Normally I don’t do a “training” ride on Fridays… or Mondays, or Wednesday. But yesterday Kevin begged out due to lack of sleep, and with his upcoming Disneyland trip keeping him off the bike Sunday through Wednesday, it made sense to squeeze in an extra weekday ride. But, having already done my weekly quota of trips up Kings, I wasn’t about to do the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. Not enough time for something truly creative, and it’s tough coming up with a ride that packs in a lot of punch in just two hours.

The solution was obvious. The regular ride, backward. Kevin wasn’t happy with this, going so far as to accuse me of engineering a ride specifically to my advantage. I will admit that heading up 84 instead of Kings is a lot easier for me; I much prefer 5% grades to 8%. And the long grind north on Skyline towards Kings… it’s not terribly fun, but also not too steep.

Most noteworthy about the ride was having to turn around on the West Old LaHonda descent; the road crew working on clearing branches and vegetation encroaching on the roadway wouldn’t let us through. This wasn’t a total surprise; for the past 3 Tuesday-Thursday morning rides, we’ve ridden past “road closed” signs and managed to squeeze past their equipment without much trouble. But maybe with just two of us instead of 6-8 they felt more comfortable telling us we couldn’t pass through? Or maybe, as they claimed, they really did have a “huge debris box across the road” blocking the way. Apparently they’ll be finished Tuesday, after which they move on to West Alpine.

Does this mean West Old LaHonda will be closed this weekend? Don’t know. If there’s a huge debris box out there, maybe. But at least there’s a workaround; you can always bypass West Old LaHonda and take 84 instead. If they shut down West Alpine though, that’s another matter entirely!