In Madison, WI, Joey’s grandfather delivered a brief but memorable speech about the terrain ahead of us. He said that once we crossed the Missouri River, we would unlock another level of the country’s natural beauty. His words echoed a sentiment we’ve heard from past riders — that the “real” ride begins after Chicago. We have already reckoned with this while gliding up and down the lush rolling hills of Wisconsin and across the seemingly endless grasslands of South Dakota, but a lot of us palpably felt this shift when we entered the Badlands National Park. It presented a kind of nature unlike most of us have ever seen before, and certainly different from the landscapes we’ve encountered on our journey as I4K. The team is also acclimating to the increasingly rural settings we spend our nights in, as well as the joy of finding enjoyment no matter where you are. This time we looked forward to a rest day in Wall, SD, a town of a little under 700 people that houses the iconic Wall Drug store, a beacon of entertainment and a welcome distraction to many sweaty travelers (us of course included — these days, it feels like we are perpetually sweating). As we look ahead to the fast-approaching halfway mark of the ride, we can’t wait to dive head-first into more of the unfamiliar.
ride overview
Mileage: 63.7
Elevation: 3,153’
Ride Dedication: Dean Rothermel, a family friend of Olaf’s.
Points of Interest: The Badlands Ranch Store, Badlands National Park, Wall Drug, Wakin’ Bacon
quote of the day
“Please don’t die, it would ruin my day.”
tales of the trail
Day 35’s morning activity was a continuation of our Why We Ride activity from the night before. Logan invited us to go around in a circle and share a Rose (something we appreciated during the ride), a Bud (something we’re looking forward to during the ride), and a Thorn (something that has been bothering us during the ride). Experiencing the variety of morning activities that our teammates have planned for us has been interesting, whether they’re reflective and grounding like the one we did today or playful and energy boosting (like the Jojo Siwa-inspired dance competition of Day 28, for example).
From there, we rolled out into much of the same South Dakota that we’ve by now gotten used to – slight and consistent hills, oceans of grass, and a good amount of wind. It was starting to get repetitive until, finally, we emerged at the crest of an ascent and saw the first of the Badlands in the far distance. As we zoomed down the descent, the thrill of knowing that we would soon be biking through those rocky structures filled us with motivation and excitement.
A view of the Badlands from a distance (credit: Joey).
Claudia and SAV dip their toes in new terrain.
That day’s ride followed a unique format. Typically, Claudia (our beloved van driver and Instagram chore) designates specific rest stops every 20 or so miles. Given our shorter mileage and the fact that it was our first proper National Park day, we decided to set our own pace and give each group the opportunity to take it all in “DIY-style,” as Claudia put it. We stopped at anything and everything we found interesting, from statues of bison and dinosaurs (of which the latter was an impressive 80 feet tall), to adorable prairie dogs, to breathtakingly panoramic lookouts.
Anthony, Logan, and Dylan embody their inner prairie dog.
We of course rushed to take a picture with this epic fellow biker.
After we passed the official entry sign into the Badlands National Park, one could feel the sheer scale of the formations before us set into our collectively awed senses. Over four weeks into the trip, we’ve undoubtedly seen our fill of amazing natural expanses — the Badlands, though, felt exhilaratingly foreign to our Midwestern eyes. Our widened gaze followed the outlines of jagged rocks jutting out of grassy plains for as far as one could see (around 244,000 acres, to be exact). Stubbornly surviving shrubs sprouted from their crumbly surfaces, and it was precarious but worthwhile to clamber over them in our cycling cleats for the perfect viewpoint. We took copious pictures, as the amount of scrolling our readers are about to do will demonstrate.
Can you spot a certain few orange and blue bikers within those rocky slopes?
The paved road we biked on winded us through these forms in a way that afforded us the rugged sights of the park without the challenges of the pioneers and natives that had initially traversed the land. Wind, however, spares no one. Descending as a deafening crosswind threatens to topple your bike is sketchy to say the least, and we’re glad that everyone made it through those stretches of the ride safely. Climbing the Badlands’ tall, rocky spires was especially memorable. By the afternoon, the heat beat down on our backs and the Badlands stared at us with silent indifference as we crawled our way up them.
