TAHLEQUAH — After trekking  950 miles over seven states, a sweaty and more appreciative group of young Cherokees on the 2012 Remember the Removal ride rolled their bikes into the Cherokee Nation’s Courthouse Square. It ended a three-week journey retracing the Trail of Tears of their ancestors.

Sixteen riders from the Cherokee Nation in Northeastern, Okla., and seven riders from the Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina started the ride in New Echota, Ga., and finished Friday, welcomed by friends, family and tribal citizens.

“I am in awe of these riders and what they have done,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker said during the return ceremony. “These kids are closer to their ancestors than they’ve ever been before. They’ve come together, they’ve bonded and they have created lifelong friendships.”

The adventure was not without hardship or injury, including a few flat tires and minor bike wreck, but all 23 riders made it to Tahlequah in time to celebrate and receive medals presented by Chief Baker, Deputy Principal Chief Joe Crittenden and Miss Cherokee Sidney Kimble.

 “When I started this journey I didn’t know what lie within me,” said rider Danielle Culp of Claremore. “I didn’t know if I could make it, but there were a lot of people that knew what I was made of and knew that I could do it.”

As the oldest rider to take the journey, Judy Castorena of the Eastern Band of Cherokees said that thought was never far behind as she remembered the experiences her ancestors faced on the Trail of Tears.

“Being the oldest always stuck with me,” Castorena said as she recounted her toughest moment during the ride. “I was on a dirt road walking and pushing my bike when it hit me, I could have been the one left behind or the one getting whipped and pushed because I was the slowest. I could have been the one that died.”

The Cherokee Nation has hosted the Remember the Removal Bike Ride for four years and in which the Eastern Band of Cherokees joined two years ago. The ride was originally started by 20 Cherokee students in 1984 and revived in 2009.