Mount Diablo and Morgan Territory

Hey, everyone,

Well, I'm still not riding as much as I want to - life keeps getting in the way. I'm now an assistant coach for one son's soccer team, business has been busy and I'm buying a new townhouse. All of this has conspired to keep me very busy.

I did manage to get in one good, long ride on Sunday, Sept. 30th. We went up to the junction of Mt. Diablo (about halfway up), then continued on a long, hilly ride that culminated with climbing Morgan Territory Rd. This road is very remote (yet still only 20 miles or so from Oakland as the crow flies). It circles around the backside of Mt. Diablo, and is basically one lane (as in if someone is coming the other way, both cars have to get over on the shoulder to squeeze by) with really, really bad pavement. It is also a good, tough climb. Some sections hit 20% (or more). After that is the real treat - one of my favorite descents in the area. It's fast, not too technical and wide open enough that you can see if a car is coming several turns ahead. We ended up riding just under 70 miles, although I'm not sure how much climbing we did. My riding partner had an altimeter, and he had it pegged at more than 6,500 feet.

Here's a picture of me climbing the rollers just south of Morgan Territory Regional Park:

I did the ride with an acquaintance from bikeforums.net - we were pretty well matched and had a really nice ride. I took it easy since I'm doing the Grizzly Century next weekend, which promises to be very tough - especially since I really haven't been riding that much. We'll see how that goes.

I'm still training with the Team in Training Tucson team, but I haven't been able to make a team ride in a few weeks. Now that my new home is closing I should be able to make some more of those, and do a better job of sticking to the weekday training schedule as well. Otherwise, if I'm not careful, I'll start losing fitness as the event approaches - not good!

Team in Training is a fund raising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society - as always, donations are for a good cause! Jon's TnT donations page

I've been asked a few times about the jersey I'm wearing - it's a Peet's Coffee jersey, and the net proceeds (aka profits) from the jerseys are donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can get one at the Peet's Coffee website.