Hi everyone! Welcome to (late) day 41. We spent the day entirely in a National forest, so no phone service or internet could be found for miles around. It was a good social media cleanse, but not so good for posting journal entries :(

Before talking about our epic ride for day 42 however, I would like to share a little bit about the person we dedicated this ride to on this day. Our day 42 ride was dedicated to Tom - a dad of one of the I4K riders from years 2010/2012. Tom is a long time supporter of our organization and he finished his 38-day radiation treatment for prostate cancer very recently. He was very excited to see some of our riders when they were passing through Chicago suburbs in June and to cheer them along on their journey to San Francisco. Here’s a quote from Tom concerning his cancer experience: “Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and get an annual physical!”

Thank you Tom for the support!

Day 41 was one of our hardest riding days so far. We had only 40 miles of riding to do, however about 30 of them were all uphill O_O It was certainly a challenge even for some of our stronger riders, but an incredibly rewarding one nonetheless.

The first 8 miles were the steepest climb but since we all were still full of energy, they went by almost painlessly.

Our first rest stop was right next to the entrance sign to the national park. It had a stunning view right behind it (one of many we got to see on this day).

The second stretch of climbing brought more struggle with it, but also more amazing views. We took plentiful stops to take pictures as well as to catch our breath.

The third stretch of climbing brought us to a very entertaining sign that the girls in particular had lots of fun taking pictures with.

…followed by some more climbing which was becoming slower and slower with every passing mile as we were becoming more and more fatigued.

Finally, we made it to the very top of our climbing! I had never been as tired as I was on top of that hill, and yet I also never had felt more accomplished and proud of myself as well as all of my teammates for completing such a hard day of riding. It felt like the biggest privilege to see these beautiful views from our bikes.

We also got to play with some snow at the top of the mountain!

After our final rest stop of the day, we had a 7 mile stretch of riding left. Thankfully, they were almost all downhill which gave a much needed break for our quads and knees. Our stayover for the night was nature herself, so we had tents to set up and fire to start. We had hot dogs and beans for dinner, made our clothes smell like campfire, and saw multiple moose around our campsite. So, overall, it was a pretty fun camping evening.

-Valerie