Savor the shade. Savor the grade. 🥰 Super hot but also super fun! More adventures for Emily on her new MTB. Everyone was going to be on trail bikes so I thought I'd see what the loop was like on my Stumpjumper even though I would normally do it on my Epic EVO. At first I thought it was maybe a mistake since climbing on road is better on the Epic EVO. But then I think the heat was just too much and I didn't really feel like putting in much of an effort. I was thinking the Stumpy is more fun on the descents but is it that much more fun compared to how it felt on the climbs? The Stumpy doesn't normally feel slower climbing dirt than the Epic EVO. I chalk it up to the heat and later not eating enough. But the descents were a lot more fun. I'll have to take the Stumpy on the loop again when it's not so hot. Also maybe because of the heat but I found the wider bars fatiguing on the arms towards the end of the ride. I also felt like I was starting to get blisters on my hands. It didn't help that we start an hour late. Emily and Boris were late and I had to make a side trip to Bob's to pick up a water bottle cage for Emily because I forgot to bring one like she asked me to. Glad Bob was able to help out because today was too hot not to have enough water. It was warm right from the start and Emily had a long sleeve on but later but a flannel on on top. I'm still incredulous and overheating thinking about it right now but she rode a lot of the ride with the flannel on. It's all about the fashun, people! At the bottom of John Nicholas Trail, we ran into Tony and Joe. Saw them later on the trail and when we got water at Castle Rock. All the climbing up front is not fun but by the time we got to Long Ridge, the stoke was coming back. So many nice flowy downhills once you've gotten to the top. But then we got to Skyline Ridge with brutally steep climbs, fully exposed in the midday sun and heat. Luckily the water stop on Page Mill had cold water and we soaked our heads. It helped so much. Later when we climbed up to the top of Bella Vista Trail, we adopted the mantra, "Savour the shade, savour the grade." ie. we tootle on the flatter trail in the cool shade for as long as we could. Boris did pretty well considering he hasn't been riding much at all. Unfortunately it caught up a little towards the end of the ride, going down Canyon Trail there's that left tight corner that's got a lot of loose gravel. I was going to give a warning about it but since he was behind me, I just slowed right down to make sure we went through it safely. On the exit though, his front tire washed out and he went down - the only incident of the day. A scratched his arms but nothing major. The big loser in the crash was his Garmin - completely smashed. I think the descents just got better and better throughout the day. Or I was getting looser and having more and more fun. Bonus, we were expecting to have a water crossing and get our feet wet at the bottom of Canyon Trail but the water wasn't too high and there were logs setup to walk across and stay dry. Not great, lots of poison oak and thistle weed. UPDATE: I did get a blister. 😢