Mt. Diablo

For the past couple of years, while I've been riding the proverbial pine in the triathlon world, Mt. Diablo has sat quietly across the eastern horizon of the Bay Area. If you've been to the Bay maybe you've seen it's 3847' summit sitting off in the distance over the East Bay. Everytime I look at it I can hear it beckoning to go climb. Well this weekend I finally felt like my training has come along enough to try and summit it.

With 3 years of pent up animosity, my buddy Adam and I left Berkeley around 9am. We wound our way to the base, polishing off 30+ miles in about 2 hours. Then the fun began. 3239' in 11 miles. I felt pretty great most of the climb, but the last 3 miles hurt a little. My knee started to bother me a bit, and I still haven't invested in a compact crank, so the 38 tooth small chainring began to take its toll. The last .25 mi boasted a 13% grade, and I felt like I was going backwards, but I put my head down, kept pedaling, and the summit soon arrived, offering some great views:





After a break for snacks we began a 25 minute blazing descent! It was awesome. We cruised back through Walnut Creek where Adam jumped on BART to finish his ride. I kept riding, and instead of cruising over the Berkeley hills, took a wider, longer, and flater way home through Richmond. The sun going down over the Pacific was a nice end to a long day. The Bay bike trail lead me back home, for a total of 92 miles in all.