Day 57: Ely, NV to Eureka, NV
There are a lot of incredible feelings on this trip, but it’s hard to top having a scheduled van day after our longest ride of the trip. Bailey and I lucked out in that sense today– I did get some doubtful comments from the team because I make the van schedule but I swear it…
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Day 56: Caliente, NV to Ely, NV
If you had told me at 4 AM this morning that almost the entire team would complete today’s 137-mile route before our scheduled dinner at 6:30 I wouldn’t have believed you. Between needing to pack up the campsite and outfit our new van with bike racks in the morning and the heat, elevation, and overall…
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Days 54 & 55: Cedar City, UT to Caliente, NV
Two nights ago we developed a last-minute reroute to avoid going way out of our way to Milford, where we also didn’t have a confirmed host. Instead, we set out for Caliente, NV today (pronounced “Cali-enny” by the locals), which doubled our mileage for the day but gave us a bonus rest day! As I…
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Day 53: Orderville, UT to Cedar City, UT
This morning wasn’t very efficient, between trying to pack and clean up a very disheveled Airbnb and then backtracking 18 miles that we covered two days ago. That beautiful descent we had getting into Orderville became a slow and tortuous climb out of Orderville. My group took the silent, slow, and steady approach, as our…
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Days 51 & 52: Bryce Canyon, UT to Orderville, UT
Yesterday was a day of celebration! It was my 4K birthday (also my real-life half-birthday), Christmas in July, Chase’s last day (not that we were celebrating that), and the day we arrived in Zion National Park territory! As expected, I did not sleep very well in my hammock. It was relatively comfortable but very cold;…
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Day 50: Escalante, UT to Bryce Canyon, UT
One thing I forgot to mention about yesterday– it was a mail drop, which meant that our pack-up this morning was a bit of a mess. We have limited personal packing space which means that people often don’t have space in their bags to add the boxes of stuff they receive, which means those boxes…
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Day 48: Green River, UT to Capitol Reef, UT
After a restless and hot night we woke up at 4 for a long and hot day. Unfortunately I neglected to realize that the sun would not be up by the time we were ready to roll, so we did have to stall for a bit before hitting the road. We did have a beautiful…
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Day 49: Capitol Reef, UT to Escalante, UT
I always fear for us logistically when we camp because our morning routine definitely does not need the added struggle of packing up tents but this morning actually went pretty well, even with a van swap! Our water van took a sudden but steep decline yesterday and the brake system was not doing well, so…
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Days 45 & 46: Grand Junction, CO to Moab, UT
Yesterday had big potential to be a logistical nightmare but actually went pretty well! Our official route covered 120 miles between Grand Junction and Moab, but temperatures were going to be brutal and we anticipated a lot of racking. We also knew that the second half of the ride was going to be much more…
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Day 47: Moab, UT to Green River, UT
Daily summary looks a little different today… because we traded our bikes for parachutes! It’s an unofficial 4K tradition for members of the team to go skydiving on the rest day on Moab. Unfortunately Skydive Moab was closed yesterday on our actual rest day, but Eli (an avid skydiver) was able to set us up…
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Day 44: Hotchkiss, CO to Grand Junction, CO
This morning I found a clear clue that we were moving out of the mountains and into the desert: a scorpion near my sleeping pad! I was too spooked to take a picture before it ran away but it was just a little baby one and allegedly not poisonous according to Bailey. Before rolling out…
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Day 43: Carbondale, CO to Hotchkiss, CO
Today I was in the host van with Julia and Maggie as the team tackled a somewhat unexpectedly tough day. I think a lot of us focused so much on Trail Ridge Road that we forgot we still had mountains to cross after that. Today the team had a 75-mile ride which included crossing McClure…
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Day 42: Edwards, CO to Glenwood Springs, CO
This morning I had one of the best wake-ups of my life to the sight of the mountains surrounding Edwards being lit up by the sunrise. I sat on my sleeping pad for a while just admiring the view and felt so at peace, which is pretty rare for me on 4K mornings! After rolling…
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Day 41: Kremmling, CO to Edwards, CO
Today I woke up feeling extremely glad that we chose to rack early yesterday! We were facing another 90-mile, 5,000 foot of elevation day, including a climb up Vail Pass. Our climbing was more gradual and spread out compared to Trail Ridge Road, and after yesterday this didn’t seem nearly as bad. We did climbing…
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Day 40: Estes Park, CO to Kremmling, CO
Today was one of the biggest days of the trip: Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park. The quality sleep I hoped for unfortunately did not happen because the gym we were sleeping in had some lights and speakers that we couldn’t turn off… so we were subjected to classic rock all. night. long.…
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Day 39: Longmont, CO to Estes Park, CO
Today we finally did the thing we’ve been fearing/awaiting for months: we entered the Rocky Mountains! The anticipation was palpable this morning from the moment we woke up as the sun started to light up the mountains to the point we rolled out from our first water stop and embarked on our first climb of…
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Days 37 & 38: Fort Morgan, CO to Boulder/Longmont, CO
Yesterday I was in the water van with Glenn as the team rode to Boulder, CO. It was a little disappointing to have a day off before a rest day after only riding 30 miles the day before, but I was also happy to have a little extra rest before we hit the Rockies. Today…
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Day 36: Yuma, CO to Fort Morgan, CO
Another hard day on 4K! If you’ve been following along, you’ve probably noticed that even the easy days usually end up being hard in some capacity. Today was a day where I woke up feeling really defeated and like I couldn’t handle the physical or mental demands of this trip. The beauty of 4K is…
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Day 35! Benkelman, NE to Yuma, CO
Today was a big day for 4K: we are officially halfway through our 70-day journey, and we crossed into Colorado! Maggie and I woke everyone up bright and early this morning with halfway/middle-themed songs. Today was also one of my most physically challenging days of the trip. Between lingering fatigue from COVID, having close to…
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Day 34: Arapahoe, NE to Benkelman, NE
This morning we were spoiled by an incredible breakfast from the folks at First United Methodist, especially when you consider that we showed up at their door yesterday evening! There was so much food I missed the cinnamon rolls on my first pass at the buffet and nearly knocked over my chair in excitement when…
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Day 33: Kearney, NE to Arapahoe, NE
Today was my first full ride in so so long and it felt great! It was a little weird to be back, honestly, but the team crushed our 65-miler and the ease of it quickly reminded me of our routine pre-COVID. Today’s dedication story was for Bo Oliver, who was engaged to my teammate Bailey…
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Day 32: Grand Island, NE to Kearney, NE
Today our team had a nice gentle return to our normal schedule and routine. I was in the water van today so I’m now going on a week without riding a full day, which kind of sucks, but I’m also grateful for the rest! Plus I was in the van with Maggie again so I…
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Days 28-31: Omaha, NE to Grand Island, NE
We are officially on the move again! After a few wonderful days quarantining/vacationing in Omaha, we left our AirBnB paradise for Grand Island, Nebraska. After three days of sleeping in, swimming, relaxing, and celebrating the 4th of July it was a little sad to be leaving but I think we were all ready to get…
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Days 26 & 27: Des Moines, IA to Harlan, IA to Omaha, NE
Greetings from a tent in a campground in Iowa… because 4K has COVID!!! Turns out the head cold-esque sickness most of the team has felt recently is more than just a head cold from inhaling dust on gravel roads, lack of sleep, and poor nutrition like we thought. Finding out that we had a positive…
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Lauren Bikes America 