Going into this bikepacking trip, I really wanted to pack lighter. Kind of hard to do when my camping gear took up 3 of the 4 bags. I was hoping to not have to use the dry bag on the cradle but the fork bags were essentially full. The Aeroe pods aren't really designed in a way that makes cramming things into them that easy. So, I ended up packing an extra bag and putting my food in the dry bag. We had a late start, getting to the meet point about an hour late, and then people were still packing so we didn't getting rolling until around 3p - almost the same time as when we started our previous Truckee bikepacking trip last year. The plan was for 4 days/3 nights doing a figure 8, first heading south of Truckee, and then back north staying at Sardine Peak again, this time climbing from the backside. This was Karoun's first time bikepacking and he was borrowing Lukas' bike and some of his gear. This was also Peter's second time (I believe) and, along with Emily and Daylen, were all on gravel bikes. Ali and I were on our XC MTBs which were much better suited to the rocky trails, I think. The chunkiness of the gravel reminded me of Iceland. Before we left the start, Peter felt like his rear tire might be low but after some testing, decided it was okay. Well, 2.5 miles later, we stopped because he felt the tire was moving around too much (side-to-side). He tried Lukas' pump at first but it didn't seem to be working and accidentally deflated the whole thing. Then he tried my pump but it was also not working. We thought maybe the tire got unseated when it deflated. Two guys were riding by and asking if we needed any help. I jokingly yelled, "You wouldn't happen to have a floor pump?" And they actually did. They were parked nearby. They totally saved the day as the floor pump worked in getting his tire re-inflated. Riding the day before, my legs were feeling tired and I wasn't sure how they were going to feel for the trip. Well they hadn't recovered and when we got to the trails, it started off on a steep climb with very thick and soft wood chips that made pedaling even harder. On the climbs, all I could do was go as slowly as possible in my granny gear. I just couldn't push. Not having the top end made navigating the technical sections that much harder as I'd redline from the effort. Sawtooth Trail was quite rocky and in parts of it was just rocks but I had fun. Emily was thinking next time of doing Sawtooth Rd. instead but I think take MTBs next time instead of doing the boring fire road. The long climb up to Watson Lake Campground reminded me of our previous trip where on day one, we had to climb up to Sardine Peak. Both times we were doing it right around sunset, getting to our destination right after sunset again. And the climb felt similarly hard but at least Sawtooth Rd. was less bumpy than Sardine Peak. Ali and I climbed together while everyone else was off in the distance. That's how almost all our climbs went this trip. When we got to the campground, it looked like there was an open site we could take but apparently it was part of someone's site and all the other sites were taken. Our main concern was finding a bear locker to store our food. The person offered to make room in their locker if we camped by the beach were there was some overflow area. The overflow area must be a party area because there was broken glass everywhere. Everyone mostly setup outside of it where there was still glass but a lot less of it. After dinner, we collected all our food to take to the locker. Everyone else's food combined fit into one dry bag the size of my bag of food. I was thinking, I really brought too much stuff. The campground is on a nice little lake and next to the Tahoe Rim Trail. I forgot to add earlier that the Donner Camp Picnic Ground where we started from has a sign saying it's sponsored by The Wong Family (same as last year). Emily pointed out the sign to Peter and he started saying hi to what he thought was my(?) family. He said he couldn't see because he didn't have his glasses on and just saw people in the distance. I was like, "How did you drive here then?!?!?" He brushed that question aside. :) And one more thing, sometimes when Peter is nervously laughing he also looks like he's about to cry, similar to that kid in the meme that goes from happy to crying. On the rocky trail we heard some anguished cries from someone in the woods and I yelled, "Peter, is that you laughing?"