I've been wanting to ride Henry Coe forever but no one else has wanted to go. Everyone usually complains that it's too steep or too hot or too far away. I had the day off and I was going to tick it off my list one way or another. I had seen Mike ride there a couple times recently and it looked gorgeous. I definitely wanted to go before the hills started drying up and turning yellow and brown. I was also hoping to catch the wildflowers. And another great reason, to go before it gets too hot. The weather was perfect today. The wildflowers were blooming but it was not a super bloom unfortunately. Still very pretty though. Luckily Mike was free to guide us on his curated route. The stats make it look like it'll be miserable but he's put together a route where most of the climbing is pretty pleasant and it doesn't feel as climbing heavy as you would expect. The highlight was all the amazing singletrack. The one thing I wish wasn't so long - The Narrows. Supposedly it's a trail but really it's a river bed where the water level has dropped significantly but there's still water to cross. The reason we took it was to avoid a super nasty steep climb - "The Wall". While The Narrows was very pretty we had to do a lot of bushwhacking and rock climbing, carrying our bikes over a lot of uneven and loose rocks. It went on for about a mile. I thought it was going to be shorter. I guess the good thing was I managed to keep my feet dry. I was expecting to have to do some water crossings and get wet. I was surprisingly tired at the end of that hike-a-carry-a-bike and at one point I was doing full on rock climbing moves to get around a boulder. I can only imagine The Wall must be psychopathic if doing this hike was better than it. I wish I could've gotten more shots through all the singletrack but it wasn't usually one of those times where it was safe to take photos and ride. It was often narrow with a pretty good drop off - pretty exposed.