Rest Day in Chicago for the Across America Trekkers

Aug 5.

Rest day in Chicago!!! We woke up slowly at our host's house. Keri coooked up some delicious squash and sausages while we planned out our day. We decided that, even though we were supposed to be resting, that the best way to see the city was by bike. We shot out of the house around lunch time and headed towards Pequod's pizza, a fabulous deep dish pizza restaurant on the way downtown. Afterwards we rode towards millennium park along the lakefront trail, where we saw Cloud Gate aka The Bean and the Fountains! We spent the rest of the day hanging out downtown. Around dinnertime the group split into three: Katie got picked up by her brother (who lives in Chicago!) To enjoy some family time, Lydia rode off to have dinner with her cousins, and Tyler, Branton, and John headed to a Mexican restaurant for tacos and cake. We all met back at the house later that night, hung out for a little bit, and went to bed early.

D&R Canal Trekkers Attend Princeton for the Day

When we woke up, we had yummy bagels for a good morning start. Then we got on our bicycles and started bicycling down the D&R Canal (Delaware and Raritan Canal). We biked through the trails for about two hours, not really stopping at all. Then we came across a fallen tree. We made our way through and started back up again. All of us started to get tired so we decided to take a pit stop at a canoe rental and ate more bagels some apples and left over turkey. After resting a few more minutes we started riding through bumpy trails. Around 12ish all of us decided that it was time to have lunch. Our leaders found the nearest supermarket called Shop Right (get it drop right hehe) Anyways when we were on our way we had to go up a hill. It was definitely a struggle, well at least for me but in the end it was worth it when we got to go down. We went through a couple more trails and then biked up to Princeton. It was so beautiful, we even got to have a picnic there. We tried to get to the last campus tour on time but we just missed it. It didn't matter though we created our own tour and it was probably way better then the regular ones, even if we got lost. This nice college student took us to an area called the slums, they were the older dorms that looked like castles from long ago. She said that that was where the juniors stayed and it was called the slums because there was no air conditioning and a lot of cockroaches. All of the other dorms were re done on the inside. We got to look around at the beautiful architecture. It was very pretty but we got very tired after a while. So when we came across an art museum we went right inside. It had the three things we felt we needed; air conditioning, a water fountain, and a place to sit. After that we rode about two miles to get to the hotel. We had a pretty nice time in the pool; playing games and stuff. Then we played a bunch of games and went to bed. We are all really excited for all the days to come. -- written by Trekkers Sheyla & Zosia

Across America Trekkers Have a Busy Day of Site Seeing

July 24- We woke up excited this morning! We had a full day of site seeing ahead of us- first to see the Crazy Horse Memorial, then to see Mount Rushmore! We took a bike path that led us through untouched nature to the first memorial, and then hopped on a 9 mile uphill route to see the faces in stone. Climbing to Mount Rushmore was some of the toughest biking we had done, which made arriving at the top that much more incredible. We got honks of encouragement along the way and smiles of disbelief as we rode up to the summit and to the grand viewing platform. We enjoyed tortillas and fresh fruit for lunch at the summit, before beginning the 3,000 foot descent to Rapid City. Upon reaching the city, we did some much needed laundry and got some complimentary bike repairs from a friendly shop in town. We stayed the night with wonderful yoga instructors who graciously opened their home to us and where we met another cyclist who is touring the perimeter of the United States. We made grilled cheese with fresh rosemary and ripe tomatoes for dinner, and washed them down with a tall glass of mint tea made from our host's garden.

Lake Ontario Trekkers Are All Over Toronto

 

Today the Teen Trekkers spent the day exploring the wonders of Toronto! First we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Then we hopped on over to Chinatown for lunch. We then walked down to the waterfront and took in the sights of the newly reconstructed Queens Quay. Meandering through the caverns of skyscrapers downtown we found city hall and stopped in for a tour of the city council chambers. Making our way back to the hotel to do laundry we made a brief stop at the bookstore. We went out for Mexican food on Yonge Street. Tomorrow we're off to the Toronto islands!!

New England Shore Trekkers Head for Block Island

We woke up at the hotel in Mystic and we ate WAFFLES!!! Adam had a five course breakfast. Lauren and Adam led us as points on our long journey. Around 13 miles into our trip, Yotam's chain sacrificed itself to the gods. A nice mechanic came to us from town to fix the broken chain. As we were waiting for the mechanic we had brunch in the most popular back yard in town. The rest of the group continued on while Yotam and Sarah had the chain fixed and then had a nice ride together to catch up. The whole group reunited, we biked ahead, having a great time enjoying the view and the people. After some biking, we stopped to fill up water bottles and our leaders surprised us with sherbet. As we were biking, we looked to our left and saw a beautiful and enormous blue pond. We continued to a Stop and Shop supermarket where we bought lunch and dinner for the next couple days. At the store we split up, three people went on with Elazar to get ferry tickets, three grocery shopped with Sarah. We raced to catch up so that we could catch the express ferry to Block Island! The boat ride was very majestic. We filled out water bottles at the port and headed to the campsite. There we created amazing chicken Mac and cheese. After that we were surprised again with marshmallows! We ate marshmallows, twinkles, and devil dogs. After accomplishing our 40 mile (longest day) we went to sleep tired and accomplished.  -- written by Trekker Yotam

Quote of the day: "this is a family show."

