- Distance: 41.25 mi
- Elevation: 2,349 ft
- Dedication: Uncle Tim and Elizabeth Quinn, a 4K400 participant who celebrated 5 years cancer-free on their arrival day in Boston!
- Ride group: Rose, Glenn, and Tori
- Host: Santa Rosa Seventh Day Adventist Church
Another short day, another slooooow morning! Today the entire team flooded Winston’s Cafe and Bakery in Napa for breakfast. I definitely ordered with my stomach today and ended up with a breakfast sandwich, maple twist, half a lemon citrus roll, and an oat milk latte. I was really glad Rose was willing to split the roll with me because it was HUGE and I definitely would’ve attempted to eat it all by myself if she hadn’t offered to share.
After eating everything and digesting a little my group headed out for Santa Rosa. We were along a road that wasn’t toooo terrible but had some active construction that wasn’t great to get around until we reached a bike path. The path was nice and shaded and cut through a pretty neighborhood. It also dumped us out right by a McDonald’s, where we refilled our water and satisfied some strange early-morning cravings only acceptable on 4K: Coke, chicken nuggets, and fries (#4KOK).
From there we were on a low-traffic road until our first and only water stop at mile 25. Because we only had the one stop it was rolling, meaning we didn’t have to wait for all of the other groups to arrive before leaving. We decided to get the day (and our last big remaining climb) over with and didn’t waste much time at the stop.
At that point we only had about 15 miles left but that did include a pretty significant climb. Glenn jokingly dubbed it “a baby hill for babies” to help us mentally downplay what was ahead. There had been some debate at breakfast about which route to take today, as our provided route included this hill while the Google Maps route did not. We didn’t have time to really check out the alternative route so I was more comfortable having the team stick with our original route, especially because on paper the climb was not much different than some of the elevation we’ve had the past few days.
A further look, though, would’ve shown that this climb was really, really steep for a while and then had a mix of downhills and gradual uphills. I don’t know what the highest grade was but I saw 15% at one point, one of our highest of the trip. On any other day I probably would’ve been a little more negative about a climb like that, but I realized it was probably our last true climb of 4K and that changed my perspective. I enjoyed every second!
It also helped that we had some gorgeous views throughout that whole stretch. We were surrounded by sparse trees most of the way but then got a beautiful view of nearby mountains through a clearing. After getting to the top of the steepest part we had some short descents and at one point were surrounded by towering evergreens. I’m not sure exactly what kind they were, but it was like a little patch of redwood forest and the sunlight was trickling through so beautifully.
Finally the climbing was over and we had a fun descent into Santa Rosa. The road was pretty rough at times (a recurring theme for California back roads) but that didn’t detract too much from the fun factor. The end of this ride felt really special– it would have felt good to have accomplished that climb on any day, but to ride those last few miles knowing that we only have one more full day of riding made me appreciate everything just a little bit more. And, as we were cruising along a gently curving road, admiring the fields and foothills, Rose suddenly sped past me and said “I know an ocean wind when I feel one!”– sure enough, the cool breeze I was feeling also smelled like salt water! I had definitely noticed the smell but it didn’t register to me that it was actually the ocean.
My ride group decided to stop for lunch in Santa Rosa (even though host van got lunch for us, we’ve honestly gone out of control at this point) and settled on a place called Thai House, which prompted a parody of the Flo Rida song (“welcome to Thai house”). At first we were a little deterred because the restaurant was on the second floor of the building and there was no good place to lock up our bikes, but after scoping it out and checking with a waiter we brought our bikes upstairs and stashed them in the hallway. That did mean cramming four people and four bikes in one of the smallest elevators I’ve ever seen, but we made it work.
After lunch we biked about a mile to our host, very full and each with a box of leftovers to enjoy later– the serving sizes were huge! Then, for the first time since visiting my friend Jordan in Pittsburgh, I got to spend time with people from pre-4K life! My dad and Beth have been staying in Santa Rosa for a few days now, exploring the Pacific coast before heading to San Francisco for arrival. I showered at their hotel before a quick outing to REI and a local ice cream place. It was great to see them and socialize for a bit, but I didn’t hang around too long so I could go spend time with my team while I could. A few of us checked out a local place where our bikes attracted a lot of attention and many questions about what we were doing. We received so much support and encouragement from the locals, especially from one guy named Chopper who, after praising us for a few minutes, left us with a peace sign and an instruction to “be beautiful”. Nice guy!
I’m set up to sleep again in the church courtyard, who knows how many more times I’ll get to do that? I did have an exciting 4K-last today, as I am officially done hand-washing my jerseys! I have two clean ones left for the last two days– I similarly stopped washing my socks a few days ago when I realized I had enough clean pairs to get me to San Francisco. It’s the little things!
Until tomorrow,
Lauren
Lauren Bikes America 
Yay! It was fun seeing you in all your 4K glory!
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