FLCC> Ride Report - Mount Diablo, California

[mgarcia at borgwarner.com]

Charles-

It was great to read your report, having lived in Berkeley
(not too far from the North Berkeley BART) for awhile and ridden 
on some of the roads you described including Wildcat Canyon and
the "3 Bears" (although I never got the chance to ride up Diablo
itself).  
Your post took me back a few years, and I still hope to get back to
re-live
the experience!

Thanks,
Ano



> >
> >Hello everyone.  See below for a _long_ ride report from a trip last
> >week to California.
> >
> >Hope everyone is doing well out there.
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >-Charles
> >
> >------------------------------------------
> >
> >Setting up the wake-up call the night before I didn't really think I
> >would be able to get out of bed at 5:45am.  Being on east coast time
> >and the rented Fuji downstairs at the hotel sure helped.  Between
> >business meetings the day before, an overnight flight at 6:30pm, and
> >five more draining days on the road yet to come, I had a single
> >glorious day free in Sunny California - a day that turned into one of
> >my best days ever on two wheels.
> >
> >I had found the Grizzly Peak Cyclists online and bounced emails back
> >and forth with club members finding out how to get from downtown San
> >Francisco to the North Berkeley BART station by 8am.  Their Saturday
> >ride called for 7,500 odd feet of climbing and about 100 miles.
> >Fortified by my rigid off season regimen of eating frozen 
> pizza, I had
> >no illusions about making it the whole way, I wasn't even sure I'd
> >make it the first hour without watching riders peel away up the road.
> >
> >At least I had good gear for the 40 degree morning 52 degree 
> high day.
> >  Full Ithaca autumn kit and a rented Fuji carbon from 
> Blazing Saddles
> >Bike Shop.  The 58 dollar rental sure beat the hassle of 
> moving a bike
> >across the country, as good or better than my bike back home and with
> >fewer scratches.  The shiny bike and I found the BART station for the
> >commute to Berkeley and I made it across the Bay just before 
> the ride.
> >
> >Karen from the club met me when I came out of the station and a small
> >group of about 10 soon showed up.  Some in the fast touring category
> >and what looked like a core few with legs that clearly had a thousand
> >or so kilometers in them just since Christmas.  They weren't the huge
> >sprinting legs that taunt me at town line sprints, but more the iron
> >clad legs that clearly will not be phased by a mere century.  A core
> >group of masters riders were training for what they called double
> >centuries - competitive 200 mile rides later in the year.  
> Great, I've
> >flown across the country to get dropped by old guys.  If I had wanted
> >to do that, I could have stayed in Ithaca.
> >
> >We rolled across neighborhoods and up a good sized residential ridge
> >with about the altitude gain of Ringwood Road back home, chatting all
> >the while.  I'm warming up ok and feeling like maybe I'll be able to
> >hang for a few miles or so.  Gathering at the top we split into two
> >groups and go rolling down the other side of the ridge through what
> >quickly becomes very twisty roads through a wooded park.  Green moss
> >covered trees stretch up and cross over the road leaving us shaded in
> >between openings  to the rolling hills across the valley on our left.
> >White mist is rising off the road and filling the distance 
> as the pace
> >picks up.
> >
> >I quickly realize that my fear of fast corners combined with local
> >guys who know the apex of each turn means that I'll fall back on the
> >down hills.  A rider named Ernesto leads the pace down the 
> twisty bits
> >leaning hard into the corners as the group bombs down to the valley
> >floor.
> >
> >An intersection at the bottom splits the group, but the stragglers
> >manage to catch back on without too much effort.  The road gets more
> >open and more uphill as the residential parts fade away.  Riding
> >briskly up a series of hills the guys called the three bears, no one
> >seems to know which is papa, mama, and baby bear.  The sun 
> comes up as
> >we pass by a reservoir of clear water near the summit.  The club is
> >very welcoming and marvels that I'm the first to take off arm warmers
> >as the hill gets steeper - thinking I'm a weather hardened New Yorker
> >rather than just working hard to keep up.
> >
> >Past some ranches, through a town and up a popper of a hill that I
> >contest with a passing rider out of sheer folly, the ride gets a
> >little more residential as we're heading to the park road up Mount
> >Diablo, elevation 3,800 feet.  On the way to the park road there are
> >some rollers and pacelines to go through and my legs are starting to
> >telegraph muscle cramps.  Oddly, my lungs are fine, it's just my legs
> >that seem to be missing.  I down every gel I have, a banana and most
> >of my sports drink and hope for the best.
> >
> >Coming out of the residential hills I see the impressive Diablo ridge
> >jumping up from the small town.  Wasn't I just in downtown San
> >Francisco?  Where did this mountain come from?  I figure we 
> must be at
> >about 1,000 feet here at the base, so maybe I can make it without
> >embarrassing myself.  Ten minutes of hard climbing, the group is gone
> >save one who hangs back being polite as I seem to go slower with each
> >pedal stroke.  Ok, this is going to be harder than I thought.  Damn
> >there's the sign for 1,000 feet and I've already been climbing for
> >what feels like 15 minutes.
> >
> >Trying to push, I see the group a couple of turns higher on 
> the ridge,
> >but my legs are having nothing to do with a faster pace.  Fitness
> >glory again passes me by, but the view as we rise up the 
> mountain just
> >keeps getting better.  The ridge and hills we climbed before are in
> >the distance and beyond a bank of clouds fills San Francisco Bay
> >before spilling out to the ocean beyond.
> >
> >It feels like an hour getting to 2,500 feet or so where the rest of
> >the group is finishing a water stop at the ranger station.  It's a
> >balmy 50 degrees now and the sun is strong, the sky clear.  Thanking
> >the group for the ride and for waiting, I beg off the rest of the
> >route.  Inviting me back anytime and looking strong, they 
> all ride off
> >down the ridge.
> >
> > >From the ranger station I've got another 4.5 miles up to the top of
> >the mountain.  I don't know if I've ever ridden a slower 4.5 mile
> >stretch in my whole life.  At one point I think Juan Valdez and his
> >burro could gap me.  After a hundred twists in the road and the last
> >short 20 degree wall, I finally made it to the top.  I was 
> just glad I
> >didn't break down and have to walk the bike.  The view is a full 360
> >degrees and certainly worth the effort as I look down at a 
> small plane
> >flying through the valley.
> >
> >A twisty ride down the mountain, a close encounter with a family of
> >deer, the BART ride back, a short urban ride and I make the airport
> >just in time.  Total ride 65 miles and 6.5 hours.
> >
> >Why did this rank as one of my best rides ever?  Well, besides the
> >views, sunrise, and the mountains... It was one my very best days for
> >the sheer joy of stepping out of the dark of winter into something so
> >out of the ordinary, and for the surprise that after months off the
> >bike I was still able to hang - even a little bit - with a group of
> >great athletes.  I ride to escape, to challenge, and just 
> sometimes to
> >surprise myself.  Saturday in California I managed all three.
> >
> >--------------------
> >
> >Thanks for reading and thanks to the Grizzly 
> >Peak Cyclists for the hospitality.
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> >http://icycle.org/mailman/listinfo/flcc_icycle.org
> 
> 
>