Days 9 & 10: New Philadelphia, PA to Dresden, OH to Columbus, OH

Day 9

• Distance: 27.0 mi (team did 53.26)
• Elevation: 1,808 ft (team did 3,236)
• Dedication: Jamie Roberts
• Ride group: Jack, Richa, and Chase
• Host: United Methodist Church

Yesterday we arrived in the small town of Dresden, home of the Longaberger basket company. It would have been a great host situation regardless, but I was especially thankful for a nice place to stay, showers, and a few hours at a tavern with the team after the day we had.

The scheduled ride was definitely an improvement from the hills of PA (we’re slowly but surely getting flatter and flatter), but the roads were in terrible condition. We were dodging a lot of debris and potholes the whole way, and one of the roads was under some construction but still passable. The morning was pretty uneventful, but just about halfway through my teammate Jack hit a strip of packed gravel on the road while going ~35 mph down a hill and wiped out. I was coming down right behind him– it was scary just to see, but to then have to cross the same strip of gravel while trying to slow down was terrifying. I was pretty shaken up but also had to jump into director mode to follow our emergency protocol and get him to a medical center. He was able to get up pretty quickly so I knew by the time I was able to stop that he wasn’t gravely injured. A second ride group came down a few minutes after us, got to hear me violently shriek at them to slow down, and helped us get Jack’s things collected and rinse his wounds while I called the water van to pick us up.

Thankfully we have many medical students/professionals on our team that were able to make sure there was nothing urgent we needed to treat, including Chase, who was leading our group and was far enough ahead that he didn’t hear the crash, but realized something was up and biked back up the hill to help out. We learned that our reflective leg bands can also serve as bandages– we noticed blood coming from under Jack’s band, took it off momentarily to find a deep gash, and promptly put it back on. A lot of Jack’s things (including his glasses, Garmin, and water bottles) went flying and it took a while to track everything down; I think at least one water bottle had disappeared for good.

We were also very fortunate that the crash happened in an area with cell service, although we did have some issues finding directions to the nearest emergency room. After a few redirects we made it to an urgent care and Jack was taken care of. He miraculously didn’t have a concussion even though he cracked his helmet in three places, but he did injure his wrist and has a ton of road rash. It seemed almost inevitable that someone on the team would crash, and as much as it sucks that it happened it definitely could’ve been a lot worse.

Having a crash that day was especially scary because it was the 8-year anniversary of Jamie Roberts’ death. Jamie was a rider with Team Portland in 2014 who was hit by a car while changing a flat. I knew Jamie’s story before I even knew about 4K because she went to St. Mary’s College in my hometown. Her story has always been tragic, obviously, but actually being on 4K and thinking about losing a teammate at this point in the trip is horrible. Most of our team dedicated Day 9 to Jamie and rode in her memory. It was a stark reminder of how dangerous cycling can be (especially when cars are involved) and how lucky we were that Jack was okay.

By the time we left urgent care most of the team was close to the host so we just shuttled there and started getting settled. We stayed with the United Methodist Church in Dresden but slept in an old train depot that they converted into a youth group clubhouse. It was pretty nice! We walked down to the World’s Largest Basket (really not that big) and spent a lot of time at the Dresden Tavern (both before and after dinner lol, pretty sure we ran them out of White Claws). On the way home me and some of the guys found a very cute cat we named Jamis (the brand of our bikes) and seriously considered letting him into our host to spend the night with us.

Day 10

• Distance: 61.75 mi
• Elevation: 1,752 ft
• Dedication: Peggy Leigh Wooten
• Ride group: Glenn, Jake, Katy, and Briana
• Host: Doug Ulman and friends

Overnight we were hit by a pretty large storm. I woke up at one point and saw a lot of lightning, but others also heard a ton of hail hitting the roof. We woke up without power and had a veryyyy slow start to the morning, including breakfast by lamplight. I dedicated my ride to Peggy Leigh Wooten, my best friend’s grandma who passed from cancer. The first 30 miles of our ride were equally slow because there was so much debris on the roads, which were also gravel and in poor shape.

After our first water stop we got on what would have been a very nice rail trail but there were downed trees everywhere. I think it took us an hour to go about two miles because we had to keep getting off our bikes and climbing over/under trees. I was in a ride group with Glenn and Jake and they asserted their masculinity by moving some of the smaller trees. We also passed by the former Longaberger headquarters, which is shaped like a giant basket (but isn’t considered the World’s Largest Basket, because it’s a building?) and is apparently now a hotel??? Bizarre.

At our lunch stop our host van drivers assembled an awesome nacho table for us, it was amazing! But before nachos, we had to traverse a massive puddle (honestly a lake) because the creek next to the trail was flooding after all the rain. My group was lucky enough to get there in time to read the elaborate directions the water van team had chalked out to get us around the water to lunch, but the water was rising so quickly that the chalk was gone by the time some other groups arrived– some people were brave (and perhaps hungry) enough to take off their cleats and ford the growing pond on foot. Mike survived the pond only to hit a huge hole in the grass right next to the nacho table and took the most comical fall I’ve ever seen, it was like he was falling in slow-motion.

Right after my group finished eating it suddenly became very, very hot. I was glad I was able to eat before that point because it was too hot and humid to do anything. I was so anxious to get back on the road because sitting there was making me feel sick, but our groups were pretty spread out so we had to wait a while. I anxiously paced to pass the time and made the mistake of using the portapotty– I think I have a good idea of what drowning feels like now.

It did feel better to get a little breeze back on the bike but it was honestly a pretty miserable ride. The last 10 miles were especially bad for me. I think that not finishing yesterday put me a little behind the rest of the team in terms of heat acclimation, but having to stop at a bunch of unshaded traffic lights as we approached Columbus was brutal for everyone. Once we were off the trail we were on some decently busy roads and somehow managed to “mega group”, with multiple ride groups all bunched together on the roads. Some of my teammates love mega grouping, I strongly dislike it– I will concede that there is a time and a place for it (isolated back roads, empty trails, our final ride to Baker Beach, etc.), but navigating urban environments is certainly not one of them. I was hot, nervous, and exhausted, so when we pulled into our host neighborhood and almost everyone stopped at a lemonade stand, I just looked at Glenn and said “I need to go.” So, we passed on lemonade and went in search of air conditioning.

We’re staying with Doug Ulman, the founder of the Ulman Foundation, and some of his friends for the next two nights. I’m staying with Glenn at the Kondracke’s and they have been such amazing hosts! This is the first night of the trip that I’ve taken a totally private shower, used a real towel, done a load of laundry with only my clothes, and slept in a real bed. It’s only been 10 days but those things already feel like such luxuries! Susanne also gave us a quick driving tour of Columbus when we had to track down Glenn’s backpack, which had been left in one of the vans. I took a quick trip to Ohio State with UMD’s marching band my junior year (one of the most miserable games of my life, I recently found out Jake was also in attendance (he had a much better time than I did)), but it was nice to see more of the city beyond the football stadium.

I pushed through some extreme sleepiness to go out with some teammates in downtown Columbus which was very fun. Many of my teammates are much more extroverted than I and did some karaoke at a bar. We adjusted “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” to be more relevant to us– “I would bike 4,000 miles and I would bike 4,000 more”– which was a sweet moment.

Until next time!

Lauren