Thank you to everyone who helped us out along the way - Thank you to Portland and the Illini Club for throwing the best finale imaginable. This was an unforgettable summer for all of us and we could not have done it without you! More words to come, but for now... 4000 miles down and just as many memories!
The I4k journey will soon be coming to a close... for those supporters, parents, and other friends of the I4k coming out to Portland to visit, here's the scoop:
The Portland U of I Alumni Club will be hosting a picnic at Overlook Park in the Heart of central Portland - the park is located west of Interstate Avenue at Fremont St. The event will take place at 11 p.m. For more information, visit the Alumni Club's website at: http://www.portlandillini.org/events.asp .
We'll see you there!
Today marks the two month anniversary of this ride, and it looks like we have a lot of catching up to do. Idaho was unexpectedly beautiful, and luckily mostly downhill. We continued the tradition of "Indecent Idaho" where we took our shirts off to ride the huge downhill coming out of Lolo Pass. The next day we rode what was supposed to be a 60 mile day, but turned into a near-century. We arrived at our campground, only to find that it was closed. So, we hung out in steaming hot springs while we searched for alternate campgrounds. The next full campground was 30 miles away. Along the way we had the good company of other touring cyclists. Boy did they make what we do seem easy! One was touring from coast to coast for his 70th birthday!
Washington was surprisingly hot as we rode through record high temperatures. Despite the heat and lengthy miles, our rides through cherry, apple, and apricot orchards were extremely delicious. The whole team learned their lesson about gorging on too much fruit which was demonstrated throughout the lines outside of the bathrooms at our stayovers.
We rode to Mount Rainier National Park and everyone was shocked when the mountain actually appeared before us. It is a staggering 14,000 feet and topped with glaciers. Luckily our max elevation for the day was around 4,500. We then had a rest day at the park and half the team took the day as an opportunity to visit Mount Saint Helens.
Today was our last near century ride of the summer. As we rolled into town were excited to stop at a local bakery and purchase a little bit of happiness. We were also surprised with showers, laundry and a wonderful potluck dinner from some members of the congregation at St. Paul's Lutheran church.
Tomorrow brings: Ferry Rides!
A little bit of catching up. Going into Butte the ride started easy and ended with some steep work. We found out that the 6 mile climb is also the training ground for Levi who was in four place in the Tour de France until he broke his wrist, yeah we’re hard core…
In Butte we also did a couple of portrait project interviews and were both inspired by the stories and the people.
From Butte we headed to Drummond a small town with a large, large heart. The ride in again began as an easy cruise until the dreaded wind turned on us. One group had multiple flats because the only way to Drummond is on the debris ridden I-90. On the bright side, the randomness of junk offered great material for secret santa presents for our Christmas in July celebration.
When we gt into Drummond we were greeted by Vicki, who we are so thankful for the time and effort she put into feeding us and making us feel welcome. After dinner we had some trouble moving from all of the amazing food we gorged ourselves with. We even picked up an extra rider, Megan, for tomorrow from Drummond!
Tomorrow swimming in hot springs, 50 miles and a rest day to come!!!
It was a brisk Montana morning when we emerged from West Yellowstone, clad in cold weather riding gear, jackets, and mustaches. Mustache Montana has begun both for the guys who have been hard at work growing them and the ladies who needed some help from a marker.
After days and days of climbing we got a brief respite as we rode downhill for most of the day. This, combined with the cool weather and incredible scenery, made for a very enjoyable ride. One group was lucky enough to see a majestic bald eagle on their way to Ennis.
When in town we foraged for food donations and came up with some of the best of the trip. Restvedt Meats donated some incredible homemade sausages, brats, and hot dogs. Check them out if you're ever in the area. The local grocery store also proved to be a source of generosity when Ken F. gave a sizable donation.
Yellowstone was beautiful, but it took a lot of hard work to get there. The ride in was windy, hilly, cold, and rainy at times. This weather didn\'t work out too well with our first camping experience of the summer with temperatures dipping into the low 30\'s the first night.
On the rest day, as with most rest days, we all broke off into groups and did our own thing. Some went for hikes and enjoyed some beautiful views. Some went for a ride to check out some waterfalls. And others just sat around and relaxed by the lake. A bunch of us were lucky enough to get some up close and personal views of some buffalo.
