Nothin' on Saturday between rain squalls and family stuff. (It was free musem day in Sacramento, and so we enjoyed Sutter's Fort and the Towe AuotoMuseum for free.)
Sunday, on the other hand, was great. I crashed LanceOldstrong's ride. He rode down from Concord to Chez Bigbossman in San Ramon. I drove to said Chez, as did MarcoPolo and Mrs. Oldstrong. From there, off via Tasajara and Highland to the northeastern wilds of Livermore and a Starbucks break. BBM had been fighting a rearguard action against digestive upset the whole time, and he (wisely) decided that the better part of valor was to cut the ride short and head for home.
The rest of us abandoned him with nary a second thought
and headed over the Livermore side of Patterson Pass. LanceOldstrong had at first wanted to do the Tracy side, but the mere mention of "the Mother of all False Summits" from me had him seeing the error of his ways. Suffice to say that nasty double-digit stair-step up the last part of the Tracy side is much more fun going down than it is going up. We gobbled up the fun.
From there, left on Midway Road and past the Altamont Speedway, site of the infamous 1969 Altamont concert (you know, Hell's Angels used for security, Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane getting beat up on stage, and a guy getting stabbed to death within sight of the stage) and back over Old Altamont Pass in, by Altamont Pass standards, calm winds. I was riding with Mrs. Oldstrong, and apparently we were a hit with some local cows, as an entire herd of them started running in their field more or less parallel to us for a good quarter mile. It was quite a sight.
After a lunch stop at a taqueria about 100 feet away from the Starbucks we had earlier infested, we retraced our steps back to Blackhawk and then over Crow Canyon back to bigbossman's chateau. Mrs. Bossman and Princess Bossman were nowhere to be seen, but BBM was resplendent in sweats and slippers, still fighting a stomach bug but being his usual gracious self.
70.26 miles for me (LanceOldstrong got 100), 4500 feet of climbing according to the Garmin download (the device itself seemed to think it was less than that, but I'm going for what makes me look better
), and a whale of a good time.