Middle School bike trip 2018: Contend

This photo of me spread eagled on the ground at the end of the Middle School bike trip pretty much sums the week up. 😂 It really was a fantastic week, but it had its difficulties too. That last day to Edgemont in the 100+ heat was a doozy...

Rewind to Monday, June 11, when we all came together at the church for the first time. We labeled everyone's things...

...stacked the bikes until we had no room left for like five of them...

...jammed stuff in the trailer until we had no room left and still stuff to go in. Oof. We had a group of 40, including 25 students, 3 high school helpers, and 12 adult leaders, which was the largest ever. So although we had three vehicles (a rental van, my dad's van, and our Envoy), and three trailers to haul stuff, one of them was a little small. We ended up stacking the sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and pillows on top of the bikes and that gave us the room we needed for the food. We put the extra bikes in the back of a parent's truck and a couple kids there too for good measure. We finally got it all in. 

Once we were packed we went inside for rules and prayer. 

I like Terry's side-eye here. 😆

We drove an hour from Rapid City to Rochford, which was a change for us. In 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016 we camped the first night at the Deadwood KOA and then biked down the highway the following morning to the trailhead. This year, for the first time ever thanks to the generosity of Becky and her husband Neal, we were able to stay at their cabin for the first two nights.

Here's Mary and Denise setting up their enormous tent for the two of them. I would stay with them after we left the cabin but for the next two nights, I got to sleep inside the cabin in an actual bed. I'm a terrible sleeper so it helped a lot.

Dinner was provided by Jason and Denise. It's quite an undertaking to plan a meal for that many people, shop, and drive two hours round trip just to make it happen. We could never do this trip without all the helpers. Also thanks to Suzie and Amanda and Christie!

It is beautiful up there but it got pretty chilly when the sun went down. The second morning there we had frost on the ground. 

David and Pete came up to look over all the bikes and make sure they were ready to go. More help to be grateful for!

See, what a beautiful view! 

Terry had us play a name game that was a bit of a flop. Who knew so many kids couldn't catch a ball or pay attention properly? 😂

Next we had our first bible study session. Beautiful artwork right? Done by our friend Faith of course. She does all Terry's artwork and she's amazing.

Listen up kids.

Jordyn came up because it was her very last night in South Dakota. She was leaving for college the next day and we miss her.

Bright and early the next day we all got up after a pretty poor night's rest. One of the girl's tents had been crazy loud until one or two in the morning. They were much quieter the following nights, as is always the case. I was glad to be inside but even I didn't sleep well. We had breakfast thanks to Denise and Mary's hard work to plan and shop and pack it all for us. Then we were driven up to the Deadwood to the trailhead. Our timing wasn't too bad. We left the trailhead and began biking about 9:15am.

One of the best parts of the trip was Jeff recording us with his drone. He's the same friend who had just taken Terry on a helicopter ride with him and also offered to give him some aerial footage for the video.

We got to the first break with three injuries. As Noah says, "good grief." It turned out to be a good thing I was there because they certainly needed a trail nurse as time went on. I washed out Luke's cut because it was the worst and got Carly and Eric bandaged too.

Here's Noah with Jack and his friend Spencer. And Kyle. 

Lunch was wonderful. We were so very hungry. I think that was the hungriest I was the entire trip. I didn't have enough for breakfast and lunch wasn't until like 1. We were a little late in arriving due to a mishap with Danicka's bike. The chain came off and got so stuck no one could remove it. Thankfully some trail maintainers were driving by and had some tools Terry used to get it out. However, the same thing happened again when we went to leave after lunch. That was stressful. I believe they fixed it for good that night.

The first day is always pretty hard on the kids because they're tired due to poor sleep and the hill they climb, though short, is a higher grade. We arrived back to Rochford about 3:15pm. From there the ladies made a shower list and everyone just hung out to rest. This group was watching someone's bike get fixed. Oh, and another great thing about the cabin was the shower! We didn't usually get a shower on this night...

Two years ago Alex cut himself up and this year he did one worse that needed stitches. It was such a random injury. The poor kid, pictured above, was sitting in the grass and then turned over to get up but grazed his knee on something sharp in the grass. When he sat down again he had this one inch gash open on his knee! And it started bleeding fast and furious. Thankfully his dad is a doctor so I called his mother who called his father, Pete, who came up once again, this time to fix up his son instead of bikes like the night before. Though he did end up fixing a few more bikes too. Poor guy.

The ladies chilling out in the cool basement waiting their turn for the shower. I was the first one to get one and it was amazing. 

Next we played some chasing game having to do with kids becoming zombies.

Thankfully no one else got hurt.

I had bandaged Alex as well as I could and still when they took off the coban, which was very tight, the gauze was all soaked through with blood. He really did need stitches. So glad we had a doctor and we didn't have to drive to town. 

Next was dinner time but first Alex got stitched up. 

I think wounds are pretty fun and was able to give Pete a hand. 

