It was Natalie's first proper MTB ride and it was good one. She was slowly enjoying it more and more but the switchover from focusing on not dying to just enjoying it, happened on Trail 84, 2/3 of the way into the ride. From then on, the stoke was high! So many trails are closed because of last week's rain that I thought Fort Ord would actually be good and I was right. Hero sand! Because of the moisture in the sand, it was way more evident how much sand there is on the trails at the moment. Most of the trails were in amazing conditions but even the ones that were rutted from the rains or the ones with a lot of braking bumps were still a lot of fun! It was also fun guiding Robin and Noah through the trails, giving them pointers, shouting motivational affirmations over my shoulder at Robin for some of the more technical bits, willing her on and she cleared almost everything. Our plan was to lunch stop at Natalie's fave, Castle Rock Cafe & Mercantile, but they closed just before we got there. Google lied about their holiday hours! Somehow, I survived the whole day with just the one Skratch bar for lunch. I wasn't hungry until the drive back but there wasn't really anywhere to go. I've never been able to clear the start of Trail 32, so this time we sessioned. Even then, I messed up the first time by cleared it the second time. It wasn't stylish but I did it! There were also a couple trails we climbed that looked like they'd be a lot of fun to descend and we almost turned around to go back down them. Trail 49 was one of them for sure that I need to modify the route to add. I think the other one was Trail 78 maybe? Today was just so much fun I want to go back already. I hate that two of my favorite places to ride (Calero County & Fort Ord), with their fun and flowy trails and gradual climbs, are so far away.