bigbossman 

{cross-posted from the road forum}

I've been wanting to go up Mt. Diablo on New Year's Day for a couple of years now, but weather and events have so far been able to conspire against me. Not this year - the weather was 58'ish without clouds and wind, and I had nothing better to do. I conned the wife into going on the ride with me - she was a little more than hesitant as she didn't think she could, but my boyish good looks and overwhelming charm convinced her to give it a go.

I won't bore you with a blow-by-blow account of the climb, but the weather remained stellar and we had a very good time. It started to get a bit windy here and there, but nothing too bad. There was enough bike traffic to make me think someone was paying for folks to ride up there - must be a New Year's tradition with a lot of folks!

It was an 11 mile or so ascent mostly in the 5-8% grade range with a few flatter spots here and there. The last 4.5 miles saw short pitches in the 9-12% range, and the last 1000 feet starts at around 11% and towards the end gets to 17% with a brief visit to 20% (according to Garmin). These last miles used to be fairly treacherous descent, but new pavement has made it a lot of fun.

Anyway, I've attached some pics for your amusement. I have a 98GB Quicktime .MOV file of the first couple miles of the descent, and as soon as I get it to Youtube I'll post a link - it's kind of fun to watch.

My wife on the beginning of the climb, looking down towards Danville on South Gate Road:



Looking down, after about 3-4 miles of climbing:



Oak trees:



My wife, climbing up towards the first ranger station and park entrance:



Close to the top, looking down towards San Ramon:



My wife at the top, just cresting the last 1000' of 17% grade



Proof - the top!!!:



On the way down:

DiabloScott

Great photos good story. Indeed riding Diablo on NYD is a tradition - lots of road runners as well (some of them faster than a lot of the riders). Last year the mountain was closed because of mud slides (remember that storm?) This year my whole family was sick.

bigbossman 

Thanks!

I do remember that storm - pouring buckets and 45mph winds. Kind of hard to ride in.

Here's a link to the video of the first part of my descent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2LxUsFu-U