"A brief summary of our epic attempt of the 4 peaks of the Bay Area" By Devin, Carlos and Luis.

Peaks Planned (4) Mt. Tamalpais, Mt. Diablo, Mt. Hamilton, Mt. Umunhum. 285 Miles, 23,000 ft.

Peaks Completed (3) Mt. Tamalpais, Mt. Diablo, Mt. Hamilton. 189 Miles, 16,914 ft.

Director/DP Evan Molyneaux 
Stills Photography Bryan Banducci 
PA Sofia Krivoruchko

I heard about this ride thru Devin and always thought it was wild. Normally climbing one mountain peak is plenty for me, stringing four of them together in one ride? Unhinged. Devin and Luis both had gotten back from their bike packing trip that took them from Portland to Oakland, a ride I had to bail on for personal reasons. That only made me more ready for the next big challenge. I’m not sure who brought it up, must have been Devin, especially knowing that I’m easily convinced. We all jumped in the group chat and locked in a day about two weeks out, just enough time to get ready. The ride was a big loop around the Bay: 285 miles and 23,000 feet of climbing.

The week leading up to the ride, I was checking on the weather. Everything looked in our favor. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was just as nervous as I was excited. Every ride that pushes me to my limits makes me joke “never again,” only for me to try to one-up it next time. This ride would be twice as long, both in distance and climbing. All I heard from friends was to make sure to constantly eat and drink. Not owning a frame bag, I had to reach out to some friends which Taylor ended up coming to the rescue. I filled this bag with gels, chicken nuggets, and nerds gummy clusters. Ready for war.

To be honest, I’ve always wanted to do this ride ever since I saw my friend Gino do it. One day I was watching his story and he began to post each peak like really casually. Even had a Dennys break. Fast forward to 2025 and I find myself talking with Luis and Carlos about doing a really big silly ride. We were initially talking about what we should do to train for Tour de Frankie, which is a 800km ride from Mexico City to Puerto Escondido. We’ve been juggling some ideas around to up our mileage and our elevation. First it was Clearlake and back, then it was Portland to Oakland and after coming down from that high we ended up landing on the 4 peaks topic again. We’ve always mentioned it but never set out a plan, never locked in a date. September was coming to a close and we came to the conclusion that if we don’t put down a date now it’ll be either too cold to do it or not enough daylight to wing it.

The date was locked in and the next step was preparation. We all started buying our tires our spare tubes and all the nutrition possible to make this 285mi 23k foot ride happen without any issues. The weather was looking good via apps so we had high hopes we would accomplish this mission in about 20 hours. I got all excited and reached out to some friends of mine to see if they can document it. Luckily they agreed and we found a driver last minute from nyc who just so happened to know Luis and be connected to the film crew on some six degrees of separation type vibe.

Mountains are sacred. They draw our attention whenever they are in sight, and call to us in a calm yet profound way. In the bay area, 4 peaks in particular stand out as the big papas, Mt Hamilton at 4,265’, Mt. Diablo at 3,849’, Mt. Umunhum at 3,486’, and the iconic Mt. Tamalpais at 2,572’.

Summiting one alone is a feat, but stringing them together is where it becomes diabolical. So naturally, you know we got to get after that. Before attempting this route, my longest ride was around 130 miles. Our route was 270 miles. FUcked. Big time. But i did yoga before bed and washed my bike so i was locked in. What can I add that my good friends haven't said already? I was a bit slower most of the day, fighting internal battles of wanting to save my energy and my gut telling me that we were going out too quick from the start. It wasn’t until Mines road, after mile 120 where it felt like Carlos and Devin finally started feeling tired, and it was my time to shine.

My energy surprisingly felt monotone, but in a good way. For the first 100 miles, the hardest part was the internal arguments I was having with the pace being too quick for me. But at the same time, I’m grateful to have comrades who push me to go faster and get stronger. On Diablo, we split up as off the bat Carlos and Dev started putting in a hard effort up the gradually more steep road, and pulled over to wring out my socks, talk with the grass, and stretch my legs a little. I started feeling better, the internal arguments subsided. I continued to listen to Asstasa Shakur’s autobiography as an audiobook. Even though in moments it was such a heavy listen, it was full of hope and humbled me on what it truly is to be “tough”. On what it is to stand up for yourself. Oh and I saw some tarantulas! Crossing the road! It was so epic! Bucket list item can now be scratched off. Anyways, I felt a bit bad for being so behind on Diablo, but also I probably enjoyed that climb a lot more than my homies. For me its harder to tap into that world of hurt on the bike. I like to enjoy this shit yo.

But hands down the hardest ting was descending Mt Hamilton in the dark unforgiving cold. It's the kind of cold where every possible muscle that can shake will violently shiver. I had gloves and a vest on, but that was no fucking match. How stupid of me to forget my rain jacket. But hey, thankfully my homies were there with me in solidarity. And once we got within the city limits, the air was much warmer, the city lights were sparkling like the milky way, and the vibes were back to the all time high.

The final nail in the coffin was the moment we hit SJ proper, the sky opened up like it was some comedy movie joke. Actual cats and actual dogs G. It made me happy as fuckthough, I love scratching, and I felt dummy proud of our effort. I think on a day with either better weather or better gear, Mt. Umunhum needs to watch the fuck out ‘cause we on they ass.