I recently had a birthday - let's not worry about which particular one - so it's time for a Diablo Birthday Reference Hike, with the goal of assessing my physical decline. To be honest, in the ~15 years I've been doing this there hasn't been a decline, until last year's debacle when I did it at night with Rob and it hurt like hell.

Anyway. I head up there with my friends S and M. It's a perfect day - mid 60s, cooler at the top. I set a brisk but not frenetic pace. Seth and I take the steep short-cut from Prospector's Gap to the summit, and arrive right around the 2:30 mark.

On the trail, everyone has a mask which they pull up when passing. At the top, everyone has a mask except for a slack-jawed yokel (we'll call him 'Cletus') and his mouth-breathing family. There's a 'masks required' sign on the lighthouse door, which they ignore. Even though there are other people inside. Probably a QAnon type.

We meet S back to Prospector's Gap and descend together, which takes a speedy 2:15.

The ascent feels easy because of my bike-ride conditioning. Nothing hurts on the descent, though my lower body is generally sore. I go for a short bike ride later that night and am pretty much normal the next day.

So I seem to still be in good shape. We'll see about next year. This can't keep up forever.