I was unsure about going at first because weekends are normally reserved for doing long rides and the plan for UCSC was not long. Plus Hwy 17 is annoying and it was quite annoying today. But, since I did a longer ride yesterday, I felt like I could justify not doing a long ride today and it was TONS of fun and sometimes scary. Nothing brings me joy the way MTBing on singletrack through the forest does. Everyone else was filled with joy too so extra delightful. UCSC was pretty busy though. It felt like I was riding in Marin. We did Magic Carpet, Sweetness, and Mailboxes. I've done Mailboxes once before and had to walk all the technical parts but rode them this time which felt great. Especially the waterfall rock garden, which when I got to the bottom and looked back up, it was so gnarly, I would've NEVER ridden it if you asked me then but I did it. It took me a couple tries but I did it. I don't often get scared but the technical section before the rock garden, and the rock garden itself, were quite scary. Suzanne was quite pleased to hear that I was scared. :) As far as I know, I haven't done Magic Carpet or Sweetness. They were both tons of fun. I also got to see Frankie casually jump a double which I don't think I've ever seen in person before, just in videos. It was very impressive. Those trails were more technical and steeper than Flow but very satisfying. Following Frankie on Mailboxes, I was remembering the time we were riding in Monte Bello and Frankie was leading with Irene following but she was on her gravel bike while Frankie (and I) were on MTBs. In my head, I was thinking, don't follow what Frankie's doing, Irene. You're on a gravel bike. He was ripping it and unfortunately Irene slid out in a fast and slippery corner. I made sure to be aware of where Frankie was going because he was taking the gap jumps and I was definitely not going to. Overall, this was the most technical ride I've done. Post ride lunch was at Taqueria Los Pericos which everyone seemed to know about and thought was good. I can now add to that and say it was very good.