All done! He was totally fine once it was closed up. 

Next I think we had our devo time and then Jazmin and Zoe did a long game of Ship to Shore with the kids. We usually only play that at the Fall Retreat, but it was a hit. They played for over an hour, added more variety, and didn't want to stop.

Caleb and Luke cracked me up here.

We all slept better that night and were up equally early to get going on a very big day of riding to Custer.

Ready to go!

I had to stop and re-bandage Alex' knee so I was in the back. It was fun riding with Denise and Mary and since we could catch up easily we stopped at take a picture with this little waterfall not far from the cabin. 

Then Terry came along and they took our picture too.

Our first stop was at Mystic and Natasha, Lindsey, me, and some others did some stretching. My knees were surprisingly stuff. I was prepared for my butt being sore, but not for my legs being so tired, especially my knees. By the end of the week I felt like a cowboy getting off a horse, all bow-legged.

Noah and some guys.

For this uphill portion to Red Fern trailhead, Terry paired everyone with someone they didn't know well to cut down on cliques and having the same people in the front and back all the time. I was with Zeah which was good so I could get to know her a very little bit. We had been instructed to stop at the first tunnel we came to so that's what we did. And the picture taking commenced.

This one has me in it. 

Boy, I had bad memories of that hill up to Red Fern from the high school trip in 2015 when I biked it with strep throat, and though it wasn't as bad as my memory, still it was very difficult. Zeah was incredibly fast and hard to keep up with! She killed me. Biking down to lunch in Hill City was a breeze and enjoyable and lunch was great. From there we had the last big hill of our trip in front of us - Crazy Horse hill. I had never done that section due to illness, and so had only heard story and story about how difficult it was but none of the hype lived up to reality. It wasn't that bad! I biked with Zoe the whole time and maybe because we talked the whole time, it was really quite enjoyable. We stopped early on when it was just pretty level on the bridge that goes over Highway 385. 

Terry walked down next to the highway to get our picture up there.

Mile marker 54 was the exact halfway point on the trail. 

Here's Noah and I atop Crazy Horse hill - that's actually Crazy Horse behind us. The drivers had parked up there and brought us ice cold blue Power-Aid. It was so refreshing. 

From there we cruised down into Custer with ease. Terry had me stand in the middle of the trail to take everyone's picture for the video. There he is. 

There's Noah. 

And there's me! 

Once in Custer, we set up our tents and scattered. All I cared about was a shower, but there were many who swam. The pool wasn't heated so no one lasted very long but they had fun. 

I thought this was pretty, Natasha, Zoe, and Abby reading on those rocks. 

Here's our campsite for the night. It was so much warmer than Rochford which was nice.

I wandered around taking pictures of everyone off playing. I was giving Jazmin a hard time about how pretty her hair is and why in the world won't she ever wear it down? I got this look as a threat for taking her picture.

And I got this look in return for taking her picture. Ha ha ha.

A blurry group of leaders, but what a great crew they were. Seriously, they were all so amazing. That's Becky, Dale, Charon, Kyle, and Mary. I had just the best time with them! 

Time to study around the campfire with Lindsey, Zeah, Hannah, Jazmin, me, and Noah.

Terry, Kyle, Zach, Corban. Back row, Alaina, Alex, Spencer. 

The following morning dawned bright and hot. We knew it was going to be a brutally hot day but I had hopes the forecast would change. It didn't. Furthermore, one of the trailers had a flat tire! It was pretty easy to fix, but still it made us a little late. It was a sign of things to come...

We always take a picture with Dino before leaving. 

So the ride from Custer to Pringle went pretty well, aside from some fighting and arguing in the front.  Once we got to Pringle we all had some snacks (dried mangos for me), filled our waters and set out for Minnekahta. I booked it there with Mary and Denise to help her set out lunch, like for real, we seriously pushed ourselves hard. I was breathing! Once we arrived, Dale went to back the trailer up closer to the table and we discovered that his driver's rear tire was completely flat! SO flat! 

It was my dad's van and he had shown Terry how to remove the tire and made sure to show him all the correct tools. Terry knew they were there, but the guys could not find the correct socket or whatever to remove the lug nuts. So when Terry arrived he called AAA to come and rescue us. Then we laid out lunch and started eating. Terry went back to the tools and discovered that they had overlooked the correct size and he was able to get the tire off no problem. Terry cancelled AAA. Getting the spare out from under the van was difficult but it got done. However, once they got the spare on, they discovered that it too was flat!! Terry called AAA again. By this time we had been there for nearly an hour and it was only getting hotter. Terry instructed everyone to leave and head for Edgemont, stopping to get water at the next spot. I had to stay with Terry because our AAA is in my name since I drive our van all the time.

See that little pin in the tread? We think that's what caused it. Who knows where it came from? Satan probably. Ha ha. 

