Maine Coasts Trekkers Enjoy a Rest Day

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

We started today’s rest day by sleeping in our tents until it got too hot to stay in there any longer. Then we headed over to the food court at the campground and got nice big pancake breakfast to fill our stomachs for a full day of rest. Then after breakfast, we started doing laundry and also went down to the water to swim. Around lunchtime we did calls home. For lunch we did our usual sandwiches brought to us by Martha, who trekked out to the grocery store to get supplies. We rented kayaks and canoes and headed out on the water for the afternoon as well as enjoyed the shade provided by the pavilion and our sour candy. We also played basketball and went to the arcade throughout the day. For dinner, Martha made us her special birthday buffalo chicken mac & cheese! We loved it and we also had a birthday cake and sang her happy birthday. Caroline also made Martha a card and we all signed it. Is was a great rest day for us, and a good birthday for Martha! Now we’re headed to the bonfire hosted by the campsite and tomorrow we’re headed to Acadia! 
-The Maine Coast Crew

An Amazing Day in Ithaca for the 1000 Mile Trekkers

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

In what quite possibly marks the best day of the trip so far, the 1,000 Mile crew had a fun-filled rest day in Ithaca from start to finish. It started with an early morning hike at Treman State Park to see the stunning Lucifer Waterfall, followed by a swim in the ice cold water beneath the lower falls. Then Ruby’s family ordered us delicious sandwiches and cookies from Ithaca Bakery and her great aunt and uncle who live in the area brought it over to us while we laid waterside at the falls. Once we were done bathing in the sun, we biked into the city to drop some bikes off at the bike shop and check into our hotel. Rye came up with an incredible group activity, where we head to a thrift store, pick names out of a hat and secretly buy an outfit for another member of the group. We had a cap of $7 per outfit and whatever was picked for the individual, had to be worn to dinner that night. Luckily, we have some pretty creative and hilarious group members, so the outfits turned out to be quite the show. Most of the boys ended up in dresses, while Jake got maternity pants. Ruby got a rockstar outfit, Grace and Rye got baggy pants, with Rye’s being about 3x her size. Noah picked out my outfit (Katie) but since Noah is so nice and considerate, he just bought me a normal outfit of jean shorts and a sweater. We laughed until we cried and got weird stares all night long and may have even been turned down from a restaurant or two. Eventually, we found Mediterranean food and ate falafel then biked home in our outfits as Oscar managed to rip his dress at the seam. All in all, Ithaca has been good to us!

Maine Coast Trekkers Biking Through Small Villages and Scenic Coast

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2020, 2021

Today we started off a bit more lazy than usual, but things started to pick up once we hit the road. After biking for a while we stopped at a park for a snack while Denney Peter and Ben played wiffle ball. We rode a little longer to get to lunch—feeling inspired by Sonia’s perseverance, Mimi, Jasper, and Max worked together to get up the hills—and got subs from Blimpie’s. Caroline explored antique shops nearby before hitting the road again. As we headed off again, Jacob and Peter took the lead, and we narrowly missed a rain storm! We got to see Penobscot’s Narrow’s Bridge and took a cool picture. After going through some cool little towns and passing through Verona Island, we made it to Balsam Creek Campsite. We ate pizza, breadsticks, Seth had a chicken salad which he said was very good, and sandwiches for dinner—then we had a group meeting and went to bed!

1000 Mile Trekkers Bike Through the Finger Lakes

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

Today we had the pleasure of biking in-between the scenic finger lakes, following Seneca Lake to Cayuga Lake. We saw many farms, horse-drawn buggies, rolling blue hills in the background and the slated rocks of the gorges breaking into the blue water. We stopped for a swim in Lake Seneca and it was so cool and refreshing on a hot summer day. After the century day yesterday, we decided to treat ourselves to a delicious diner breakfast this morning, which has become one of our favorite ways to treat ourselves on this trip. We were super groggy and slow this morning, but finally got a rhythm going in the afternoon. We passed through some really quaint towns along the way, including Ovid, where a small farmers market was happening and we got some free baked goods and coffee. We also had fun passing through Trumansburg, which seems to have a very vibrant community and there was a music and dance festival happening. Later, we made it to our campground at Treman State Park and made a campfire while making pasta. We look forward to taking the day off tomorrow and doing some hiking and swimming in the park!

