Today was short mileage-wise, but still very challenging due to a long climb and temperatures reaching up to 106°F. Two of the groups were able to make it through the day in good time, but the last group, unfortunately, dealt with a lot of flat tires, which made the day longer. Once we arrived at our stayover, we had some great food at Amei’s Hmong Kitchen, and we shuttled over to the local public pool for showers and a refreshing dip in the pool. Everyone had some time at the end of the day to relax and prepare for tomorrow's ride!

Quote of the Day

Eli: “You did today!”

Katie: “Today did me”

RIDE OVERVIEW

Mileage: 47.2 mi

Elevation: 4,916 ft

Points of Interest: Amei’s Hmong Kitchen, Lowden Park Pool

Ride Dedication: Linda Fornek

Tales of the Trail

We started this morning with a super-early wake-up at 4:30 am to beat the heat and get rolling on time, as today’s temperatures would reach up to 106°F. Even though we were all pretty sleepy, we still had some great views of the sunrise in the morning. We started the day on a short section of the Sacramento River Trail, where the last group unfortunately had two flat tires. We soon hopped on the Middle Creek Trail and started our shorter climb of the day. We passed by Whiskeytown Lake, and the flat tire group had to pull off for another flat tire, which meant we got to take a dip in the lake. Our first rest stop of the day was also in this area, and we fueled up before tackling a big ascent. This was a challenging 2,000-foot climb over 7 miles, which wasn’t new to us, but the high temperatures made the climb very difficult. We all felt the heat, and the temperatures only worsened. We slowly and surely made our way up to Buckhorn Summit despite the not-so-adequate temperatures, and we had a side-of-the-road rest stop in the middle of the climb. The last group experienced yet another flat tire, which put them far behind the rest of the team. We eventually made it to the summit and enjoyed a nice 10-ish mile descent before reaching some flat roads.

Once we made it to Weaverville, a group got lunch at Amei’s Hmong Kitchen and relaxed at Trinity Dance Studio, our stayover for the night. The owner of the dance studio was also kind enough to arrange showers for us at Lowden Park Pool. We all shuttled over and had some time to enjoy the pool, which was refreshing after biking in incredibly hot weather the whole day. Afterwards, everyone showered, and we did a portrait with a worker at the pool. Once we got back to the stayover, everyone dispersed to different spots for dinner, as some went to Burger King and others went back to Amei’s. After dinner, we ended the night with some relaxation time and an early bedtime.