Attempting summer adventures in the winter to make adventuring more adventurous. I've been wanting to check out Old Haul and Butano Fire Rd. for a while now having not ridden them since the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. I couldn't get a crew together until now. I had to shortened the route because of the shorter days but really it was more than enough ride for everyone. I timed it so that we should've gotten back by sunset but Emily, Anthony, and Douglas had some bike rack issues and ended up being quite late. We started nearly an hour later than planned. It worked out since it was foggy at the beginning but all that burned off and it was just sunny and blue skies when we started... That is until we descended down below the cloud cover. We were stopping a lot to take photos which I normally would've loved but was stressed about starting late and trying to make up time. Pescadero Creek County Park wasn't as cold as I was expecting it to be. Everything was going great, it was beautiful as always, until we got on Bridge Trail and found the bridge for the trail had been taken out by a tree. It was still there but the bridge deck was tilted at a 30-45 degree angle. I asked people if they wanted to reroute but everyone seemed game to cross. What made it hard was the deck was really slippery and the tree that was laying across the bridge making it awkward to get the bike over it, especially since the bridge was tilted. Fortunately, everyone made it across and we continued on our way. Old Haul was in great shape. I thought it might be muddy but it wasn't. We got to see the Dark Gulch stream crossing repair for the first time. Last pictures I saw of it, it was a giant hole in the ground. Honestly, I can't remember what it looked like before anymore. It feels out of place compared to the rest of the trail since it's this wide open space with white gravel instead of dirt. The gravel wasn't as bad or didn't seem as thick as I heard it would be. Because we started late, I was going to cut out going to Pescadero but everyone seemed interested in going and getting some artichoke bread so we made the stop anyway. I'm pretty happy that we did because the sandwich I got really helped later. By the time we got to Butano Fire Rd. the sun was out and it got warm. I ended up taking off all the extra layers down to shorts and short sleeves. Mostly the trail was in good condition. A lot of new growth sprouting up next to the burnt trees. There was a lot of branches on the ground and the ground itself was quite soft and not compacted since no one's really been on it. It made riding a little more difficult as it felt like riding in sand a little bit. Strangely, the sandy section, wasn't sandy anymore. I guess the rains helped. Rachel's friend Roger was having leg cramps early on during the climb unfortunately. Most of us were getting pretty tired towards the top but we still had Hwy 236 to climb. Hwy 236 out of Big Basin was super fun. There were still some cars unfortunately and we did come around a corner and were surprised by some cyclists coming the other way. The climb up Hwy 236/Hwy 9 was tough. I should've taken it easier but I kinda went for it and the climb was longer than I remember. About halfway I started to slow and power dropped so I knew things were bad. All I wanted to do was get to the top so I could eat. By the time we got to Hwy 9 and Skyline, it was about 30 minutes to sunset and it was getting cold. We decided to stay on the trail for as long as we could. After the first section, Roger decided to take Skyline. Once we got into Long Ridge, the sunset was so gorgeous we ended up doing a photo shoot for a while. When Emily decided to pull out her drone, Rachel, Anthony and I decided to keep going. Jamie decided to take Skyline at that point. Emily and Douglas hung out and turns out Emily lost her drone when the battery died before it could return. Turns out she had it a mile out. The three of us caught the sunset up on the ridge and then and a super fun time on the trails in the dark. I didn't expect to enjoy bombing the trails so much. It was going really good until we hit the last couple of really steep pitches in Skyline Ridge. I was hoping they were going to be north of our planned exit on to Skyline (to avoid them). I thought I was going to die. My legs had been wrecked for a while but I muscled through it. The last bit on Skyline was super easy. We didn't even have any cars. If we hadn't left late, we would've made it back for sunset. No biggie in the end though. In the end, Rachel, Anthony, and I did the most dirt as everyone else took Skyline back from Saratoga Gap and skipped Long Ridge and Skyline Ridge. What a great ride. I was very thankful for everyone he came and shared it with me.