The ride out was absolutely freezing in the morning, but once things warmed up we were in for a great ride. We stopped at Old Faithful and many of us went for long hikes and checked out a bunch of other geysers. All told, we all enjoyed our time in Yellowstone.
Last night we stayed in West Yellowstone, a major tourist town just outside of the park. Many of us got ice cream at a local establishment with a few checking out the premier of the fifth Harry Potter movie.
Special thanks to Tom Blue, who gave us a generous donation in Yellowstone, and our camping neighbors in Yellowstone.
Today the ride to Cody was a nice recovery from the climb yesterday. We started off the ride right after the rain ended and we finished just as a storm was rolling out in Cody. In between was a gradual incline and a headwind, but as we got further west we were able to see the Rockey Mountains in the distance which were beautiful. However, one group was not so lucky and rode through hail and rain- but made it safely to the church. Tomorrow we head into Yellowstone which we are excited about- part for the park and part for our rest day. We are excited to see what beauty lies ahead of us in Yellowstone.
Today began with an 11 mile climb full of bumpy roads and construction. While taking one of the last passes to the top we were able to look back and see our starting point far below us. Despite the challenging nature of our morning ride we were given some of the most beautiful views that we have had on our whole trip. With snow capped mountains in the background we rode past flower filled mountain meadows and deep river valleys. We were given a special treat when Saebin's parents met us on top of the Big Horns with lunch already set out for us. They also cooked us an amazing dinner tonight to feed our huge appetites from today's ride.The most incredible part of today's ride was of course the 18 mile decent after mile 45. We coasted for about 40 minutes with some groups averaging over 30mph the whole way down. The start of the decent was filled with pine and green fields. As we made our way to the bottom the landscape changed into a beautiful red rock desert. The majority of the team is exausted but we were all awestruck by the incredible scenery we witnessed today. Tomorrow we make our way to Cody before continuing on to Yellowstone. The beautiful is behind us and the best is yet to come!
As we continued west it was impossible for us not to be taken aback by the beauty of the landscape that surrounded us. Throughout the day we rode constantly in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountains. We followed a gorgeous country road with an ice melt stream that twisted and turned along our route. We saw a pack of three prong-horned deer at the top of one of the hills and they were running beside us as we biked by. The rest of the ride went by easily since it was a short day with many downhills. When we arrived in Ranchester we heard about a river that was close to where we were staying and went for a swim. While there we found a rope swing and had a lot of fun launching ourselves into the water.
The day ahead of us will be a hard one. The Big Horns loom before us and we can see the first few switch-backs we will be starting on early in the morning. Our initial elevation is around 3700 feet and we will be peaking over 9000. As Conor said "W'll be riding a mile into the sky!" Hopefully we will get to see some snow on the top. Our big part of the ride to look forward to is the 18 mile descent at the 40 mile mark. Wish us luck!
Today we got our first glimpse of the Big Horn Mountains. They were right in front of us for almost the entire ride today, and we got almost right next to them today. Tomorrow's ride will follow the mountains north, and then we will head straight over them two days from now. The team is excited but a little nervous to resume climbing real mountains again. The team arrived in town early today and most of us went to a local shop to get some ice cream. The church that we are staying at tonight, St. Luke's Episcopal, was kind enough to provide some pizzas for dinner tonight, so the team will head to bed with full stomachs tonight.
Today was not nearly as interesting as yesterday. In fact, about the best we can do is describe all the road kill we saw today. It's been a while since we've seen road kill, so Wyoming was a strange throwback to our rides on the east coast. We saw a couple of deer today in addition to our first porcupine.
Other items of note include that we did yoga for today's Mosher activity, it was different and refreshing. We also had a number of tire problems, including a broken valve stem and a couple of flat tires.
Tomorrow we ride to Buffalo along I-90, a stretch of road with no gas stations or towns for a whole 65 miles. Wish us luck!
I4k friends and families: It's that time again! Got a hungry rider out west? Does he or she need warm clothes for the chilly Pacific Northwest? Send it to Missoula, Montana! We'll be arriving on July 20 and having a rest day there the next day, so make sure you have it sent out soon!
