A group of four Ithaca College students remember well the worst day of the summer.

Senior Megan Griffith, Sara DeCotis ’05, Quinnen Donahue ’05 and Todd Johnson ’05 took part in a Bike and Build fund-raising trip that took them from Providence, R.I., to Seattle, Wash., in 66 days. And on one memorable day, the four bikers rode across Wyoming through winds so strong, the birds were literally flying backwards. The bikers themselves couldn’t ride straight into the wind, they had to ride at an angle to keep from falling over.

DeCotis said they were on the road for eight and a half hours that day.

“The wind was so bad that day you could move backwards instead of forwards,” DeCotis said. “We all contemplated giving up at least two or three times.”

It was DeCotis who pushed the team the last few miles through the tough wind on what she described as both the best and worst day. DeCotis found the adrenaline for the extra push after Johnson, her boyfriend of two years, proposed during a break on the Continental Divide.

“Everyone else was ready to kill me because they didn’t know why I was so excited and pumped and ready to go,” DeCotis said.

But they kept moving. Through fund-raising bicycling trips, Bike and Build, an independent organization, raises awareness of and money for affordable housing. Volunteers bike across the country, and along the way, they stop to help build houses, work at affordable-housing outlets and talk to people about inexpensive housing.

The Bike and Build experience began last spring when the Ithaca College riders began their fund raising. DeCotis, Donahue and Johnson joined Bike and Build because they wanted to extend similar work they did for Habitat for Humanity into the summer. Griffith, who isn’t a member of Habitat for Humanity, met the other Ithaca College students when she decided to join the trip for the biking experience.

The cross-country adventure began June 2 and ended at the Pacific Coast on Aug. 6. Each biker had to raise a minimum of $4,000. They all reached this minimum, raising a combined total of more than $16,000. These funds will help build a house in Providence, R.I.

The group traveled with 25 other students from different schools on the “P2S” tour (Providence to Seattle), a 3,794-mile-long bike trip.

Spending all summer with strangers didn’t bother Johnson, who admitted it was a little weird at first but said the group soon grew close.

“Almost right away [everyone on the trip] got really comfortable with each other,” Johnson said. “We were really good friends by the end.”

Donahue agreed.

“You’re just forced into situations where, you know, you have to shower together and eat every meal together and sleep right next to each other,” he said. “So we got to know each other really quickly.”

Because the 29-member group was so large, they only had a few opportunities to work on the actual construction of houses. Their volunteer time was mostly spent at housing outlets where they helped move items and talked with people about affordable housing.

Each time they entered a new town, the locals were helpful and enthusiastic about the students’ project. They offered the bikers free food and shared stories about friends or family who had received a house from Habitat for Humanity. The bikers often spent the night in local churches.

Griffith, who had never volunteered to build houses, appreciated the friendliness of the people the group encountered along the way.

“[Everyone was] incredibly grateful for what we were doing and thought we were awesome and what we were doing was awesome,” Griffith said. “And they did anything they could to help us.”

One man even pulled his car over to thank the group and express his appreciation for what they were doing. He had recently received a house from Habitat for Humanity.

These moments and encouragement from each other kept the group going on tougher days — like the day they were being blown backward and on their longest day when they rode 116 miles across Wyoming.

Donahue was used to working on houses, but new to the road- biking experience. She said she was a bit apprehensive.

“We were going at speeds that I never knew were possible on a bike,” she said.

All four Ithaca College students were among the 11 bikers to never ride in the support van following the group. A pact was made by some of the Ithaca students at the beginning to support and push each other to finish without help.

In fact, they were so determined not to ask for help, that if a bike’s condition prevented a biker from riding, the rider would walk the bike instead of climbing into the van.

The long treks were made less tedious by the fun the riders had on the road. One day, Johnsonand another biker took a break to chase a porcupine through a field.

“[My friend] took off in the field and I brought my camera, and we chased down a porcupine,” Johnson said.

The group also got a laugh in New York when they encountered a lady on a scenic overview who claimed God told her to go to California, and she proceeded to strip down to her bathing suit and dance while telling the bikers that her mother was Helen Keller.

“She told us that she was a comedian, and she was just trying her act out, and then later she told us she was joking about that,” Griffith said.

Besides the fun times and the tough stretch of highway, the four students also experienced some moving moments on the road. One of these moments, Donahue said, was in Wyoming, when the group climbed a mountain.

“And then we just came around this corner, and there were the giant Grand Tetons right in front of us,” she said. “They were there out of nowhere, and you just kind of gasp. … It was so invigorating and so amazing, and you were just coasting and screaming.”