How did you spend your summer vacation? If you're Josh Curry, a senior at Lancaster County Career & Technology Center, you took a bike ride. A very long, very challenging bike ride.

Josh, who is the son of Anita Curry of Lititz, participated in the Adirondack Boys Summer Challenge Ride with Lifecycles, an organization that promotes character building and faith development through bicycling. For a week in late July and early August, Josh rode more than 350 miles from Pennsylvania to Whiteface Mountain at the north end of the Adirondack Mountains.

"Some of the highlights were the beautiful scenery in upstate New York, the amazing food and great fellowship and discipleship," he said.

Challenge Ride is an accurate name for the trip, he stated, adding, "Some of the challenges were days with a lot of climbing." The route included traveling along the Susquehanna River to its source at Cooperstown, N.Y., across the Erie Canal and into the mountains, finishing with a ride to the 4,867-foot summit of Whiteface Mountain.

Josh has been participating in Lifecycles for four years. He encourages other students to join the group, noting, "There is no other organization like it, and it will build your character."

Character building is something volunteer Al Vega has noticed during his seven years with the organization. Like Josh, Al participated in a Challenge Ride this summer.

He drove a support vehicle for a girls' team that rode from Manistee, Mich., to Mackinac Island. The ride covered 230 miles along the scenic coast of Lake Michigan and took place over a week in mid-August.

"The girls and leaders had an amazing experience," Al shared. "The beautiful scenery stops along Lake Michigan and biking around Mackinac Island were highlights, with plenty of time for photos and exploring."

Al first participated in a Challenge Ride with Lifecycles in 2018, when he rode along with his then-13-year-old son on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Trail from McKeesport to Washington, D.C. In 2019, they rode from New Holland, where they live, to Boston. In 2020, they completed a loop from Gettysburg to Harpers Ferry to Columbia as a substitution for a planned ride that was postponed due to the pandemic. The postponed trip eventually happened in 2021, he said.

"I joined the 60-day TransAmerica ride from Oregon to Delaware," he recalled of the 2021 trip. "In 2022, we rode from Niagara Falls to Lubec, Maine, and in 2023, from Portland, Maine, to Philadelphia."

Al said he was impressed with Lifecycles as soon as he met the organization's director, Lee DeRemer.

"The camaraderie among the leaders and their enthusiasm for the program immediately drew me in," Al said. "I attended the first ride of the season and saw the strong bonds between the boys and leaders and how they learned from one another. I kept coming back, and now my whole family participates."

Founded in 2014 by Lee and his wife, Marcie, Lifecycles has a mission to build young men and women of character through weeknight local rides throughout Lancaster County as well as Saturday rides and the weeklong Summer Challenge Rides. There is no charge for teens to participate in Lifecycles, and bikes and equipment are provided if needed. In the county, rides leave from Marietta and Landisville. Since its inception, the program has served more than 350 teens who have ridden more than 368,000 miles.

"Lifecycles offers a Christ-centered outdoor adventure that fosters growth, character and leadership in teens through biking and teamwork," Al said. "Teens learn essential life skills - from leadership and teamwork to money management and healthy living - all under the guidance of dedicated mentors who help them transition into adulthood with integrity and confidence."

Lifecycles is open to any teens in Lancaster County. The program runs from April through October. For more information, visit http://www.lifecyclesteam.org.