After the first exciting day, our team was ready to tackle the second day from New Jersey to Pennsylvania! A slightly shorter ride from the previous day, but eventful nonetheless, as we started exploring the mountains of Pennsylvania, quite a different terrain from what we were used to in Illinois.
RIDE OVERVIEW
Mileage: 52.2 Miles
Elevation: 3,217 ft
Points of Interest: Nazareth, Cherryville, Alpha, Lafayette College, Indian Trail Park, Mia & Maddie’s Bakery, Lehighton Swimming Pool
Ride Dedication: Colleen
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Only 52 ft remaining, it’s like 8 of you Yuncong”
TALES OF THE TRAIL
The team got up at 5:45 a.m. to prepare for the day ahead. The team typically starts with a bowl of oatmeal, but thanks to our stayover hosts, we had additional food to help fuel our morning! We rolled out after 7:30 a.m. (a start time that we are trying to improve upon) and headed straight to PA. We crossed into Pennsylvania via the Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge, where we had our first rest stop of the day and enjoyed shade.
Our team heading into PA!
Further into the trip, the team had the pleasure of meeting Micah’s family at Indian Trail Park around mile 37! They graciously provided us with lunch: pulled chicken sandwiches, fruit, snacks, and more! The team ate everything up as the meal called their name away from the usual PB&J sandwiches. The team would like to thank the Yoder family for providing us with a scrumptious lunch that helped fuel us for the rest of the day. At this time, we also took the opportunity to relax in the park by hopping on the swings and spinning on the roundabout (though not the best idea after a filled stomach). Some members of the team also took a dip in the nearby creek, utilizing natural resources to cool off from the heat.
Indian Trail Park Rest Stop!
The team was super excited to head into our stayover location tonight, Trinity Lutheran Church. The team was greeted with smiling faces and eagerness from the stayover hosts to meet the group. They welcomed us in and generously shuttled us to the Lehighton Swimming Pool, where the team was able to hop into the pool and get a much-needed shower that many were waiting for. The pool activities consisted of sliding down the water slides, cannonballs, and… back flopping? (yikes) The showers gave great relief to the riders, being able to wash away all the dirt, sunscreen, and sweat that accumulated throughout the day.
Lehighton Activities
Afterwards, our hosts provided us with a team dinner and taught us the terminology of classic PA foods. The team chowed down on some classic hoagies (a sandwich layered with meat, cheese, and lettuce), a term first coined in Philly when many Italian immigrants worked at the shipyard outside of the city called Hog Island. On top of this, we learned about shoofly pie, munched on some whoopie pies, and took gulps of orange juice and lemonade from a company called Zimmerman’s Dairy, located in Lehighton, PA. Essentially, the food options throughout the day brought a lot of joy to the team and our spirits. Food. Such a powerful tool.
Thank you to the community members of the Trinity Lutheran Church for hosting the Illini 4000. The hospitality you gave us was immeasurable and made us feel right at home with all the efforts you put into making sure the team was able to shower, eat nourishing meals, and have a place to rest. Check out Lehighton, PA! There are great people, history, views, and, of course, food. Make sure to come back to the journals tomorrow to keep up with the team!
Cyclist’s Corner
Today’s rider: Harbin Li
How are you feeling today?
I'm feeling quite good. I'd say we had a great lunch provided by Micah's family. Then ended off the day with a lovely greeting and like just a lovely experience with people at Trinity Church, and the climbs were tough, I would say, especially for day two, back-to-back rides.
What was your favorite part of today’s ride?
I don’t think it was the first climb, but one of the first climbs, right after we went [to the top], it was just, zoom! For a good few minutes of just straight downhill, that was good on the ride at least. But that rest stop at the park was also quite delightful. I don't know, each day so far has just been so dense that it's like, oh, this happened today. This felt like yesterday or like several days before.
What motivated you to join Illini 4000?
Initially, it was just like biking across the country would be like, really fun, and visiting nature places and meeting people, and doing it as a group would just be an experience that really ties with my want or desire to just meet new people, find new experiences, enjoy the environment that I'm in. I think as I got to know more about the organization and the people that run it and the people that are participating, the mission aspect of it really resonated more and more, like finding funding and support for cancer research and patient support services. I'm also working in a lab that's helping out people, helping to create some method of activating drugs that target cancer. And I didn't realize the adjacencies everywhere in my life until I joined i4k and that was the mission that we have.
Before joining Illini 4000, how much bike training had you done, and did you have any other athletic background that you feel prepared you for this ride?
Bike training? No. Maybe I'd go for like a 30-mile ride a month during the summer, but I just bike to commute. sports wise, I haven't been doing sports since like middle school, so, yeah, I mean, I just try to stay active. Go to the arc, play spike ball with friends. That's about it. Nothing intense.
What is your bike's name? Model?
So I got the bike from a guy on Facebook marketplace, it's a nice bike, and I asked him, (he's from Indiana), and I asked him, what's the name of the bike? And he's just like, I just call her Surly because that's the brand's name and, like, it's a nice name, but I'm sure that a lot of Surly owners will name their bikes Surly because it is a great name, but I think that's still TBD, but I guess the code name is Surly.
What are you most nervous/excited about?
I think I am most nervous about tiring myself out too fast or too early. I guess because we have a lot of days together and a lot of days on the ride. We're only on day two. It feels quite exhausting each day. Like, each day I come to dinner being like, I don't know if I can, say, talk right now, I just want to eat food, and probably after eating food, I'm gonna pass out, but I'll probably get better. I'll get used to that. But, yeah, just hopefully I get more conditioned to that. There's a lot to be excited for. I mean, yeah, maybe my favorite place to visit [later on the ride], probably basic, but like the Grand Tetons.
Anything else you want to talk about?
I'm not really good at these questions. I think, I don't know, nothing comes to mind right now.
(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary)