This is a guest post by Climate Rider Casey Fagre.

Our Climate Ride experience got off to a beautiful beginning on Sunday morning. After camping all together in Fortuna the night before, the 120 or so riders listened to the day’s briefing and launched down Hwy 101. There was a notable excitement in the air as people whooped and hollered at each wave of the staggered start. I have to admit that our group looked pretty awesome in the custom jerseys featuring wind turbines and the phrase “Ride your bike. Change the world.”

We spent the majority of the day riding on the famous Avenue of the Giants where our bikes were dwarfed by the gorgeous redwoods towering over us. Everyone rode at their own pace but congregated at a riverside picnic spot for a delicious vegetarian lunch provided as part of celebrating a high-energy low-carbon diet.

Sixty-one miles later we rolled in to our second campsite near Richardson Grove State Park for dinner and presentations by guest speakers. Peter Lehman from Humboldt State University shared some fascinating information about trends in renewable energy, for example that there has been a 41% annual growth rate in global photovoltaic (solar panel) sales and the price of solar is expected to continue to decline as well.

Perhaps my favorite part of the day was getting to know some of my fellow Climate Riders, all who have a different story that brought them to this event but share a common positive energy and passion for the causes we are all riding for, namely climate sustainability!

To read more about Casey’s Climate Ride adventures check out her two previous blog posts: Climate Ride California and Casey’s Climate Ride Part II