OXFORD – Mud didn’t stop her.

Neither did bruises, a few sore muscles, relatives’ advice, nor a tornado.

Jasmine Marston, 17, of Oxford was determined to complete the recent 170-mile bicycle trip more than a dozen Oxford Hills teens and their chaperones took from Washington to Hershey, Pa.

“Once committed, the kids had no way out,” said Art Hladik, trip coordinator. “It was either bike to Hershey or walk home. There was no car,” he said.

Two months prior setting out on July 18, Marston said her only bicycling experience was riding 2 miles to Oxford Hill Comprehensive High School, where she will be a senior when school starts this month.

Then in the summer she said she began riding 17 to 20 miles a day to prepare.

She was one of 17 teens, most of which frequent Bert Rugg’s teen Center in Oxford, sponsors of the trip.

The six-day trip had four days of biking and Marston said she knew it would be tough when the first day seemed a “very, very long day.”

She said it was pretty much a flat ride down the Chesapeake and Ohio tow path, which in the past, saw mules travel pulling barges along side the Potomac River.

Hladik said swimming in the Potomac was enjoyable.

“The water was wet and it was hot,” he said.

After 45 miles the Maine contingent bedded down at a church in Frederick, Md.

On the second day of the trip they biked 40 miles, tackling some hills, and ended up staying at another church in Gettysburg, Pa.

They got to visit the countryside surrounding the Little Round Top Hill where the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment turned the tide of the Battle of Gettysburg.

“We thought we were in a thunder shower,” Marston said about riding in rain and hail. “But the next day we saw a newspaper that said it was a tornado and we were riding on the outskirts.

“The day was harder than the first, but it was on road instead of being off road,” Marston said.

Then there was the third day.

Hladik, an accomplished bicyclist, said “there were some hills.”

Marston phrased it differently.

“There was a big hill. It was such a big hill we called it the mountain,” she said. “Only three of us didn’t have to walk up. I had bruises all over my legs and my muscles were sore.”

She said she enjoyed the ride down the backside; was excited about only being one-half mile from the night’s resting spot in York, Pa., when reaching the bottom; and shuddered when told they had to go up the hill again in the morning.

However, the leaders of the trip decided an alternate route to begin the fourth day of travel would do just as well.

“The fourth day was very hilly. We were tremendously tired,” Marston said. “We slowed down quite a bit. The third day wore us out.”

As tired as the teens were, Hladik said they found the energy to celebrate when they reached the final destination

“They did victory laps around the church parking lot,” Hladik said.

The teens spent most of the next day, and part of the night, playing at Hershey Park, a large amusement park.

Marston said she was glad her $80, 12-speed mountain bike made it. She called it a great trip and said she would make a similar ride, if offered the opportunity.

She said she has a lot of fond memories from the trip and the biggest gain was the friendships she made.

“I could tell they had a good time,” Hladik said about the teens. “Nobody wanted to come home.”

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