Woof. Single Effort Push 5/30/2026. Shout out to the homie AK for all the course recon over the years and for crafting an epic loop. 🤘🏼 What a treat to have this in our back yard. Ride started with some familiar terrain, hitting Muletown, South shore drive and tom green/deadwood to connect French gulch to Lewiston. First and only resupply of the day was the Lewiston mini mart for a redbull, a bathroom break and a water topoff. Also had my first of 4 rice and bean and cheese burritos. From there was a rip out along Lewiston lake, followed by a steep surprise climb up to Trinity dam from the power plant below to the east side of the dam. Papoose road up to Trinity mountain was the first little sufferfest of the day. Had one contact go cloudy on me and no amount of wiggling would fix it. Rode that way for about 5 miles and eventually just pulled it out and rode with one. Luckily my vision isn't too bad, kinda felt like I just had a blurry sunglasses lens (which I usually do). The sun also felt hot on this climb, and 3000' is a long way to climb. At the top of Trinity mountain is where I entered previously unridden terrain. Multiple miles of pavement at the top (East Side Road) was a treat, as was a little cloud cover and a steady breeze. Dog creek road down to delta (with a few climbs mixed in) was probably the highlight of the route for me! Cloudy and cool, the novelty of new terrain, no traffic. Got a little rough in spots, mainly below clear creek camp ground. Speaking of, the bridge crossing clear creek just up the hill from the campground was my first water filter stop of the day, and second pocket burrito stop. Just had enough water (1L) to quench my thirst and get me through a 1000' climb as it was mostly downhill ripping from there to delta. Neat riding under the I-5 bridges (and historic highway bridge? With a secret message only visible from satellite view ) over to the Sacramento River. This was my second water filter stop and loaded up the full 2L, and had some snacks. Also first shirt soak of the day as the sun was back out and feeling hot. This point was probably the best I felt all day! Now for the long fenders ferry road push. The portion from delta to the top of the second climb (Hanland Ridge) was my second sufferfest of the day, stoke waned as the temps climbed. This section was hot and exposed, but in reality not too long. The reward was a ripping 3k' downhill to the mccloud bridge and campground. Saw a cute pair of bald eagles near the bottom (never seen a female before and didn't actually notice she was in my picture until I put my phone down and she flew away!) Water spigot at the campground made for a quick water topoff. Burrito #3 went down here. The next section pieced together portions of two previously ridden Bigfoot routes (bully hill '26, and Fenders Ferry '25), and being back on slightly familiar terrain was nice. Especially as this is where the light started fading. Saw two(!) Bears between mccloud CG and Sulanharas creek, both super lightly colored, one with a big dark spot on their side, both scared of me. Finally turned my light on during the climb up to the high point before dropping down to potem falls and the pit river. Temps dropped quickly on this descent and stopped twice to put on my first layer, then again to put on my second layer. For some reason I thought the map showed a way down to the pit river where I had hoped to refill on water, but alas, the water is like 100' below the bridge so that was a no-go. Luckily there is a small waterfall/creek like 100 yards passed the bridge that made for even easier filtering. In my mind the next climb to get from the pit river to backbone road was going to be the crux of the rest of my ride. At ~1500' it wasn't huge but at that point in the day it felt big. Road was smooth though and slow and steady got me to the top and my turn onto Backbone road. Backbone road, yikes. This turned out to be the Crux and my low point for sure. First 5 miles was incredibly torn up by logging equipment and soggy. Very slow going and lots of bike pushing. Started feeling super fatigued, or maybe just sleepy in this section, and had one close call where I drifted a bit into a muddy rut and almost went down. Decided it was time to try my first ever "shiver bivy", aka dirt nap. Pulled on my leg warmers, zipped up my rain coat, left my helmet on to support my head and laid down in a bed of pine needles away from the mud. Set an 8 minute timer, which went by too fast, so I did two more of those. ~24 minutes laying down with eyes closed (may or may not have slept) had me feeling infinitely more awake and alert. Backbone road slowly got into better and better shape, but still slow going, and I found myself walking a lot of short punchy climbs, mainly to give my legs some variety. Was hoping the road would turn to pavement sooner (as suggested by ride with gps) but it was dirt all the way to dry creek road. Stopping at dry creek road, I noticed my front tire had gone very flat so I stopped to pump that and shake some sealant around. That sorted me out. Pavement to the finish. This was the relief I was waiting for. It was probably 2:30 am, and I was looking forward to clipping off some faster miles back to home. Bear mountain road was mellow, with one climb that lead to a nice long descent. Nothing open for resupply in Shasta Lake City, so kept moving through. Climbed to the dam visitor center and pedaled past the security booth and where I was then yelled at and told to stop and turn around. Turns out the dam is closed from 10pm-6am... so my plans of cruising the river trail back home were squashed and had to get a little creative on not much brain power. Opted to take Shasta dam blvd to lake blvd to keswick dam blvd and back onto the river trail. Dawn was breaking as I pedaled down lake blvd and was able to turn my light off at Keswick dam. Also at Keswick dam, after the fast steep road descent, I noticed I had some gnarly wheel wobble. I forgot I had broken a spoke hours before (I can't even remember where) and it had certainly caused my wheel to come out of true. Oh well, 3 miles to home so I'm just gonna ride it. Made it home around 5:40, for a ~24h40m elapsed time ride. Body issues were to be expected but luckily my knees and hamstring tendons held out. Did a number on my hands, lot of pressure on the nerves over that amount of time, and my two smallest fingers on the left hand are now slightly numb and tingly. Some solid booty chafing, maybe time to start carrying individual serving chamois cream resupplies. Feet have a little numbness, not as bad as the hands, likely from the same pressure point stimulation. Pretty much everything else hurts this afternoon, notably all of the connective tissue in my legs. Muscles feel okay. Bike did great, just the spoke break, and one light flat, and a handful of miscellaneous creaks. I carried a 2 L bladder and a 1L filter bottled and was able to ride all day with no more than 2L full on the bike at any time. Plenty of well spaced water filter or spigot locations. No food reapplies on route, other than the Lewiston mini mart at mile ~40, and some gas stations and a McDonald's in Shasta lake city at mile 182 if they're open! I carried all my calories, about 8,000 in total, and probably ate 6000-7000 of it. See pic for specific foods, 4 burritos, two pop tarts, sour patch kids, honey stinger gummies, carbs gels, GU roctane gels, tailwind drink mix, Lmnt drink mix, fig bars, bobo bars, corn nuts, caffiene tablets, electrolyte tablets... and one redbull that I bought. I have an alert on my computer to tell me to eat every 50 minutes and followed it pretty closely, trying to keep the variety alive by picking a different food each time. Never got too hungry, stomach never rebelled, only had a little bit of plain water throughout the day. Had two hammer nutrition caffeine chews, couldn't tell what the impact was. Had some pretty bad indigestion the last few hours and not sure why. Carried a battery bank mainly to charge my bike computer which only has enough battery for about 10-12 hours. Recharged 3 times from ~40% back up to 100. Had to charge my phone too. 3 extra light batteries, and used 2 of them. 9pm to 5am is a long time to rely on battery lights! Maybe time for a dynamo hub. Layers included bibs and a sunshirt, a thin fleece hoody, a rain coat/ windbreaker, leg warmers, and some unused spare socks gloves and a buff.