| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Time | Elevation gain |
| 66.42 miles | 15.8 mph | 40.5 mph | 4:12:24 | 5450 feet |
Since I was already awake at 5am, and breakfast starts at 5:30am, I decided to get up, put on my fleece pants and jacket, grab my mug, hit the blue rooms, and go eat. I didn't even change into my cycling clothes, I just put everything on over the PJ's I was wearing. There were already other people waiting in line when I got there. Breakfast consisted of chicken sausage, potato pancakes, egg strata, oatmeal, and yogurt. I decided to skip hot chocolate this morning since it wasn't all the cold, and I really just needed water.
Packing up back at the tent seemed to take forever. I just wasn't in the flow of the week yet, and things were still not organized for me in my bag. It didn't matter much since it was too dark to leave until 6:30am. However, my bag packed very easily, and almost seemed to have more room than yesterday. I'm not sure why this was since there was no change in the amount of things that went into it. I carried my bag to the baggage truck red 1, and got on my way by 6:45am. It was in the low 50's for temps, so I started out with leg and arm warmers as well as a vest. Today we started off with a 30 mile climb. The first 10 miles weren't much of a rise, but it was steadily moving up. after mile 10, it kicked up a little more. In Ashland, we had our first rest stop in a pretty little park called Lithia park where I saw 3 dear in a side parking lot. I also found at that point that the batteries that I thought were new in my camera were not, and my spares were also dead. No pictures today. This would be very disappointing later in the day as we spent the afternoon riding across Shasta Valley in plain view of Mt. Shasta.
After the rest stop the real climbing began. We climbed up the Old Siskiyou Highway 99 which was a pretty steady 6% grade for 12 miles to the 4465 ft summit just above I-5. The beginning of the descent down to I-5 was very rough, and the signs reminded us continually that we had to raise our plows. However, the fun part was when we merged onto the shoulder of I-5 south bound heading into California. The road was smooth and fast! I don't even remember seeing the sign welcoming us to CA, but I remember the kick in speed as the big rigs passed by. I also had a bit of a hop in my read wheel, I hadn't noticed it earlier because of the rough roads we were riding. We exited I-5 after the check point. Soon after that we had to ride for several miles on freshly stripped pavement. I didn't think we were ever going to get off of it. The funny thing was that after all the jarring and bumps we had just endured, when we turned off the road, there was a sign at the start of a bridge that just said, "BUMP", but the bump was barely anything. It was like the CDOT's own little joke. I had one of the Bike Gallery mechanics check out my rear wheel to see if he could get the hop out of it. He managed to get it mostly out. At least I didn't notice it the rest of the week, but then again, we were rarely on smooth roads on which I could notice it. The lunch stop was at Willow Creek School in site of Mt. Shasta in the Shasta Valley. We sat in the grass in the shade of a tree watching a string band perform on the steps of the original one room school house which was in between the buildings of the current school. Lunch was a half sandwich on Dave's Killer Bread. I'm glad they have switched to half sandwiches. It's a lot easier to eat and not feel too full. Plus, when you're arriving at lunch, or as I like to call it second breakfast, between 9 and 10am, it's a lot better to eat. After lunch, we drove into the wind for the last 15 miles with Mt. Shasta looking over us. Geologists believe that the Shasta Valley is actually the floor of an ancient massive volcano that caved in on itself leaving a big crater that makes up the valley. The clouds rolled in as the winds picked up. That ride into the wind was a lot harder than the climb earlier in the day.
Yreka had a large welcoming group at the finish line with kids and a banner and drums and cymbals. It was great. I rode in with 4 other people that I had been trying to catch, but couldn't until we reached town. The camp ground was on the fair grounds. I found a place to set up my tent, but I didn't pay enough attention to the surroundings since I ended up right underneath a street lamp which kept the camp ground really bright all night long. The wind continued to pick up all afternoon. I got my shower and went to Pizzacato for a pizza slice for lunch. I picked up a birthday gift for Jada since tomorrow is her birthday. I went and tried out the yoga class before dinner. It was hard to do for me since I'm not very flexible. I didn't end up doing it the rest of the week. It was just too close to dinner time.
The wind continued to get stronger throughout the afternoon. I'm glad I got into camp when I did. It made things chilly as the evening progressed, especially after dinner. Dinner was good - pasta with meatballs. I also kept myself much better hydrated throughout the afternoon since I kept my mug with me at all times. I think in the future, I should bring a water bottle instead of the mug for afternoon drinking. I don't prefer to use my water bottle from my bike because it leaks, and I use if for energy drinks along the route so it has that taste to it.
The entertainment for the afternoon and evening was rock n roll cover bands. The one before dinner was high energy and fun to listen to. I stayed up for announcements, and during that the wind just stopped. It was weird. I didn't stay up for the later entertainment because I have found that I can still hear it just fine from my tent. I fell asleep listening to the band, but I woke up again at 2:30am unable to get back to sleep. With the street light over head, at least I didn't need to use my head lamp.
Observations and logistics: I noticed a lot more tandems this year than previous years when I've done this ride. I think it's great that so many more people are tandeming for the week. My new tent has 2 doors and a rain fly that provides a good sized vestibule at both doors. What I found worked well for me to prep for the next day was to put my shoes, hydration pack, and bottle outside my tent under the rain fly on the side that I use for my entrance/exit. The opposite side, I place my bag for easy access. In my tent, I keep my helmet and clothes for the next day along with my toiletry bag. I also discovered that I can take my cot apart inside the tent, though I can't put it together there. I used my smaller Thermarest to put under my sleeping bag on the cot to help insulate and provide just a little more padding, but I'm mostly glad that I started using it for my camp chair which I had never done before. I found that in the mornings, I could go get in line for breakfast and eat before 6am. Then I had 30 to 45 minutes before the sun got high enough to see out on the road. The unfortunate thing about the tent is that the rain fly also has a window in it. Great for looking out, but not so great for when you want privacy to change clothes. I also took to putting Chamois Butt'r on every morning as a preventative measure. The one day that I didn't put it on, I chaffed.
See what the Oregonian had to say for today.
Continue to day 2.