A Packed Final Day for GAP Trekkers in Washington, D.C.

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

Today was an awesome day to say the least! We slept in until 8:30 which felt amazing! We got in line for the Smithsonian (Natural History) right at 10am and didn’t have to wait in line for too long. We spent the morning here exploring and had a blast. We headed out around lunch time and found a great sandwich shop to refuel and set off on our next adventure. We decided to head to the Botanical Gardens which were beautiful! Next we all decided we needed to cool off with some ice cream and we even found a fountain to run through. We marveled at the art in the National Gallery and had a lot of fun coming up with funny captions for some of the art. We then did a quick tour of the American Indian Museum before walking over to the Basin to pedal boat. On our boats we were able to get some great views of the Jefferson and MLK memorials. We all agree pedaling via boat was way more difficult than pedaling our bicycles. By this time we were all hungry for dinner and ordered black bean burgers and wings to the hotel where we ate a final dinner together. We talked and laughed about the highlights of our trip and had a great time reflecting on all the fun we had together. All our trekkers are looking forward to seeing their families tomorrow, but we will all miss each other! I hope all our trekkers continue to cycle and explore. It has been amazing to see everyone’s growth in so many ways! We did it!! Until next time – Gabby

Cape Cod Trekkers Ferry to Martha’s Vineyard

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

We got up nice and early and had poptarts, cereal bars, and oatmeal, then we began our 32 mile bike ride along the beautiful coast of southwestern Cape Cod. After stopping at 24 general stores we finally found lunch. Poor Jenna she spilled the milk all over herself. Lachy had a pizza then we were off and zooming to make it to the ferry. Paulotta’s hype allowed us to arrive just in time. Jenna ran to get the tickets and while she was doing so we complimented a couple wearing ALL pink. And the coast guard. We told them their fits were drippy and they loved it. On the ferry we ate and ate and ate. Sasha loved the baguette. And we got a whole pile of salami. It was cray cray. On the bow we all did the titanic pose. And took family pics for all you parents. Couple minutes later we hopped off the ferry ferociously. It was great. We stayed with the cars because we are like cars. Beep beep. Onto the main road we went. Up a hill. And passed the campsite. But fortunately we U-turned and slid into our campsite. Our campsite today is beautiful cabins. With beds and a mirror and fans. It’s spectacular. Unpacking was short and steady. And we got to do our laundry. After fun and games on the field we went off to shop for dinner and breakfast while Jack, Roman, Jaya and Sasha hung back at the cabins to help with laundry and drink chocolate milk. Lachlan, Josh, and Paulotta were the chefs today and chose to make a ramen stir fry. Otto and Jasper came along for the ride. Stop and Shop is our savior. Otto was our bike protector and got a soda from a random guy. Such a vibe. Riding home was even more of an exciting event. On the road it was bustling with people due to a big performance happening in town. Riding back to the cabin a huge 16 wheeler truck pulled up next to us. Obviously with our teenage brains we pull the honk symbol for them to honk. After a short hesitation the truck driver blared his horn at us. Not once not twice but like 20 LOUD scary beeps.  We all almost fell off of our bikes but made it home eventually.

Back at the campsite we cooked. Din din was delish. Josh made the broth scrumptious. And Lachlan made the excellent pork. Paulotta served the people with the skills of a five star chef. 

