Took Irene to one of my favorite parks for fun, easy, and scenic gravel that's great for all skill levels. We actually started off really slowly - all of us were feeling tired. And the original plan was to go up to the peak but I floated the idea of skipping it, or seeing how we felt when we got there, when we met in the parking lot. We got there and decided to do the loop and if we felt like it on the way back, we'd do it. We didn't. On the way out, I was leading and didn't take many photos. On the way back, I realized, I could still be out front and stop to take photos because I was getting far enough ahead. Once Robin got to the front, chasing back wasn't so easy and towards the end, it felt like we were in an XC race. That's back-to-back days of intense photo intervals. :) We came across a hiker with her dogs that wasn't sure which way to get back to the parking lot. Both directions would've brought her back but then I thought about how far it would be for her to continue forward, short by bike standards but long by hiking standards, I told her to turn around. Then near the end, we ran into a group of hikers who didn't know where the parking lot was either. I stopped to help them. I was mentioning all these different landmarks to figure out which of the three parking lots they were parked at. They didn't know what I was talking about but they did mention the lot that wasn't concrete and there's only one that isn't paved. They were hiking away from it. I got them sorted too. Chasing back to catch up to Irene and Robin, I was thinking, maybe I should've ridden the Epic EVO after all. The Stumpy has better traction which is nice in the dry and dusty (loose) conditions of trails. When I caught back up, they were stopped and talking to a couple with their horses. I guess the couple had run into the group of hikers that couldn't find the parking lot too. Speaking of dry, on our way to the San Vicente parking lot, it was starting to rain very lightly. When we got to the parking to get water, it seemed like it was going to start raining for real but luckily, it was just some random drops that only lasted for a few minutes. At the top of the second last climb before returning to the parking lot, I saw some singletrack heading towards the parking lot. I didn't see any signs (saying no bikes allowed) so we decided to try it. It was pretty bumpy - fine and fun on the MTB but felt bad for Irene on her gravel bike. The great thing is it was a descent and skipped the last steep climb. It was overcast mostly so the temperature was perfect the whole ride.