The day started off beautifully at Southwick Beach State Park. The sun was out and shining upon our tents, which was really unusual since most of the time there was no sun or warmth when we woke up. After a very productive morning, we set off on our longest day of 54 miles. The road started off relatively flat and was very nice. It was calm enough for people to bike side to side and talk. It was peaceful. We took a long rest after 15 miles on the top of a tall hill to stop, regroup and eat. It had just been one and half hours and we felt that we were cranking out those miles, since we were already halfway to Oswego. Little did we know, we were completely wrong. The next hill was brutal, but we were very grateful as there was a man on the side of the road who told us that it was the last one for a long time. That man was crazy because it was just the beginning of a series of horrible, horrific, horrendous hills. Finally, we saw the sign for the city of Oswego, and we immediately got excited. We were about three miles away from food. We biked through the suburbs of Oswego till we hit the main city. That's when our points took us to our secret lunch place, PIZZA. We ordered five pies and by the end of it some of us were still hungry while others were put into a food coma. It was amazing. After the delicious pizza, we branched off. Cooking crew went to Best Yet to buy dinner and breakfast while everyone else went over to the Harborfest to explore the fair. I had to go over to the bike store, Murdock's to get a pedal fixed since it had previously been bent from a fall the day before. Afterwards we all regrouped at the bike store and continued biking through SUNY Oswego and beyond. The first few miles out of the city were pleasant and enjoyable. The flatness allowed for talking and a few new tricks. But then the worst thing happened, we saw the hill to end all hills, the largest hill in history, the hill of death, the steepest hill known to man. It was right before this hill that the points turned off to the left, blessing us all. In fact that same thing happened once again a few moments later, giving us an additional rush. We were so naive. Those hills were nothing in comparison to the millions we were about to face. There were endless hills, we thought it would never end. It was truly terrible. I personally thought about leaving the trip multiple times. Aside from a few stops to pee in bushes and refuel, we just kept trucking. Gears were falling off, seats were wobbling and tears were flowing. After the last hill we saw a laundry mat and thought the messiah had come down to bless us and our smelly clothes, only problem was that we had no time. It was already 6:30pm and we had not started food. Our only option was to bike in dirty clothes again and hold out till the next day. Thankfully after that we veered onto the campsite road and into the campsite. While waiting for Tyler to check us in, we all collapsed on a grassy hill where we laughed uncontrollably from the exhaustion and reminisced about the hard day we had just experienced. Then we biked to our campsites, set up camp and attempted to scrub the dirt and sweat we had collected from the day. For dinner, cooking crew had made delicious ramen with vegetables and chicken and we did rose/bud/thorn and immediately fell asleep because we were all drained from what I would call the hardest day of the all.
Written by Keya
