Into the Canyon

Despite a mediocre soaring forecast, a warm late fall day resides over Northern California and I take an opportunity to enjoy it outdoors at Mount Diablo. I punch off the Tower Launch into an eerily calm trickle of upslope flow after emptying all unnecessary harness baggage. I can see an inversion below launch and drive straight for Eagle Peak without hitting a bump. At Eagle, I hook some weak lift just above the peak, working my way over the West slope slightly higher.
Able to maintain, I work back towards the face attempting to grab a ticket up.
I fall below the top and crank small cores working ever closer to that steep rock wall.
Then all of a sudden, over the falls, wire twang, then sink, then twang again, then twang. Eagle Peak is certainly no stranger to turbulence around an inversion, but come on, this is rough and it is late October. I move towards open air and a place you don't want to get low in, a place with continual sink and not a single LZ; towards Mithchell Canyon.
The rock and roll fades and the sink lightens as I make may way through.
Once out of the Canyon I hook a nice little thermal above the foothills and notice some drift.
The Quarry flag is showing East. Ah ha, light wind at launch casually alluded me to descend below the inversion into East flow directly behind a big pile of steep mountain called Eagle Peak. Woops, I flew into rotor ... well I'm in clean air now so I might as well enjoy the light burbles before heading out, towards Mitchell LZ.
Bumps and crosswind as expected on approach.
But, that is what legs are for, as I keep my glider and body off the ground. A nice late fall day despite a poor choice at Eagle. Hey, maybe if I picked the East face I would still be in the air flying and not on the computer blogging.