Imagine an experience where you are surrounded by a group of people who care passionately about preserving the great outdoors and are equally excited to get out in it and bike 300 miles. For the past five days, I had that experience with 150 of those extraordinary people. We rode 300 miles from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo, California through the organization Climate Ride to raise money for environmental non-profits. Coming out from Virginia for the trip, my mom and I had little experience biking up the mountains of California, and found it pretty challenging dodging the cars while whizzing down the twisty hills. Yet a benefit of being from another state is that we were even more star-struck by the glorious views of the Santa Cruz blue waters and Templeton vineyards. Even after a brutal day of biking, a breath of fresh air underneath a patch of eucalyptus trees made it all worth it.
Throughout the trip, I was presented with challenges and sources
of inspiration. I learned that assembling a seemingly impossible tent needs
to be treated like an exciting challenge. And, I was constantly inspired--
by the retired Vermonter who doesn't own a car and who participated on her seventh Climate Ride to the young Latino teen who started a
bilingual outdoors school. I was inspired by the “Rainbow Trout” team that are friends in their thirties who reunite annually for the Ride, and those who
went from barely riding a bike to riding 100+ miles the third day of the trip.
Also, when you travel by bike, you notice things that you
wouldn’t by car. You see the bright red strawberries of Swanton Berry Farm, and
smell the rows of lavender leading to Mesa Del Sol; you ponder the different
bike path possibilities as cars speed by 80mph, just inches away from you. Your
body doesn’t let you forget how far you have gone, as your knees ache and your
thighs tighten until they feel like bricks. Your cell phone doesn’t receive
reception, but even if it did you wouldn’t have time to check it, and you learn
to live in the moment. I learned to live in the moment. Every moment. The
moments when I was sitting next to someone new at dinner or looking up the
stars one evening as our trusted SAG Wagon driver played the banjo. When we were riding on the bus
back to San Francisco, I tried to keep up this attitude. I turned my phone off
and spoke with some of the incredible people sitting near me. I learned about
the history of the natural gas industry from a former Exxon Mobile employee,
and listened to my friend Sarah’s adventures in Peru.
Leaving the trip, I will try to continue some of these
habits of living in the moment and of course, cycling. Although, I might not
get to the latter until a few weeks from now when I start feeling my legs
again.
See more photos:
https://goo.gl/photos/pqFFx6kTUTnYLCZG6
Read more about Climate Rides here: http://www.climateride.org/
