Curses, foiled again...

 

If you said, "Snidely Whiplash from the cartoon Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties," you get 20 bonus points, and very likely grew up in a good time to be a kid.

A nice cool morning.  "How cool was it?"  Thanks for asking - cool enough that I could wear my hi-viz jacket with the liner.  I headed to the mountain around 9:00 am.  Taking my time, riding the speed limit on the way there.

When I got to the road up the mountain, I saw this...

 A gate across the road.  Damn!  I know this isn't "Silent Sunday," so there must be some bicycle event happening.  I looked closer at the sign...

Right there under the "Caution" portion of the sign, it says, "Gate opens at 10:00."  OK, I can kill some time just riding around other parts of the park.  I came across a road on the flats part of the park (before getting to the foothills) that would have been an OK road, if you didn't know what was waiting for you up the mountain...

I headed back towards that gate, getting there at 9:59... there was one car in front of me, and a guy in a City truck who was opening the gate.  There were plenty of bicycles coming down the mountain.  Behind that one car and the City truck, it was a leisurely ride most of the way up; doing the speed limit.

They went straight, and I made the turn onto my favorite section of road here (heading towards the antennas).  Nothing in front of me... no, I didn't "burn up the road," in case there were any bicyclists on those blind curves (and there were a couple).  When I got to the parking lot at the high point, it was completely empty - I stopped to take a photo of that rare event...

Back down the mountain - still very little traffic and a pleasant ride.  I stopped for gas on the way home... this tank was mostly these mountain twisty roads and the 45 mph surface roads to get there... 86.4 mpg.  Good mileage for a ride this entertaining (gas is $4.42/gal).

Nice to get in the breeze on a weekend.  And nice to foil getting foiled.   :-)

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Just because it has been a while: here's a look a Murphy, laying by his Momma...