Biking through the Badlands (how is that not the title of a song yet?)
Some of our riders are braver than others — which makes for some heroic shots.
Logan and Michael experience the Badlands “Titanic”-style
As we entered the last bit of the day’s ride, our surroundings transitioned from dense, stony eruptions to the same grasslands from before. We gladly rolled into Wall, SD and entered the doors to our lovely (and refreshingly air conditioned) stayover, First Lutheran Church.
A blurry yet necessary picture of the final attraction of the day — one mile from our stayover, this 80-foot dinosaur.
After showers, the team wasted no time and headed next door to Wall Drug, drawn by its decades-old promises of free ice water and five-cent coffee. We’d first started seeing billboards for the store days ago, so expectations were high — and boy, were they met. The building is wall-to-wall (see what I did there?) with trinkets and activities — all the dinosaur animatronics, homemade ice cream, pricey leather goods, and touristy T-shirts one could desire. It’s difficult to describe the Wall Drug experience, except for that you have to be there to understand it.
Our partaking in the spectacle of Wall Drug didn’t end there and continued well into our rest day. We explored every inch of the store and left no prop stone unturned. Wall-themed postcards and T-shirts, matching Smokey Bear socks, and mouth-watering donuts were amongst some of the things we purchased to memorialize our time there. In the evening, we fueled up on a generously donated dinner from our amazing stayover hosts. We also took the time to relax in preparation for the week ahead of us, which features big landmarks like Mount Rushmore.
Olivia, Lucas, and Maaike attempt the pushup challenge, with some light dancing (and a lot of breaks).
Happy Birthday Kev!!! :D (Thank you to Olaf for baking the cake behind them!)
We move onto our next new state of Wyoming in a few days, which means our time with South Dakota will soon come to a bittersweet end. The state has shown us everything from the mundane to the extraordinary, and we’re incredibly grateful for all of its beautiful people and places we’ve been so incredibly lucky to experience :)
cyclist’s corner
Today’s Rider: Michael Bian
How are you feeling today?
I’m feeling great. Wall South Dakota is nice, I really like Wall Drug. The only thing is the mosquitoes, I didn’t expect mosquitoes in South Dakota to be this bad… Otherwise, I like Wall. Badlands was fun.
You’ve fundraised thousands of dollars for our cause. What has been the most impactful fundraising experience you’ve had?
As an off-campus rider, I struggled with fundraising a lot more, just because people don’t know what Illini 4000 is — they don’t know what the University of Illinois is, much less Illini 4000. So I was having a lot of difficulty… I couldn’t really do concessions, because Emory isn’t a big sports school, and the tabling or whatever, I had to get prior approval, so that was not really going anywhere. I was emailing a bunch of people, and they pretty much kept on saying no. But then, I did email this one donor — actually, I was connected to this one donor, and told them what I was doing, and they were like “oh, it’s a cool experience.” I didn’t expect anything from it because I had been told “no” so many times. But then they were gracious enough to offer me a grant, and they just asked for my account information and sent me $500. That was a great way to start it, because up to that point I had been behind on almost all of my fundraising deadlines… It wasn’t because I wasn’t trying, it was just because…there are unique challenges to being an off-campus rider. Finally getting that big $500 break was a lot to me, because it was a ton of money first of all, but then also I felt like I might have a chance of getting close to my goal.
What keeps you going when it gets difficult to put in all of those miles or even to get on the bike?
I think talking to the Portraits people — somewhere in Illinois, or after Chicago, something just switched in my mind, where I realized that we were all kind of hurting on the bike in some way, and I wasn’t alone. But also like, listening to some of the cancer patients and survivors, and how they were saying like “oh, I just take it day by day,” and like “every day is a blessing” you know? Just focusing on the here and now, and being more present, that makes it a lot more bearable. Because instead of thinking like, “next rest day is in eight days,” you think in shorter intervals. I think it was Laurie in Mankato who was saying when her husband was diagnosed with leukemia, she would take it like 15 minutes at a time. I think I kind of applied that, like I’d take the rest stops one rest stop at a time. If I can make it to the next rest stop, I’ll be fine. And that’s really helped me keep on going.
Do you have a favorite accessory to wear with your ride uniform?
