Del Valle Rd climb

Stats (according to Strava, take with appropriate grain of salt):
    Distance: 18.03 mi (29 km)
    Elevation: 1001 ft (305.1 m)
    Moving time: 1:35
    Max speed: 36.9 mph (59.4 km/h)

Bike: 2005 Trek 1000, 700Cx25 tires


Highlight of the ride: Rattlesnake!

S texted earlier this week to resume our occasional climb up Del Valle Rd outside
of town, which includes a climb of roughly 1000' over 1.5 mi, for an average grade
of 7%. It's a nice road, with very wide shoulders and is thus very popular for
rides in the area. 

The only issue is that I haven't ridden in over a year, and I haven't done this climb
(or anything like it) in 18 months. To wit: I am out of shape.

The initial ride out was fine, nice and flat, with virtually no traffic of any sort. 
S wanted to take a short stop for water and adjustments before we began the big climb, 
then we headed in to the belly of the beast. 

It hurt.

S was still in pretty good shape and dropped me quickly, but I had to drop to bottom gear
and really gut it out (my lingering cold did not help). I was barely at a walking pace for
much of the climb, and ended up taking 18 minutes to the top (my previous best was 14:11).

At the top, we were greeted with green hills for the first time in years, with the marine
layer of low clouds still hugging the hills on the opposite side of the valley. The lake
is higher than it's been in years, and provided a nice deep blue contrast to the clouds. 

After some time for snacks, pictures, and chatting with a few drivers who were either 
curious or lost, we headed back down the hill (the payoff for all the work). About 1/3 of the
way down we passed a climbing cyclist who was pointing down the hill, but we didn't know
why. A bit further we saw a truck pulled onto the shoulder, so I moved out to pass him at a
safe distance. The driver was out, and also pointing at something on the road.

A snake. A large rattlesnake, to be exact, probably close to 6 ft/2 m in length. It was heading
across the warm pavement, and was in the uphill lane heading away from me, which was good as I
was near my top speed and had no chance of stopping with the rim brakes on this bike. 

Once down the hill we had a good chat about our wildlife sighting as we headed back towards town. 
Once we got back, we encountered a flood of riders in the opposite direction, on some sort of
organized ride/race. We also hit a pretty stiff south wind that the hills had been previously
sheltering us from, so our usual coast back to S's house was a slog, but we still finished in
a time not far off our usual pace, played with his dogs for a minute, then I was off to home
and a nice warm shower.