That shouldn’t seem like a big deal, that Kevin and I were accompanied by two other riders, Todd and ex-pilot Kevin, but I think it’s been at least a couple months that it’s just been the two of us, nobody else. The rain, the cold, and probably how darned slow I’ve been has likely discouraged others.

But this morning it was really nice out; unlike Tuesday, the roads were dry, and it was, wait for it, 45 degrees up on Skyline! That feels so much nicer than 37.

Having both Todd and Kevin was nice because Todd’s fast and can entertain Kevin, while Kevin (ex-pilot) is definitely slowing down, which suits me just fine. They got up the hill in 28-something, a time that I haven’t been able to touch in probably 5+ years, while Kevin (ex-pilot) and I cruised up in a leisurely 40 minutes. Of course that included a stop at the top of the park for ex-pilot to take off his jacket… must have been at least 5 minutes. Right.

We were going to risk the Old LaHonda descent this time, instead of the Swett Road/upper Tunitas loop, but didn’t get there because younger Kevin lost his Garmin Varia Radar unit descending Skyline into SkyLonda, and didn’t know exactly where it was. Thankfully, it was pretty easily found as it tried to reconnect to the Garmin computer on Kevin’s bike as he got near. After that we continued north on Skyline back to Kings and down.

Amazing how much more fun it is to descend when it’s not really cold. That feeling of “We just need to get off this hill as quickly as possible” on cold days isn’t very fun. Today, everything was fun.