Lake Ontario Trekkers Round the Western Edge of the Lake

We took a bit of a different route than was mapped out fir us this morning. We followed Ridge Rd until Hamilton.  We passed through many vineyards and small farms. I stopped to buy some raspberries from a farm stand. We were set back a bit when my derailleur hanger snapped in half, but I was fortunate to have a motorist stop and offer an old derailleur he had at his house up the road! He even helped me put it on and adjust it, he used to work at a bike shop. Back on the road we had a late lunch before continuing on through Hamilton rounding the western edge of Lake Ontario. The group was excited to see Toronto off in the distance. Yet we had a grueling ride to the Bronte Campground as we faced a strong headwind and busy roads. Chefs Claire and Kyle made an outstanding dinner! Off to Toronto tomorrow!

Cape Cod Trekkers Moving Along the Cape's Claw

As we started reaching further up and around the Cape's "claw," we backpedaled a bit, and ventured yesterday to Dennis, the town in between Brewster and Yarmouth. There, we visited Scargo Tower, and caught views of the Atlantic Ocean and Scargo Lake. We learned the legend of how the lake was formed, from the tears of a Native American princess. We got caught in some rain on our ride to the tower, but managed to keep shelter under a pavillion at the lake. After playing cards, we rode through some villages to pick up lunch at an area market. We've really started to notice the natural colors of Massachusetts are full of various shades of green in the trees and foliage, brown of the pine needles on the ground, beige of the sand, and blue-green water. After lunch, we decided to beat the heat and trekked to the movie theatre to see "Minions." We made it back to camp and started cooking a taco dinner as the sun started to set beyond the tall trees. We ended our last night at Nickerson State Park with toasty s'mores and were relatively early to bed to rest up for our longest anticipated day of biking.  - Trip leaders Annise and Cory

C&O Canal Trekkers Bike into Washington, D.C.

Today we made it to Washington DC! After checking out some rapids on the way, we checked into our posh hotel, unloaded our bikes, biked around the city, ate handmade noodles, ice cream, and finally went to the hotel to relax with a little TV to prepare for a big day of exploring DC tomorrow!!

C&O Canal Trekkers in in Historic Harpers Ferry

Sixty miles away from DC the C&O crew had a day off to relax and tour Harpers Ferry West Virginia. There they learned much about John Brown and the Civil War. They went into the John Brown Wax Museum and had a nice lunch at a cafe. After a day well spent at the historical town they headed back to the hostel and played apples to apples and eat mounds of ice cream while interacting with other travelers in the hostel. Quote from the girls, "the day was stellar!"

NY-Montreal Trek Day 2 - Hill Rain? No Thanks!

Today was an interesting day, after a good first night of rest we decided to cook a breakfast of oatmeal and some tea. After making an effort to hustle to our next destination, mother nature got the best of us, so after waiting out the rain for a good hour, we said no more, collapsed our tents, did our safety checks, and we were on our way, in the rain. This day we did a decent day of riding at approximately 28 miles, give or take. After we started up, we biked through one town with ease and then encountered some hills.  There was another town after the hills by the Hudson River, which we rode adjacent to for a good 8 to 10 miles. Just prior to our longest stretch of riding for the day, 15 miles, one lucky one of us got a flat. Adrian's bike got a pinch flat rolling out of a gas station. this proved to be annoying, since he was point for the day. Point is the person responsible for the maps and direction for the day -- the leader of the pack.

California Coast Trek Cycles Amongst Natural Beauty

The California Coast Trek cyclists headed south from Big Sur on a beautiful route, taking in many vistas of the ocean and pristine beaches on the right and dense wilderness on the left.  It was their longest day yet, some 45 miles to San Simeon State Park.

Across America Treks' First Day (54 to go)

Across America Trekkers enjoyed their first evening at the Seaside International Hostel in Seaside, OR. This morning they made pancakes and eggs complimentary of the hostel and heard some tall tales from the folks staying there about mystical hot springs in Montana.  After assembling their bikes they dipped their wheels in the Pacific Ocean and they have a short ride up the beautiful coastline to Astoria, Oregon.  They'll make dinner and camp at Fort Stevens State Park.  Tomorrow they head east on a 3,800+ mile, 8 week adventure ending at Coney Island in New York City.