Write your packages / letters out to:
[Name of rider]
Care of: General Delivery
Missoula, MT 59802
Please allow at least 3 business days for letters and Priority Mail packages. It'll show up at the main post office in Missoula, and we'll pick it up on July 20. As always, our eternal gratitude!
(If you sent something to be picked up at the last mail drop and your rider didn't receive it, that's OK - you can call the main post office in Rapid City, SD and ask them to forward it to Missoula care of General Delivery. The number there is (605) 394-8600. Again, thanks!)
Today was a long and eventful day. We started out leaving a little later than usual due to some extra time needed to pack the bounty of food provided by Main Street Market last night. In some ways you could say that our route could be broken into four very different segments. The first segment, from Rapid City to Mount Rushmore started out as fairly foggy, but that eventually lifted as we made it to the monument. This segment also marked our entrance into the Black Hills, it's been quite some time since we've seen hills of this caliber, however I think we all made it over them without too much difficulty. In addition, on the final climb up to Mount Rushmore, a driver going in the opposite direction stopped and cheered for us, it was just the encouragement that some of us needed to climb the last half mile.
We reached Mount Rushmore just in time to see Greenpeace protesters rappel down the side of Lincoln's head and unfurl a banner commenting on Obama's environment policy. It was a little disappointing that their protest had to be at the expense of all those trying to enjoy the monument. While we were standing around watching the Greenpeace spectacle, we happened to meet a young boy who had been diagnosed with cancer at the age of three weeks. He's now been cancer free for nine years, and is a healthy kid. We invited him to be part of our team photograph, which we'll try to get up as soon as we can.
Our second segment led us to the town of Custer. While we continued to wind our way up and down hills, we had an added challenge of a headwind. Because of our late departure and the long time we had spent at Mount Rushmore, our lunch stop ended up being much later than usual, leaving many of us very hungry. Thankfully we had more than enough food to leave everybody more than satisfied for the third segment of today's ride.
Our third segment was best defined by a sign we saw along the way warning "NARROW WINDING ROAD NO SHOULDER". At first that seemed like a very scary proposition, however the traffic on US-16 at that point was fairly minimal and also had to slow down enough that riding with traffic was very possible. Along the way we had some amazing views, some great climbs and descents, and was easily one of the coolest stretches of road that we've seen thus far.
Our last 20 miles into New Castle was dominated first by a long series of downhills that took us all the way into Wyoming and a few miles past. During this stretch of road many of us rarely went slower than 20 mph, and at points some of us exceeded 40 mph. Unfortunately the downhill was not the only thing we encountered on this portion of our ride. As we descended further and further we could see a large storm starting to brew over the Black Hills. While we managed to avoid getting wet, we did hear the tornado sirens go off and encountered some pretty nasty winds.
Thankfully we managed to avoid most of the storm and made it safely into our destination where the church ladies provided us a wonderful meal of lasagna and a variety of salads. I think most of us would agree that today has been one of the best, and certainly one of the most exciting days yet.
The Fourth of July went out with quite a bang for us this year. A bunch of people on the team bought fireworks which kept most of us entertained for the afternoon, but it was Saebin who brought everyone together for his grand finale firework. There's definitely a correlation between the distance to the fireworks and the fun had while watching them.The ride from Murdo to Wall, SD was originally around 90 miles, but everyone on the team decided it would be a good addition to the trip to include riding through the Badlands of South Dakota, which added 11 miles to the total route making it right around 100 miles for the day. The ride went easily enough, there was plenty of rest stop action, and only a few flat tires to get to the entrance of the Badlands. They definitely made the ride exciting. We've seen a good portion of the country, but this was something else.If you live anywhere within 500 miles of Wall, SD you already know what we did there. For those who don't know, we stopped by Wall Drug and took full advantage of their five cent coffee and free ice water. That night for dinner Caroline "dancing queen" Thurn and Justin "the tool man" Taylor with help from Tim and Christa cooked brinner (breakfast for dinner)for the team. It was met with much appreciation after such a long day in the badlands in combination with the time zone change adding another hour.The next morning most of the team grabbed one more cup of coffee and a doughnut from Wall drug to start off the 60 mile ride into Rapid City, SD. The weather was almost too perfect and the roads were in good condition as we paralleled I-90 on country roads into the city. At the 40 mile stop (lunch!) a group of riders were met by Gus Aus who happened to own a ranch in the near vicinity. The name of his ranch was the "Lazy Heart O" which also corresponded to his brand of a heart on its side above a letter "O". He was kind enough to share some of his time and stories with us, mostly involving broken bones, as we got a new appreciation for cattle ranching.We arrived at our stay over in Rapid City only to find that it was immediately adjacent to a Dairy Queen. Sometimes life hands you lemons, and sometimes it hands you a blizzard... We spent to rest of the day doing laundry and recharging. Today was a rest day which gave the team an opportunity reset and explore the quaint, albeit tourist friendly, downtown of Rapid City. To our fortune there were many kind individuals who donated food to our cause. First, The folks at Main St. Market who pampered us with organic and natural foods including two gigantic watermelons. In addition was a donation from Piesamo's Pacchia of two large, and delicious, cheese pizzas. Lastly, we received an anonymous donation of chips, lunch meat, orange juice, just to name a few. Thank you whoever you are.
