Day 64: Groveland, CA to Jackson, CA

• Team distance: 72.98 mi
• Team elevation: 6,791 ft
• Dedication: Jess Foss and the team
• Van group: Maggie and Bethany
• Host: Grace Fellowship

Today was my last van day of 4K! Once again, I ended up in the van on a day with some awesome descents but that also meant I missed out on a lot of really tough climbs. This was (or was close to) the hilliest day of the trip– a century with 7,000 feet of elevation is challenging, so to do that in just over 70 miles is no easy feat. At times the route was challenging to even drive, but it was also very beautiful.

After chalking the first few turns we realized we were about to enter territory with no coffee shops and quickly doubled back to get some caffeine. We stopped at a place with a lot of the team that only had one employee working, so after a very, very long time we departed with some breakfast and lattes. The parking lot was not cancer van friendly and Maggie ended up taking a piece of their greenery with us!

Between the coffee and the climbs our groups got very spread out so we ended up waiting for a looooong time at the first water stop. We did find a nice spot with some shade, though, and took the time to clean out the snack bins. The sweet bin had gotten wet a few days ago and had a very foul liquid fermenting at the bottom… it was rancid.

Eventually all the teams arrived at the stop and we were back on the road. During that time it started to get quite warm– now that we’ve been losing elevation for a few days, heat is becoming an issue again. I think we refilled everyone’s water bottles two or three times during our second water stop. I also filled up the water guns we’ve had in the water van all summer and put my aim to the test when we got back on the road and passed the teams that rolled out ahead of us. I’m sure the water felt good but I think everyone riding was so tired they found my enthusiasm to be a little much, so I laid off the surprise spraying.

From there we got on what I would say was the worst road of the trip. Potholes every few feet, super rough asphalt, huge bumps where they had tried to patch the road– it was a true Frankenstein of a road. Someone asked who had taken the time to jackhammer the entire road, and it wasn’t a bad question. It was horrible to even drive on, and chalking the route was close to impossible because the pavement was so uneven. At that point Maggie and I decided to drive back and forth between the first and last groups instead of setting up a full third stop and it actually went so well! We had extra bottles filled up and ready to hand off to riders, as well as Gu packets and some PB&J tortilla wraps Bethany made from her seat in the back. For the most part we stopped when we ran into a team and refilled their personal bottles, but I did do a moving water bottle hand-off with Bryce that felt pretty cool :)

We continued to do laps to make sure the team was taken care of until they got over the last big climb of the day. After racking a few people we went to the host, where everyone was beat. It was a really tough day for the riders! Later I went out with Bailey and Maggie to pick up the dinner donation for the team and bought some McDonald’s for myself. The rest of the night was very chill and we had a pretty early turn-in.

Until tomorrow!
Lauren