This is my perfect question! So, I have a hat, with no brim — and then I have a brim, with no hat. So we call the hat part the “yankee.” So I have a yankee no brim, and a brim no yankee. And it actually worked out pretty well this way. Originally, I had like cut out a gardener’s hat that was in my parent’s closet, because I was like “I don’t want to get a sunglasses tan.” Because that was like one of my biggest things going into this. The sunglasses tan, it’s just embarrassing. So originally I had it sewn into my helmet. But then I realized I couldn’t clean the hat, the brim gets pretty nasty after like a week or so, especially if it’s been out in the rain. So then I cut off the strap so I could wash it, but then I had a little cycling cap — it’s two separate parts, which makes it easier actually to fit it on. Because by itself, the brim isn’t that comfortable, but the cycling hat, the combo makes it work.
What’s your rest stop routine?
So first thing, water. I’ve found that if you wait to fill your water when everybody’s rolling out, there’s always a line, and you end up waiting, and I don’t want to be that person that’s making three other people wait. So I’m very conscious about being ready to roll with the group. After water, I get my snacks, and then go to the bathroom if I need to. Usually after the snacks I can tell — like, I’ve gotten it down to a science at this point. Because we eat almost the same thing every day, there’s a routine built in, so I can tell if I need to use the bathroom before the next rest stop. So if needed, I’ll go… I like taking naps. I think I’ve fallen asleep in the van during rest stops more than your average rider. And then right before we roll out, I put on my sunscreen. Sunscreen first, then chamois butt’r, and then hand sanitizer. Gotta stay hygienic, especially when you’re on the bike, and the van can get a little nasty.
You’re leaving the ride to go to med school in a couple of days, do you have a most impactful experience from the ride so far?
I think the day we rode into Spirit Lake, that was very impactful — and not because it was easy, but because it was hard. Because that was the second day when we were in Minnesota dealing with flooding. And the first day was like kind of fun. I remember I was in the street, and there were just carp in the street, and we went fishing — in poo water, which we didn’t know at the time. Now we do! And I washed my hands very thoroughly. But the second day, we were all wet, and not smelling the best, and it was just like, it was a 100 mile day, so it was way longer, and with all the detours I think I ended up biking like 110 miles, and got in at like eight o’clock. That day too, we had someone who unfortunately had to sag, and we were only a couple of miles out from the stayover, but that added another like, half an hour. So that day I got there, ate dinner, took a shower, and pretty much went to bed immediately. I remember when I got to the stayover I wasn’t in the best mood, and I was a little cranky because we had the longest day out of any of the groups, and some people in the shower were taking forever, there was no hot water left. But then, the stayover hosts, they were so gracious, they had no expectations… I was just like, “thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me”... It showed me, that was probably one of my worst days, but it shows that people will be there to support you, and as long as you’re kind in return, they’ll keep on doing that.
Is there anything else you want to talk about?
I’m incredibly grateful for the team, for letting me do this. I mean, I leave in two days, which still doesn’t feel real — I don’t think it will until I land in Chicago, because that’s kind of what happened when I drove the van out to New York. It didn’t feel real until I was like, at the stayover. But you know, this was such a great opportunity to meet so many new people and hear their stories, and understand their way of life in a way that I wouldn’t have. I don’t think of this as a study abroad, because we’re not, you know, in another country, but it is a study abroad in some sense, because you’re interacting with locals and people you never interact with. Like yes, we live in the same country, and we share the same language, but you realize there is so much diversity, and so much of these lived experiences that this trip has really shown to me, and I really appreciate that. I wish I could stay for more and see more of the country, especially as we hit national parks and all that. I’m still hopeful that one day, Illini 4000 will take me back after I finish med school, or whenever I have time, which will probably be in four years. If that doesn’t work out, I think I’ll probably get like a motorcycle or something and just do a tour. But yeah, I want some closure to this trip, to this journey, and I feel like leaving in Rapid City, South Dakota is not the closure that I was looking for. But I guess I’ll figure that part out, because right now, I know that my time has come for me to leave. I’ve made my peace with that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t come back. Whenever that is, it will feel right, and it’ll happen, I’ll make sure it does.
(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)