Dawg Size Increaser
Eric Marshall has ventured into some of the deepest, weirdest parts of Northern California to sample cutty routes throughout the upper part of the Golden State, especially surrounding his home zone of Oakland, California, and he's shared this forbidden knowledge in the pages of his self-published Low Pressure zine.
When Eric announced a ride around Mount Diablo on a really tuff-looking route called the Dawg Size Increaser (published in his route book Where Is This Fool Going), I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
69 miles and 10,000 feet of vert. That's what enticed me to the Dawg Size Increaser. I've been doing longer routes on my SuperSomething and feeling pretty capable of accomplishing some hefty mileage, but most of it is in my own backyard. The Dawg Size Increaser circumnavigates Mt. Diablo counterclockwise, so it's all new territory to me. Definitely worth blocking off a full Saturday and letting my inner dawg run free.
Oh yeah, and Eric rides a SuperSomething. That's his Large V1 in Honey Dijon, set up with Microshift and a dynamo light. My XL V2 in Golden Hills is on the left.
About a dozen people showed up at the Walnut Creek BART station at 9:30 on Saturday. We all rolled out together, but the group got broken up pretty quickly as soon as we hit dirt. I ended up riding with a group of six folks for the rest of the day, and they were all crushers.
The route was hard as hell. I initially thought that 69 miles and 10k was totally doable for road and gravel miles, but a lot of those miles aren't easy road burn – they consist of super-steep dirt road climbs in Shell Ridge, some truly gnarly singletrack at Oyster Point, remote rolling hills in Morgan Territory, alien landscapes in Black Diamond Mines, and then a slog through the windswept backcountry and a massive climb up Mitchell Canyon.
Luis was riding a touring hardtail, which was the right call for this route. The Dawg Size Increaser is pretty rugged, so I think I would've been a bit happier on my PBJ rather than my SuperSomething. Of course, I was still able to ride everything, but when I do it again, I'm going to choose the PBJ instead.
The five of us who remained called it quits after 58 miles and 8500 ft of climbing. We bailed out in a town called Clayton which had a neighborhood market with a nice selection of snacks. I was shelled. I wolfed down a bag of Fritos and guzzled an Icee (half cherry, half Coca-Cola). Then we rolled to the Concord BART station and took the train back to Walnut Creek.
About the Route
Here's the complete route from Eric. You can find this route and many more in his book, Where Is This Fool Going.
What We Actually Rode
Here's the route we rode on Saturday. We skipped the last ten miles and 1500 feet of elevation at the end. The Icee stop in Clayton is crucial!
If you feel inclined to go full Hard Mode and increase the size of your inner dawg, this route is really fun and challenging. No pressure, though – just do what feels best for you and have fun!