What an epic day! We went up to Yosemite for the bike-only Tioga Pass opening, which happened to be on a beautiful weekend this year. In the past, it's been earlier and colder, and during the midweek. The original plan was to do road Saturday and dirt Sunday. Given that Sunday would be warmer and the road ride would be at higher elevation, we chose to swap them. It ended up being the better choice because the dirt route was harder. We read about this secret, dirt way, into Yosemite, one that didn't end up having any other cyclists than us! There were some 4x4s and hikers though. Still we virtually had it all to ourselves. :) The person that wrote about this route did it on a road bike with 28mm tires. It ended up being gnarlier than we expected. A lot like Old Railroad Grade in terms of the riding surface with some sections having really deep ruts. Two of the guys did bring road bikes. Albert T impressively rode it like he was on a gravel bike. Albert L had worn 26mm tires that gave him 3 flats and eventually had to get driven out by a Forest Services truck. In general, it was no place for a road bike. This was a ride where we had to be entirely self-sufficient. Joshua brought his water filter and we got to refill our bottles with delicious Yosemite creek water. Which we got to do often when people were getting flat tires. The ride starts off right away with a pretty long climb (Bull Creek Rd.) with views of the Merced River. After that it rolls through the forest with gorgeous views of the mountains until you make the hairpin turn on to Old Yosemite Rd. - an even longer, steeper climb that takes you up to the top of the ridgeline where you stay until you descend down in to Yosemite. The gravel got chunkier in the latter parts of the ride with more and more trees downed and partially obstructing the trail. But overall, the descents were tons of fun - nothing crazy technical, just send it! The air temp most of the day was a little chilly but it was balanced by the warmth of the sun. As we got closer to Yosemite, the trail had more and more tree cover. Without the sun, I started to get cold and had to borrow Joshua’s jacket. I have to say it saved me. Once we got in to Yosemite, it was already dinner time and we hadn’t even made it to our lunch stop of El Portal. We really had to rush to get back before sunset. Everyone was pretty tired and hungry by then. Most of the group decided to take the road route that exits the park gates onto Hwy 140. Catherine and I decided to do the originally planned dirt descent and YEET back in to the valley. The stoke was SO high. It was a gorgeous trail, wild, overgrown trail at sunset just for the two of us. We couldn’t ask for anything better. In the article, they talked about a bridge under a waterfall. We encounter a few of them and these would’ve been the highlight in any park. But early on, we saw a sign saying the road/trail was closed and that the bridge was out. We had already descended and didn’t really want to climb back out so we continued on hoping it would still be passable by bike or hike. We came to the first bridge that crossed under a stunning waterfall and found the guardrails were missing but it was otherwise safe to pass. We stopped to take pictures, and again many times down the trail because it was simply too pretty not to. As we continued on the trail became more and more overgrown from lack of use. It was truly an amazing adventure and the stoke just kept going up. Eventually we hit the bridge they were saying was out. It too crossed underneath another beautiful waterfall but there was no deck or guardrails to speak of. Just some cross beams and a few 2x4s making up a narrow path that meander across. I asked Catherine if she wanted me to go first to which she replied, “I don’t want to witness you dying.”, so she crossed first. :) She looked down between the beams while crossing and, while not being afraid of heights was pretty unhappy about the drop. I was so focused on staying on the beam, I didn’t even see what the drop was like. :) Suffice it to say we made it across safely. We eventually made it down to El Portal and the valley and we were pretty tired and it was getting cold. It was also getting close to sunset. The ride back along Hwy 140 seemed to take forever and I think we ended up making it back to the start about 30 minutes after the other group. On the way back, my Garmin ran out of juice and I lost the last 2 miles. :( That wasn’t the end of the journey though. We had a Vehicle Day Use pass that we intended to activate, and had to activate, on Saturday to be valid to use the next day. So we drove about 30 minutes back to the park gate to activate it before heading home to shower and finally eat dinner. We didn’t end up eating until 11-11:30p. I was so out of it at dinner, especially being down a meal for the day. I tried to go out to unpack my bike but it was so cold, I was, NOPE! I didn’t remember all the food and wrappers I had left in the bar bag until the morning. Luckily my bike didn’t get mauled by bears! :) I would totally do that ride again! So much fun!