Today we started our day with a motivational speech from Matt Cady (borrowed from Independence Day, Thank you Bill Pullman). Today will probably be remembered as the day of flat tires, our total peaked around 10, all of which belonged to just 3 riders. The weather was great and the hills and clouds were gorgeous, but it was great to finally make it to our stayover and be greeted with showers!
Tonight we will all be viewing Murdo's fireworks extravaganza and enjoying an extravaganza of explosives thanks to Saebin's lunchtime splurge.
A special thanks to Pastor Holder and his family for a very generous donation, and the Indiana family for breakfast.
Dearest Matilda,
How I loved the ride today, despite the rain.
It was 74 miles, but there was no pain.
We were close when we embarked on Main.
And finally made it to Chamberlain.
Yesterday we had a rest day in Mitchell. We had a hospital visit, which was really cool. We learned a lot about radiation therapy, and saw state-of-the-art equipment/machinery. The hospital guide was extremely intelligent, and generous-she even gave us a comb/mirror/lint remover!
We also spent a decent amount of our time at the Corn Palace. It's the world's only, you know!
For dinner, a man came to the school and grilled for us, which was awesome since we did not have access to the kitchen.
As the poem stated, now were in Chamberlain. Our ride was easy even though it was rainy. We're lounging at a cafe in town, but nervous about the near future in which Zernyu and Matt Cady are on cooking duty!
Yours Truly,
General Ernest T. Cornwell (The Illini 4000 invisible rider from the civil war era)
The I4K crossed into yet another state today, South Dakota. Once again, the wind was rough, but not as bad as the previous two days. We are staying at Zion Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, who provided us with a great dinner, that really hit the spot after riding 94 miles in the wind and heat. We ride 77 miles tomorrow, and then a well needed rest day.
Today's ride from Albert Lea, MN to Jackson, MN was a fun filled ride of 85 miles. The ride gave us a great opportunity to ride against ~20 miles per hour headwinds that left us winded...literally. Tomorrow, we are headed to the wonderful land of South Dakota.
I4k friends and families: Want to send your loved one / best friend / favorite rider a care package or things they need from home? Send it to Rapid City, South Dakota! We'll be arriving on July 6 and having a rest day there the next day, so make sure you have it sent out soon!
Write your packages / letters out to:
[Name of rider]
Care of: General Delivery
Rapid City, SD 57701
Please allow at least 3 business days for letters and Priority Mail packages. It'll show up at the main post office in Rapid City, and we'll pick it up on July 7. In return, eternal gratitude from your rider out west! Thanks!
Well today we had a rest day. It seems like we kinda don't know what to do on rest days...so we ride our bikes! We all woke up some time around 11 but the few of us who were up earlier went out to braekfast at this crazy pancake house that was called Pankuken, which is apparently a Dutch pancake. It wasn't too bad - real good breakfast. After that we all did our own things, some went to the pool, others hung around the church, others slept some more. But for dinner we went to kingdom buffet. (Lordy, we ate waaaay to much!) We all agreed that the ride back to the church was the worst ride of the trip. With our bellies overflowing with food we nursed ourselves back to being just full and rested easy, patiently awaiting the supposed 20mph headwind the next day.
The Illini 4000 • PO Box 2431 Champaign, IL 61825 • The Illini 4000 is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.