We almost got back to normal today! Almost, but still a ways to go. Kings is open again weekdays; all the brush-clearing is over with, weeks ahead of schedule. Not a very fast ride up the hill though as Kevin was having some pretty severe vision issues due to his epilepsy meds, at one point causing us to have to stop for about 5 minutes.

The good news is that we dropped in on the West Old LaHonda roadwork from the Skyline side, and she’s almost ready for us! I sent an email to the San Mateo County Public Works department and got this reply-

Mike,
Yes, there is an update on the reopening of West Old La Honda Road.

We will be performing our construction project site walkthrough tomorrow (Wednesday).  There are still some delineators that the contractor still needs to install along the edge of the road/retaining wall which will probably be installed this week or next by the contractor.  In the next coming days or week, the hard barricades/concrete barriers/gates will be removed in the interim and replaced with A frame barricades that have a gap which will allow for local traffic vehicle access/bicycles and include signs on the barricades that will say local traffic only.

After the delineators are installed the road will be opened to all.

Thanks for checking in.

Regards,
Gil Tourel
Principal Civil Engineer
San Mateo County Public Works Dept.

That’s really good news. Not only will our road be back shortly, but they’re specifically accommodating the needs of cyclists, along with local access. Note that the signage will still state “local traffic only” but we qualify. Good news!

We knew it wasn’t going to be a fast ride Thursday, and in fact I kinda guaranteed that by forgetting to take a few hits from my inhaler. Yeah, same stuff Chris Froome used, but it’s never seemed to make me quite as strong. Why is that?

Heading up through the park, somehow Kevin missed this guy (in the photo) in the road. Sadly, already dead before we got to her. Not very long but rather full-bodied if that makes sense. I spotted it and stopped, got a couple of photos and moved on. Not sure if he’d been run over or dropped by a bird. Seems like a pretty big guy for a bird to pick up though. Amazingly, this is the first rattlesnake we’ve seen in quite a while. Used to see them all the time, typically out on West Old LaHonda. Maybe they’re still out there, enjoying the still-closed road.

At the base of Old LaHonda, we wondered if maybe this would finally be that 28-minute day. Nope. Still 25-something if I recall correctly. We can take it easy, but not quite THAT easy!