Hate getting up when it’s completely-black outside; daylight saving time comes to an end soon, and with it, a bit more sun in the mornings. That’s a good thing. Not-so-good is that test rides at the shop will have to end around 4:30 pretty soon. Hard to believe it wasn’t that long ago we could ride until 9pm!

By the time we got ready to head out, the dark had turned to gray fog, which stayed with us until about a third of the way up Kings. Fog a shade of gray that changes only with altitude, not with the rising sun. Some days we climb more quickly out of the fog than others; today wasn’t particularly fast or slow, with Kevin’s group finishing just a minute ahead of me (27 vs 28 minutes). This time of year, I can live with 28 minutes.

Eric, John, Mark, Todd, George, Kevin (not the pilot) and first-timer Chris on the climb today. With the work being done on Skyline this week (chipsealing pretty much its entire length) we had planned to do one of the dead-end roads, probably Native Sons, and were heading towards it down Tunitas when George got a flat, taking us off schedule and forcing us to turn back at Swett & Star Hill, about 9 miles short of our typical distance. Skyline had simply not been an option though; chip-sealed roads destroy bikes, in a very literal sense (you pick up a piece of gravel that gets stuck to the chain and in the instant that your drivetrain comes to a halt you can tear your rear derailleur right out of the frame, as happened to one of our customers this past Saturday).