Our mission - to get to the peak of Mission Peak. I think it was the first time for all of us. The trails were really crowded, surprisingly so. Even more than Marin trails. The climb was steep and sometimes quite loose, sometimes quite bumpy. It was nice to have people cheering us on up. The descent was also steep but nothing crazy... unless you're gravel noobs. Catherine's friends were not happy. I probably had the best setup out of everyone and I was super happy. The views were spectacular too. On the way up, Joshua thought he had bottomed out his front tire and looking at it, it did seem low. On the way down he added air because it was clearly low. By the bottom we decided to throw a tube into it. I think he accidentally grabbed one of Noah's Roadless Tube Tires™. :) I think what really happened is Joshua didn't have enough sealant in the tire and it probably hasn't fully sealed yet ie. needs more sealant and time. Calaveras was just headwind and the descent wasn't much fun since it was all work. Even without a headwind it tends to be work which you never should have to do on a descent. Towards the bottom, the road was blocked with tons of CHP. A big tow truck was parked across the road. Someone must have gone over the edge. The ride up to Sunol was way more pleasant than normal thanks to Alex pulling on the flats into the headwind. In Sunol, we stopped at bistro/bakery. Since I wasn't sure about the food situation, I had made some sandwiches. Weather-wise, it was sunny and warm at times, chilly at other times. I just had a base layer and arm warmers to start but I took those off at the base of Mission Peak. Somehow as the day wore on, I got colder and put the arm warmers back on during our food stop in Sunol. On the way to Pleasanton Ridge, I was cold and wished I had more but as soon as we got into the park, we were climbing but the wind was more at our back too so I got hot again. I think most of us were tired by that point. Noah was struggling to figure out how to open the cattle gates. It was pretty funny. :) We entered from the east side this time, which was new, and did some different trails. It was sort of the best of Pleasanton Ridge and a lot of fun. And other than at the entrance, the park was pretty dead... just the way I like it. All to ourselves. :) Once again, Alex pulled us all home on Niles Canyon. We got back to Fremont and grabbed some food from a taco truck. The sun was going down so I ended up shivering by the end. This is the fourth weekend in a row that I've been shivering at the end of the ride. To warm back up, I did a little sprint on the way back to the car, then Alex and I did a mini sprint race in the parking lot... that I won. Yeah!