Today was a great day for mountain biking. The weather was just right. In the upper 60's, winds from the North West. I went to SS today. I went down the local fire road for the first time. My first impression was lasting. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The one constant about the ride was that the road was not too technical in that it was wide enough and easy to negotiate turns and such. I had to ride over 3 miles just to get to the start of the dirt road. For the first couple minutes, I was captivated by the scenery. About 3 minutes into the descent, I came across a fence. It spanned across the path and had a chain around it. There was a sign posted on the right side. I wasn't sure what to make of it. At first I thought, great... I have to turn around after such a promising start. Upon further observation, I noticed that the No Trespassing sign was for a different road. The chain that appeared to be securing the fence was unlocked. So, I looked around and decided to open the fence and continued down the path. The terrain was mostly downhill, but some undulations here and there. Being that this was only the second time going off-road, I was cautious. The road was safe, but had some tricky turns with loose sand. I was more cautious than usual. As soon as I got onto the dirt road, I took note of the distance and kept the number in mind so that I can calculate about 6 miles into the dirt road, and that would be my turn-around point. There were several photographic moments, so I took the opportunity to photograph them with my smart phone. While on the topic of the smart phone, it wouldn't start the live tracking app till the last half of the ride. I actually had good reception on parts of the dirt road. I was captivated by the scenery. Around every turn, there seemed to be photographic moments. I was thinking to myself that this looks like a wild animal park, somewhere far away from civilization. I did spot some wild cows, lots of squirrels, insects. I'd be willing to bet there a ton of other animals out there like hawks, deer, mountain lions, maybe even bears. When I reached about 9.7 miles, I decided to turn around. I wasn't sure how it was going to feel, but I knew I was in for some serious pedal stomping moments. Luckily, there was a tailwind on the ascent. The climb was what I had hoped for. It was challenging! I found myself in the smallest gear on several occasions. Some of which, I had to mash the pedals to my maximum. Fortunately, I was able to get out of the saddle for a few seconds. Otherwise, it was in the saddle stomping. The neat thing was that just as I was at my maximum, the gradient let off and aloud me to recover. This was more or less the same till I got back to the pavement. The most difficult part was the return on the pavement. It got upwards of 14%. Again, in the saddle, smallest gear, mashing the pedals as hard as I could go. Even tacking. After that, it was smooth sailing and back to the car. Concentration was much different than the road rides. Mostly attentive to handling the bike over the dirt paths. Ailments were none. Balance and form felt good. Although my left shoe may need some adjustment to all for greater heal out positioning. Gear worked good. Although, there was some issues with the shifting. When I put it into the middle of the cassette, and have the power down, I noticed the chain jumping between two gears. It only happens on the middle geaers. Also, there's a bit of grinding sound when I'm in the smaller gears. I'm guessing it's due to the chain stretching on the opposing cassette gears and chain rings. With the exception of the Live Tracking app. It wouldn't start at the beginning of the ride. Only, until I was at the turn-around point was I able to successfully start it. My Gopro camera stopped recording around 2 hours and some odd minutes. When I heard the stoppage beep, I replaced the battery with a spare. Unfortunately, the spare was not charged, so I lost part of the coverage. But only after I made it back to the pavement. Other notes, I saw a tarantula as I was making my way down to the start of the trail. I was able to take some photos.