Get ready for what may be our most adventurous day of the ride so far! The one-week marker of the Illini 4000 Summer 2026 ride was scheduled to be an 86 mile route mostly along a bike trail from Ebensburg to Pittsburgh, but it turned into a 95 mile expedition that was filled with all of the hallmarks of our typical rides and much more. Everyone is sleeping safe and sound at Temple Sinai now, so not to worry, but it certainly was an eventful day.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 94.7 miles (from what was supposed to be 86.4)
Elevation: 3,832 ft.
Points of Interest: Ghost Town Rail Trail, Conemaugh River overflowing
Tales of the Trail
Today the title “Tales of the Trail” is a lot more accurate as a majority of our ride today was on a trail! We started out the ride by saying goodbye to the community members of the Ebensburg Presbyterian Church. They were very gracious and came into the church to start making breakfast at 4 in the morning. (And I thought we woke up early) After a group picture we rolled out onto a very nice and shaded 30 or so miles of the Ghost Town Rail Trail.
On our ride today we recruited two new members to Illini4000 (temporarily). We got two community members: Charlene, a friend of the church, and a local commissioner to join us for the first 10-20 miles of the ride. Incidentally during the first 5 miles, one of us got a flat so we could really show them the full I4k experience. This unfortunately brought our 2 day no-flat streak to a screeching halt. After replacing a tire (because it had gotten a puncture from a shard of glass a few days before and finally decided to quit on us), we quickly got rolling onto the beautiful bike path once again. As the path was plenty covered by trees and it was early in the morning, it was quite a chilly start to the day.
Most of the day was quite normal, as it was in the 60s and sunny for most of the morning. It was amazing to start the day off with 30 miles all downhill on the trail. It was quite refreshing to be able to just chat with everyone without having to worry about watching for cars or climbing mountains. We hit the rest stop at mile 40 with a very positive outlook about the rest of our day.
Just after this however is when things took a turn for the worse. Or a turn for the fun depending on how you look at it. After getting on another bike path the route began to be filled with many sticks and fallen logs that the team had to be careful to path around. About this time on the ride I began partially wishing that I had brought a mountain bike for this trip. Once a group of us got past all the fallen logs we quickly realized why there was so much debris on the path. As we looked in front of us the bike path merged with a lake that had gotten so much rain that it flooded the entire path.
At this point the team faced a tough decision. Try to hike the side of the hill by the bike path and find a road, or completely turn around and definitely add at least 10 miles. The team was feeling brave and decided to try and hike up the steep and wooded side of the path. Even with a heroic effort, we were stumped and were forced to turn around. This adventure surely was not the most time efficient, but was surely a great way to make memories to look back on. With all of our random adventures and mishaps throughout the day it turned into quite a long and strenuous day of biking, more than we had previously thought.
All of us really locked in at this point as we were very much in need of a warm dinner. Everything went well as we fought a few last steep hills making our way into Pittsburg. We made good time (considering all that had happened today) and rolled into the Sinai Temple around 7. After a very long day of biking which turned into us biking 95 miles with the detour instead of the originally planned 85 miles, we arrived to a warm welcome at the stayover. There was already a big spread of warm food (my personal favorite being home-cooked corn muffins) and we were able to fill up on food right away. We even got to have ice cream for dessert after!
After being fed and our spirits lifted it seemed like the whole team was brought back to life a little bit after the tough day. Some of the team braved a hose shower (with very cold water), and afterwards everyone was fairly wiped from the long day. We got a “midnight” snack of cold pizza, then headed to bed to get ready for whatever adventures await us tomorrow.
One crew in the van at one of their stops.
Cyclists’ Corner
Rider: Nishk Patel
How are you feeling today? Physically? Mentally?
Feeling good. Feeling a lot more tired than I think most days, but it was a longer day today, 95 miles, and I think there were a lot more fast, steep hills that we had to take, especially when we got here closer to the city in Pittsburgh. The legs are a little sore. The cold shower was really nice out of the hose. I honestly thought it would be way worse. We all came into it being like, oh, we're gonna be freezing, but it was fun!
What was your favorite part of today's ride?
As unfortunate as it was to have to reroute, I think it was really cool when we were taking the Ghost Town Trail, and we hit a patch where, because of the rain last weekend, there was a huge flood that came onto the trail, and you could like see the river and the trail just become one. As unfortunate as it was that we couldn't go down that route, and we were made to turn back and add like 12 miles to our route total, it was just really cool to see. We had a little fun adventure going through that whole area and hiking up the side of a mountain to see if we could get over onto a real road. Yeah, things like that. That was a little fun detour.
What motivated you to join Illini4000?
I originally found out about Illini 4000 through an Instagram ad, but I realized that someone I'd known prior had been a part of it. I think it was just something that seemed like a really cool experience, because it's twofold: not only do you get to have this really cool trip with a bunch of people as you bike across the country (which is this totally awesome feat to say you've done, it's like some of the best dad lore you could possibly have), but on top of that, it's done for a really great cause (you get help a lot of people through your fundraising and through sharing the message that Illini 4000 brings). Every place we meet people, every place that we go to, people are super excited and eager to talk about us, talk to us about our journey, and talk to us about the things we fundraise for. It feels very impactful, and it looks like it's changing people's perspective on helping fundraise, and fundraise for cancer research and patient support services.
Before joining Illini4000 how much bike training had you done, if any, and did you have any other athletic background that you feel prepared you for this ride?
Not much athletic background that I would say specifically helped for this ride. This past Fall I hadn't ever actually ridden a road bike before, or done any sort of formal training on a bike. I would say I maybe have some general athleticism and play sports with friends pretty often and things like that. This semester was really like a “lock-in” semester because I was training for both a half-marathon and doing training for Illini 4000 plus a lot of the same sports I do with my friends and roommates. So a very physically active semester, and I think that helped a lot with the endurance training because I was basically doing something every day when it comes to physical activity this past semester. When it comes to biking 70 miles every day, it kind of translates a little bit. The biggest thing was just practicing getting comfortable on the bike, getting used to a very different style of biking than when you're riding around in the afternoon with your friends back in middle and high school.
What is your bike's name/model?
My bike is actually Cole’s old bike. It's a giant Defy 5 Aluxx from 2015 and I do have a name for it. The name is “Rim-othy Breaks” because my rim brakes had a little slight issue at one point during the ride, so I had to sit in the van for one day until I could get it fixed, but it is fixed now. So Rimothy Breaks is not currently broken and let's hope Rimothy Breaks survives.
What are you most nervous/excited about?
Nervous for day 9… 1.2 miles at a 9% average grade is a tough, tough climb. Overall, it's the general nervousness of, I don't want to get injured or wear myself out, and then, have to deal with an injury during the ride. So trying my best to keep myself going, keep pacing myself but not push too, too hard, and super excited for when we get out West. I feel like once we get through these these hills and once we get through the corn fields, we'll be in some really cool western states, Colorado, and then we'll hit the whole like Yellowstone tour, basically through Wyoming, and then Montana, and Idaho, and then out West when you get to Oregon, and down through California. All of those states just seem to be super beautiful, and I think those will be a really fun time. We'll probably be stopping every 30 minutes to see some cool view!
Anything else you would like to talk about?
Max ate it today. Max ate it today, but he's doing well. Trooper, trooper.
Are you pro- or anti-sprinkles?
My nickname is apparently “Sprinkles” on the team, and I'm very pro-sprinkles. Anyone who's anti-sprinkles, go home, go home. I’m pro-sprinkles.