Ali wanted to ride today and from her birthday hike on Saturday I knew the trails were in amazing condition so of course we had to ride them. It was another one of those beautiful days... if there wasn't any wind chill. Before the start, I got a text from Emily saying she might have a ride ending mechanical. Her drivetrain was seized up and she couldn't see anything that might be causing it. Luckily, it seemed to fix itself and she could ride. That was a good thing because, despite having the route, I still managed to miss several turns early on in the ride. One, I was just enjoying the flowing downhill so much I kept on going and blasted right past the turn. Embarrassing. Ride leader status - revoked. I was stoked to clear some of the rooty, rocky, tech on the route that I hadn't before. For one of the root sections I cleared Emily thought it was because they had “fixed it”. Thanks! Thanks a lot, Emily for diminishing my accomplishments. 😂 She told me I like to keep it real so she was being real. Yeah! A real JEERRKKK!!! 🤣🤣🤣 Honestly I wouldn’t want it any other way. I was also stoked Ali finally got to ride city dirt on her MTB. Lukas, unfortunately wasn't as stoked as the rest of us. Hoping he'll get there. Between Twin Peaks and Laguna Honda, we go up and over Cityview Way. Emily was grinding her way up to the top so of course I had to do a tiny sprint to nab the crest! Glorious!!! Steep Ravine Trail is my favorite part of the route. Fun and flowy and pretty. We did a bonus loop that I've never done before and managed to get a branch stuck in my rear wheel that actually wound itself around the hub between my spokes and the cassette. The part of the branch that was sticking out actually broke off but I was able to unwind it the rest of it pretty easily, luckily. At the end of the ride, we were just following Emily without really knowing where we were going. When Ali asked her, I just told Ali that, "It's Emily's world. I'm just Emily." It's been months of following Emily's plans. Emily was heading to Gaby's to help her move. We parted ways and Ali and I took some park dirt back to my car before she had to go back to work. Grateful to Emily and Ali, both separately checking in on me, even if it didn't feel like the right time for me to get into it. Lukas, however... KIDDING!!! 🤣