Chester to Chico

Starting the day, we realized that we would be going down more than 5000 feet in elevation. So that sounds like a nice decent for all of the day as we only had 60 miles to hit up for the day. We were very pleasantly surprised as we made it through a state road that was along a river and a state forest.

We would go from windy downhill to windy uphill without ever knowing what to expect as we went through a bend. I personally really loved the surprisingly challenge but it was clear that some were a little moody about the surprise with some curse words. I mean it is never fun mentally to find out that an expected easy day would consist of some serious climbs. We all though shared great stories of biking and talking with locals who were curious about our group.

After lunch, we battled some hills for awhile until we hit the final descent into Chico. Man was it beautiful to look down into the valley while we were up so high, but it was really hot. We finally got that California heat that we were expecting for the last three days. The last 20 miles were a coast as we enjoyed the descent with little wind.

The town of Chico had a lot to offer for the afternoon as we had to stay away from the church in order to give them space for an afternoon wedding. The first place to hit up was the Sierra Nevada Brewery with its beer & taproom. I was not as impressed due to there being no free beer at all, come on!

After hitting up some lunch and thrift shop, I made it to Bidwell Park to go swimming. The park had a free swimming hole that was dammed and fed by a river coming down the canyon from the mountains. It was a little cold but I felt like it was the good old days with this rhettro swimming days. It was the first time I felt like I was actually in California as we saw true racial diversity hearing many languages.

At night after dinner, we hit up town by going to the local Root Beer Bar. It was fun to talk with owner of the ice cream shop/root beer bar as she shared stories of Chico. We found out about all of the many stories that came from California hippies and being in an university town. We stayed until way past closed as we checked out their collection of root beers from all over the country.

It was a good night in Chico and I hope that they make it back here next year hopefully.