With two weeks to go until Fruita, it was time for an epic training ride. And with all the Bay Area trails wet from a week of rain, that leaves only a couple of options. One of our standards that still works in the wet is the Dimond/Joaquin Miller combo.
I always love this ride for its contrasts. You start in flatland Oakland, and just by rolling through a playground wind up in a forested canyon. It’s not exactly a wilderness, but it’s really impressively secluded for such an urban ride. You do the climb through Dimond, cross the creek twice (running well, but not too high this weekend), then get a whole bunch more climbing getting up to Skyline, with a nice view of Oakland’s downtown and the Bay along the way.
I won Best Biff on a drop-in to middle Palos Colorados (two full rolls in the mud!), we did some trail maintenance to clear up a blockage at the stone bridge (note to Stan: Someone with some tools should do a real job on it), we got briefly hailed on, and we were appropriately exhausted by the bottom. A great training day!
Those of you who haven’t seen it should check out Trailhead, the documentary which is more or less about this ride.
