Our pals at Climate Ride just announced that they will grant over $300,000.00 to 25 nonprofit beneficiary organizations this week. Impressive!

The funds—more than twice those raised last year—came from two cycling events in 2011: Climate Ride NYC-DC last May and Climate Ride California last October. With two teams on two rides, Mightybytes is proud to have raised nearly $17,000.00 of the total this year. Like Climate Ride, we hope to double that amount next year.

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.

As you can imagine, finding electrical power and internet connectivity during the Climate Ride can be a challenge. Now that our team has gotten better connectivity, Tim has begun posting pictures from the first two days of the California Climate Ride.

These pictures of the journey really speak for themselves.  Enjoy.

Can you believe the ride is so close? Neither can we! The members of Team Mightybytes (Tim, Joy, Bryan and Bill) head out to California today as they eagerly await the start of the ride.

For those who might be hearing about it for the first time, Climate Ride is a non-profit organization that organizes fully supported, charitable bike rides to support sustainable solutions, bike advocacy and environmental causes. Each year there are two rides, one from NY to DC and one along the California coast. The California Ride is set to begin on October 2nd.

Team Mightybytes (Tim, Joy, and Steve) recently returned from the 2011 NYC - DC Climate Ride, biking 300 miles over five days to support sustainable solutions and eight environmental organizations.

Yes, our legs and butts are sore, but we have some great take-aways from the trip. Before and during the ride, we learned a lot about each other, how to effectively raise funds using social media tools, and met dozens of sustainability experts who shared their wisdom with us. Here were some of the take-aways.