you near the ranger station at the junction as well as some steep sections on the summit road. (That average included the 17% climb at the end BTW!). So no easy task getting up the mountain. I think the south side average (also including the summit road) was 10%.

Anyway, he said the demo with the software is there all the time. You can even print out an elevation gain map for any route you choose. He was also talking about how a specific GPS device could coordinate with the topo programs. It was quite impressive. I recommend that you all check it out when you get over to REI. I would imagine they have this program at other REIs as well.

[Bike Goddess]

What days did you say the Pink Lady does Diablo? I'll ride for brownies any time (well unless it's freezing outside)!

[Bike Goddess]

Deedolce- Yes, that's the junction. We(the group I ride with) often sit up there in the sun, have a bite to eat, and... if the ranger is around... have him/her call the weather radio at the summit to find out the temp and the wind conditions. At least then we know what we are getting in to.......especially this time of the year.

If you want to know current conditions of most areas just go to the NOAA weather site. For example: Type Mt Diablo on the search window and you will get all kinds of stuff. Go to the MesoWest thread and you will find temps, humidity, wind, peak wind, temps and precipitation for the last 24 hours, etc. It's useful if you are planning to come down to do the mountain. It kind of has its own weather system. Mozie around the NOAA site in the same area (get out of MesoWest) and you can find forecasts for the Diablo range as well. Also useful for longer term (as in 5 days)

I use this site a lot because it doesn't have any ads. Just lots of info and interesting discussions.

[maillotpois]

Hi Nancy -

We use that Topo program to create our routes for our TNT Death Ride training rides. A BIG caveat to anyone thinking of using it - the climbing is WAY over estimated, at least for this area. There are many suspected reasons why this is, but it will calculate climbing for some rides at double what it actually is (per a GPS or barometric altimeter).