Hi everyone! Welcome to day 68. We started out our day expecting to bike 84 miles through some scenic California national forests but fate and mother nature decided to throw a curveball our way. So, our day instead started out with a decision to shuttle in the van for the first unknown number of miles due to forest fires in the area of Grants Pass. While shuttling gives us an opportunity to rest from biking a little bit, it also involves a whole lot of waiting around while the van is shuttling other groups of people and bikes, so day 68 for us ended up exactly that kind of day - a whole lot of waiting around in various Oregon and California parking lots.

After driving about 20 miles away, the fire situation seemed to get only worse instead of better. It seemed almost apocalyptic with ash raining down on us and the skies colored a yellowish hue because of the smoke in the air. We ended up shuttling way more than any of us expected and biked only the last 18 miles of the day. Sadly, that meant that we also couldn’t bike across the California state border but we still made sure to stop in the van to take some pictures with the state sign.

Despite only biking the last 18 miles, we still got to see some pretty California views. We biked through scenic forested areas and started seeing some of our first Redwoods.

Once we got closer and closer to the Pacific coast, the temperature started getting noticeably colder. The weather changed quite drastically and after being in the over 100 degree weather just the day before we ended our day on the cloudy, misty, and cold ocean coast.

The team took the chance to bike all the way to the ocean to officially be able to say we biked coast to coast as well as take some cool beach pictures.

Next day, day 69, was our final rest day of the ride in Crescent City. We spent the day exploring the redwoods and the beach and resting before our last 6 day stretch of riding.

-Valerie