The AAA guy got there 20-30 minutes later and I was surprised to see him on a motorcycle. He went to work airing up the spare but didn't have enough air with him to get it filled! Good grief! So our new plan was for Dale and Ed to accompany the AAA guy to his shop where he would patch the original tire, put it on, and also fill up the spare but somehow they couldn't "figure out" how to stow it back under the van. Whatever. Then they would turn around and meet us in Edgemont so they could ferry us to the campground for the night. 

Terry and I jumped on our bikes in the terrible, awful heat and went to work catching up with the crew that was 40 minutes ahead of us. We talked to try to keep our mind off the heat and how tired and ready to be done we were. Distraction helps immensely. We were worried that we'd see stragglers at any moment but we didn't catch anyone until four miles out of Edgemont. We had 16 miles to go from Minnekahta until we were done and we conquered the first eight without any rest at all. My heart rate was in the 170s or 180s which is topping out for me. I had to stop. Then we got on our bikes and arrived around the corner at the bridge I had taken pictures at in 2015 when I had strep throat. So we had to stop there and have another rest. 

Not far was the last water pump and bathroom break before the end. We took a picture there.

Then we took another picture on the earth bridge. My, it was a lot of stops and selfies, but it was probably good we took a break. From there we climbed until we caught up with the caboose and sweepers. We encouraged them and then passed to the next group.  

This was the absolute worst part of the trip and that is no joke. The last four miles are flat, boring, dismally hot, and so discouraging. You feel like you'll never ever arrive. It was at this point that I started getting shivery. I knew that was a sign of heat stroke so I was drinking water pretty constantly. But the hot wind like a hair dryer was in our faces and we had to work against it. It was good to have a breeze but it also eeked away your moisture. It was misery, total grueling awfulness. I kept thinking about a single line in Tolkien's Return of the King when Sam and Frodo begin to go up Mount Doom at last and they're about to die because of how sick they've become. "The last stage of their journey to Orodruin came, an it was a torment greater than Sam had ever thought he could bear." Perhaps that is a little dramatic, perhaps it was the heat stroke talking, but that's what I was thinking. 

We stopped for a picture with only one mile to go and I seriously didn't know if I could make it. I wasn't the only one. I waited in the back with Michaela and she might have passed out when we started biking again after a walk. So we walked some more. Then we got back on our bikes, were passed by our Envoy driven by Russ and his friend Kevin. We finally came to Main Street and followed it up to the trailhead where everyone else had already arrived. 

I took my stuff off and just laid in the grass. Russ and Kevin had brought popsickles, which were a literal life saver since we were all so hot and about to heat stroke out, but I didn't even want to move to get one. I was done. I did move and have three or four. Noah had eight I believe for goodness sake but there was plenty. 

After a very long rest, we were finally finished. We ended up having to wait longer than we planned because Ed got caught up checking us in to the campground. But we all finally arrived and set up camp. Just when we were all ready load up for dinner and swimming, it was discovered that Ed accidentally locked the keys in the rental van. It was a sort of freak accident. Terry was beyond stressed by that point. He ordered everyone into the remaining van and Envoy and called AAA yet again, for the third time that day, to come and rescue us once again. They arrived very quickly and we were on our way with one little problem that no one knew we were coming already and would probably turn around to come and get us as they had been instructed. I finally got ahold of someone to pass along the info to, David, and we were good. Dale ended up being late like us because he had got lost in Hot Springs. By this point, our pizza was a little cold and we were pretty late for Evan's Plunge but we went for it. The water felt glorious and we were able to get showered. Plus, Terry did the rings twice! The second time was hilarious because his grip let go at just the moment when his legs were over the side and he slid "into safe." The only bummer thing was that Zeah and Lindsey's sandals were stolen out of the locker room. Boy or boy, it had been a day. We got loaded up and went to Dairy Queen where everyone got to have a snack and some fun. I had a mango pineapple smoothie and woke up to...

...a swollen lip! I had thought my lips were just sunburned but no, apparently I'm allergic to mangos. How annoying. 

The following morning we had breakfast and packed everything up. 

This was our camp. 

One pretty field flower. 

One final devotion. 

One final picture. 

Oh wait, this is the last one, with Dale in it too. 

We got back to the church and that was a pain because the asphalt was being re-tarred. So we had to unload far from the back door, sprawl everything on the lawn, and hike back and forth to put stuff away inside. Then we had to drop off the trailer and the rental van and take Luke and Natasha home since their mom's car broke down. Then finally, like two hours later, we were finally home. Surprisingly, Terry did not crash for a couple days. Not sure what his deal was. It took me like a week to feel back to normal, like I didn't have to sleep past 9am every morning anymore. 

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It really was! Despite all the difficulties, it was amazing. It was the first time I'd ever been able to bike the whole thing. It was incredible. So thankful to all the help we had, especially to Jana and my folks who watched our other three kiddos so I could go. Thank you!!

And here is Terry's amazing video. It makes me want to do it all again. 💙💚💛💜 But maybe next time Terry, name is something more encouraging so we don't have to do as much "contending." 😜😂😆😇