The original plan was reverse-Pescadero with a run up West Alpine. A good plan, since it puts us at the always-awesome Pescadero bakery for lunch, and it’s always fun riding up West Alpine (although not-so-fun going up the west side of Haskins first).

Of course that first means climbing Old LaHonda, which today was at a pretty leisurely pace of just over 24 minutes. This has been one of those weeks where I just haven’t felt all that fast and figured best not to push it too hard too soon. The surprise of the ride came in LaHonda, where it had apparently just rained. Sure, we’d felt a few drops here and there, but nothing looked that serious, but as you can see in the photo, it was definitely wet out there. Kevin, on his new bike, suggested that maybe we should do something different, head up West Alpine instead of going to the coast where we’d be more likely to hit rain.

So, that’s what we did. Surprisingly, we thought we were going pretty slow, but still under 46 minutes, so we must have been consistent. Kevin wasn’t happy with my plan once we got to the top though; south on Skyline. The “ugly” direction. But… it really went by pretty quickly. Better than expected. Then it was down 9, dropping by our Los Altos store for a bit, lunch at the adjacent Peet’s Coffee, and then a headwind battle the rest of the way home. And yet, despite that headwind, it was pretty enjoyable, maybe because Kevin was feeling good and happy to stay at the front and ride into it. Hey, if he wants to do that, I’m good for sucking his wheel.

Oh, right, that “winter is coming” reference. Not so much for rain, but the cooler temps. Seriously, it was low-60s in the middle of the day, temps we haven’t seen in maybe 6 months. Definitely felt like Fall, for the first time this year.