We were trying to decide where to ride today since there are so many road closures on so many of the routes we do. Sonny suggested our regular Mt. Hamilton Loop but we were unsure about Mines Rd. We had heard maybe it was closed. Turns out other people were curious too. It's been a while since we've done Altamont or Patterson Pass so I kind of wanted to do that. Since we weren't sure and didn't want to go over Hamilton to find Mines was closed and we'd have to climb back over, we decided to start in Livermore and do Del Puerto Canyon and come back on one of the passes. One thing that's not great about the route is the 40-ish miles of crappy farm roads with no shoulder and usually a bad headwind. I wasn't looking forward to that, especially since the last time I did it with Bob, it was the worst! Many kudos to Sonny who found the California Aqueduct Trail last night when he was making the route himself. There's barely a trace on the heatmap and from Streetview, it wasn't clear whether it was bike legal. Seems like the trail hasn't been in use for a while. Still if it was open, it would cut out all the garbage miles pretty much. I was stoked to check this out. At the start of the ride, my legs didn't feel as good as last week. I think I overdid it and still haven't fully recovered. I guess as we climbed Mines they felt better. Fortunately, there weren't any closures. There was one section where the pavement was just fully unsupported underneath as all the dirt had washed away. That was the worst of it really. There were also a few sections were 1-2" deep water was flowing across the road but it was nothing really. The Junction is closed and it doesn't look like it's going to reopen anytime soon which is a real bummer. They're up for sale so I guess it won't be open until the new owners do so... hopefully. Having to wait until Patterson for lunch wasn't ideal as we were all hungry. I even had breakfast at home first and then had second breakfast at McDonald's in Livermore near the start knowing that it would be a while before lunch. We only stopped once for a snack and probably should've stopped at least once more. No water at The Junction and the fire station didn't leave a jug out front either. I heard you can get water next to the building but I've never been able to in the past. Everything was so green and pretty. Plenty of cows and horses. Not as many wildflowers as we'd hoped. There have been more in the past. Del Puerto Canyon wasn't as bumpy and bad as I remembered it but it was much windier than any previous times. In fact it was even windier than the trip into direct headwind later after Patterson. We got passed by this one pickup that had the MOST ridiculous exhaust tip. It must have been 12" at least. It looked like one of those personal garbage cans stuck on the end of the exhaust. After lunch, my legs felt like trash. I don't know why. I hoped they would loosen up but the whole way north on the aqueduct trail, they just didn't want to put out any power. Fortunately, we weren't pushing that hard. Finding the entrance to the trail was slightly tricky as the street we were looking for didn't have a street sign. There are gates periodically and signs that say No Tresspassing. No Loitering. but then there's also a part of the gate to allow people to enter so it was definitely confusing. Along the way we saw people fishing but for the most part, we had the trail all to ourselves. Strava routed us straight through sections where there was no trail to ride. One such section was crossing I-5. Fortunately it wasn't that difficult to figure out how to get to the next section of trail. The trail itself was a little rough. It had a course chip seal. Wish it was a little smoother but honestly can't complain about being away from traffic. Because we were following the aqueduct the whole time, it did get a little monotonous and lost track of where I was a bit. Weirdly, when we finally got to Altamont Pass - I decided I didn't have the legs for Patterson Pass - my legs started to feel better. 150W on the trail sucked but 200+W climbing up Altamont felt good. I don't know why. Because of the lack of headwind back we managed to shave an hour off our total time. Also weird to be returning back and it not being sunset. The last section of Patterson Pass is not very nice in the daylight. It’s much nicer with golden hour lighting or in the dark. 🤣 I forgot, at one point on Del Puerto Canyon, following Bob, I just starting laughing because his bike was making so many squeaks and creaks, it sounded like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Later on the aqueduct trail, I dubbed Sonny, "The Fisherman" because of his noisy hub and the way he pedals but then coasts in a rhythmic fashion like a fisherman casting and reeling.