Posted on 10.12.11

Team Mightybytes’ Highlights from California Climate Ride 2011

by Tim Frick

Climate Ride California was epic—and challenging—this year! Here are some highlights.

As always, the ride was filled with great people, excellent speakers, phenomenal scenery, and many formidable miles in the saddle. Our team of four—three riders and one crew member—had an excellent, if not soggy, time. Here are the four ‘M’s’ of Team Mightybytes’ experience.

The Mood

An already challenging ride with thousands of feet of climbing and 104 mile days, the addition of near-daily deluges definitely added a bit of stress and anxiety to both riders and crew. Wet tents are one thing, but wet roads with twelve mile downhills are quite another. Rain started the evening of day one and continued all night and well into day two, the day riders climbed the infamous Leggett Hill. By the time all riders reached Fort Bragg—without a single injury!—all but six of the ride’s 124 participants decided to forego the campground and instead booked rooms at the Quality Inn. Kudos to Quality Inn for the major rider discount!

Breaking the spirit of a Climate Rider is no easy task, however, and this ride definitely proved that. Rain continued each day and by the morning of day five during yet another downpour riders started chanting “Harder! Harder! Harder!” Then we all got on our bikes and braved the deluge. Like you do.

The sun peeked out by water stop one on the final day, which inspired some impromptu line dancing from about twenty riders to this fun ditty:

By the time we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and passed through the streets of San Franciso, the sun was out in full-force and the spirit of riders was downright jubilant!

The Miles

320 flat Midwestern miles don’t hold the proverbial candle to 320 miles through the hills of Northern California. Both Bryan and Joy trained almost exclusively in Chicago, which made some of the steeper climbs extra grueling. Still, they managed to ride every mile. Most impressive!

The Media

While Bryan and Joy pedaled every soggy mile, Bill split his time between driving one of the SAG vehicles, rockin’ the luggage truck, and taking on about a dozen other volunteer tasks. I biked 180 miles of the ride and then connected each day with Bill to edit the footage we shot, share photos on Climate Ride Live, update Twitter feeds, and so on.

All the rain made using laptops and mobile devices a bit challenging, which necessitated a couple extra hotel stays and late night edit sessions. Since New Belgium Brewing sponsored some of the ride, at least there was beer!

Keep checking Climate Ride Live for rider updates, beneficiary profiles, and more videos as we get them edited and posted.

The Money

Most importantly, Team Mightybytes’ pedaling posse raised just over $8,000.00 while the Climate Ride as a whole raised over $300,000.00, the most of any ride yet. The money raised from Climate Ride California 2011 will go to 30 different organizations that focus on bicycle advocacy, clean energy, climate education, and sustainability. For a complete list of those whom the ride benefits, check out the Climate Ride’s beneficiaries page.

I split my fundraising equally across the organizations (as a recently ordained board member that made most sense), while Joy raised money for Chicago’s Active Transportation Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists. All Bryan’s funds went to Active Trans. It’s great that Climate Ride allows riders to set up local beneficiaries for the ride, though who knows? Maybe a midwest event is in Climate Ride’s future?

A HUGE thanks to all our donors for their generous support of our ride and for sharing the message of a sustainable future with friends and family. We are forever grateful!

The Last Word(s)

Climate Ride CA 2011 was definitely one for the books. It was a lot of work and exhilarating beyond belief, but also made me realize three very important things:

1. Now more than ever, issues of sustainability and environmentalism need to be discussed and real solutions offered on both the micro and macro levels. This is critical!

2. I am so lucky to work with amazing, like-minded people who inspire me every day (and don’t seem to mind me running around in ridiculous spandex):

3. Blake, Geraldine, and Caeli are the Climate Ride Ultimate Power Trio and as a new board member I couldn’t be more excited to make a real impact with them.

For more information on the ride or to register for the upcoming New York to Washington, DC Climate Ride check out the Climate Ride site.

Also, for a great ride recap, check out this article that SF Appeal posted.

Fellow rider Scott Warner posted a great ride recap entry on Novato Patch as well.

Think you might consider a ride? Let me know! I’d love to bang out some miles with you.