Today was the culmination of a bunch of plans. Tony has been wanting to do a gravel ride for a while now and every time he's asked, I've already had plans. I've been wanting to ride Wilder Ranch and Forest of Nisene Marks for a while. And I've been wanting to demo a Stumpjumper too. So I put together this route and booked a demo on a future date that Tony thought he could ride. My thinking was that this ride could be done on a gravel bike but it is definitely more fun on a MTB. I couldn't decide whether I was going to make a ride call for this and people sort of just joined by word of mouth organically and the group got big enough that a ride call wasn't necessary. I was originally going to ride with Kat and Gene but Kat was doing a trail day. I mentioned I was going down to Santa Cruz and Mike asked to join and he invited Monica, Olena, and Simon. Tony was able to come and brought Josh along. Tony was the only one on a gravel bike while everyone else was on MTBs. He held his own pretty well considering how gnarly some of the stuff we did would be on a gravel bike. It wasn't my plan to demo an S-Works Stumpy but it was the only one available in S2. The reason I wanted to demo the bike is the latest generation Stumpy was released a month after I got my Epic EVO. The previous Stumpy didn't meet all my criteria but the new one did and I'm pretty sure I would've gotten it instead of the Epic EVO. So it was time to see if that were true. I was very impressed with the Specialized Santa Cruz Experience Center. I thought I would just get the bike and have to set it up myself but the bike was mostly setup for me already and they went through and adjusted the brake position and installed my pedals for me. The only thing I had to do was set up the saddle height. They wanted me to adjust it on the trail with the dropper - never a great idea since you run the risk of having it too high at the wrong moment. Once I set the saddle height the bike felt dialed. Speaking of the saddle and dropper. The AXS dropper likes to go back to its fully extended position in a very vigorous and enthusiastic way. Luckily I never got punched in the butt by it. Immediately, I love the Stumpy. I can actually stand over it unlike the Epic EVO. And rolling on the road to the trail, it felt pretty fast, as fast as the Epic EVO, and not draggy. Did I notice the extra weight on the climbs? Maybe? Actually I think the weight I was noticing was in the tires and not the overall. Turning was definitely a bit sluggish and heavy. I haven't been back since the heavy rains and like most trails, really bad, deep ruts were carved into some of them. I didn't think that was going to be an issue and that Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz would've maintained all the trails. I was surprised that wasn't the case. There were deep ruts descending Eucalyptus Loop but I felt kind of invincible on the Stumpy. I was way more confident and comfortable navigating the ruts than on my Epic EVO. Part of that could be in my head but I do think the tires, although they're heavier, did have better traction. I felt better in switchbacks and just in general. At one point Monica slowed for a rough and bumpy switchback on Engleman Loop. I saw the beginnings of a trail people had created that cut down to the trial and skipped the switchback and I just decided to take it. Something I don't know that I would've felt comfortable doing on the Epic EVO. Gene and Mike split off to do Mailboxes, while the rest of did one of my favorite, flowy trails, Old Cabin. I didn't remember how steep the climb back out was though. The coast was super gorgeous with wildflowers blooming and a nice cool breeze. The day was already starting get pretty warm and the breeze was very welcome. Climbing back up Baldwin Loop was kind of brutal. It was hot and most of us were getting pretty hungry. I think we all underestimated how long we'd be out there before getting food and didn't bring enough. I was excited to do Enchanted Loop to see if I could clear the only tough drops of the day that I thought people might need to walk, especially gravel riders. I rolled in and cleared the first drop right away but just barely. It wasn't quite as I remembered it and I didn't take a great line and slipped a little on the rock but kept it upright. All the step downs after seemed to have gotten bigger too but it was nothing for the Stumpy. I came up to the last root garden drop and chickened out again. From above it looks so gnarly but once you go down and look up, there are some obvious lines to take. Some more climbing in the sun to get to the top. I was really hungry at that point and didn't have much in the tank so I was climbing pretty slowly. Getting back to the shaded singletrack was very welcome. It was one of my favorite parts of the ride too. Nice and flowy and the light was so beautiful. Somewhere before we got halfway through all the singletrack, Olena mentioned that it was 4:11p and I had to return the bike by 5p. I booked it ahead because I really wasn't sure how far away I was. The singletrack went on for much longer than I expected. When I eventually came back out to Chinquapin (fire) Rd. I was only at the water tanks. Even the descent down U-CON and Emma McCrary seemed to go on for way longer than I expected. I made it back with 20 min. to spare. We finally got to eat around the corner at Woodhouse. Weird menu and unfortunately there was a live band playing loudly. I really don't like live music while I'm eating. Everyone just sat there eating there food because it was too loud to talk. I love the Stumpjumper. I believe there's going to be an Epic EVO for sale soon. :)