Fast clean up let us have some fun. The campsite was holding a family dance party. Obviously that was calling our name. There was karaoke and dancing. We started the party. I did the best dancing I could. It was so fun. We all sang at one point and we were sooooooo good. It made us so tired though. And we jumped into showers. The end.  -Jasper

A ‘Century’ for the 1000 Mile Trekkers

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

Today we set out for a group goal to complete 100 miles for what would be our first ever century day on the trip. After a long day with many obstacles that could have stopped us, we pushed through with everyone working together to encourage one another and help each other along, and we rolled into our campsite with 100 miles on the odometer! Everyone was relieved to complete the day, and mustered up cheers of excitement despite being completely exhausted. We were lucky to have been on the Erie Canal Trail for most of the day, keeping the ride flat and scenic. We were also joined for about ten miles by Teen Treks Director, Cliff Madell, who got to know our great group more personally. Teen Treks staff member, Dan Rogers, also played a big role in the day, supporting our crew with delicious groceries throughout the day, including a fruit stop in a park in Spencerport, a tuna salad sandwich stop in Rochester, and a pizza drop in Palmyra, before we pedaled off to finish our ride just outside of Phelps. Tomorrow we get to ride through the Finger Lakes to our next destination in Ithaca, where we will have the following day off! Looking forward to it!

A Rest Day in Sandwich, MA for Cape Cod Trekkers

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

We woke at 8 o’clock to a nicely cooked pancake breakfast with bananas and chocolate chips lovingly made for us by Sam and Jenna. First stop, bike shop. We had to rescue my bike from the hospital at 10 am. Once my bike was saved we immediately rode to the super market. For lunch we had avocados, tomato, pepper jack cheese, ham, turkey, mustard, ketchup, and Mayo. Nothing crazy. At the beach we ate our sandwiches and Paulotta and Jasper jumped in the water right after. It was very very rocky. It was super fun. We then jumped off the bridge into the river, Jenna didn’t let us flip for some reason

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. We tanned and buried Jasper in the sand. Josh, Jack and I played some baller frisbee. Then to celebrate we got slushees! Shout out to the homie Miguel. Then we left the rocky beach back to the Stop and Shop and got burgers and hotdogs but forgot capers. It was a bussing dinner with burnt burgers and hot dogs made by me and Jasper, along with a beautiful salad made by Sasha, juicy mac and cheese made by Jaya and the crew ate good in the neighborhood thanks to Lachlan’s taste testing. Back at the campsite we sat around the fire and did rose, bud, thorn, and Roman did some cool high fiving.

Shout outs:

Sasha was a great runner

Ottos mechanic was chill (Mike the boss man)

Jaya had cool Swiss socks but BLUE

Roman did a charcoal run

Jack started the slushee trend

Josh made very funny morbid jokes

Maine Coast Trekkers Complete 50 Mile Day

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

We decided to try things a little differently today because it was a 50 mile day ride.


First from the “chill group” (Me, Caroline, Seth, Jasper, Max, and Tessa) We left the campsite around 8:30 AM. On our ride, we stopped to buy brownies, popcorn, and lemonade from a kids lemonade stand. Later in the ride, we stopped at a really pretty bridge in Bath. Later in the ride, we went to the grocery store to grab lunch and a random nice lady gave us donut holes! Overall, this was the most difficult ride yet. Luckily, the camp site was really nice and we had a great dinner of chicken taco salad. The day ended with a full nights sleep accompanied with a cold night.  – Written by Mimi 


Now from the “speedy group” (Peter, Jacob, Sonia, Ben, and Denny) In the morning, we stayed back to pack up the tents. On our long, but speedy, ride, we stopped to get chips and popsicles. We arrived after the chill group and they had prepared a wonderful dinner for us.  – Written by Ben 

GAP Trekkers Complete Their 375 Mile Journey Reaching D.C.

Posted Teen TreksPosted in 2021

Today was a short day. We woke up and immediately set out for DC from one of our trailside campsites. The trails were a bit wet from the night before, but had minimal potholes and was mostly downhill. Since we biked more than we needed to yesterday we arrived at DC in a little under 2 hours. We went around the Lincoln Memorial, had lunch at one of the food trucks in the National Mall, and saw the White House before checking into our Holiday Inn Express. After some R&R, we explored downtown DC a little bit, ate some dinner, and came back to the hotel for some much deserved rest.