Today Mack dedicated the ride to a family friend of his, Hayden, who at only the young age of 23 is going through chemo treatments for a rare form of brain cancer.

There were mixed reviews on today’s ride. With views of beautiful snowcapped Mount Shasta, the second tallest mountain and potentially active volcano in the US, and our first glimpse into California scenery. It’s weird to think that we have gotten used to seeing mountains as opposed to cornfields.

Wikipedia information about Shasta: “There are seven named glaciers on Mount Shasta, with the four largest (Whitney, Bolam, Hotlum, and Wintun) radiating down from high on the main summit cone to below 10,000 ft (3,000 m) primarily on the north and east sides.”

We crossed our last state border today and took our very first team picture together (haha not). However, California is noticeably hotter than Oregon and we really began to feel the heat during the last 10 miles of climbing

The Mt. Shasta descent was something that was talked about in ride meetings, but turned out to be a bit disappointing. With headwinds, we really did not get to experience the full extent of the 6 miles of downhill that we had anticipated so much.

The scenery in California is actually quite different than Oregon, and only 5 miles into today’s ride we began to spot tall Redwood trees along the side of the road.  Although Mount Shasta, the town where we are staying in tonight is a bit small, it has gorgeous scenery surrounded by forest and views of the mountain top.

At this point in the ride every rider is experiencing soreness and we don’t really know what it feels like to not have a sore behind. We are all looking forward to a break from biking while simultaneously dreading being separated

Don’t let me down California

MB