Week 3: June 23 - June29
Vassar, MI to Stillwater, MN
This week's photos
Week 2 journal
Week 4 journal
June 23
"i wimped out again! we are staying at the doherty hotel in clare,
michigan. after an 82 mile ride starting before 6am in the dark with our
lights on and temperatures in the fifties, we finished early (at 2pm) in
blazing heat, trying to reach an available campground, but no one was
answering the phone. so, uncertain about traveling another ten miles to
possibly find no space, or no campground!... we decided to take it easy
tonight. tomorrow we have a 90+ mile ride to ludington that we must
complete, because we have reservations on the ferry across lake michigan
from ludington to manitowoc, wisconsin for first thing the next morning.
the ferry is scheduled to depart at 7:30am, and we need to be at the
ferry, ready to board an hour before that.
regarding today's ride, i would like to mention that i normally stay away
from riding on recreational trails. if you are a utilitarian cyclist,
such as a commuter, or someone who prefers to avoid taking a car to do
small errands, it is extremely rare to find a trail that takes you where
you need to go. multi-use recreational trails also can be hazardous if
you ride at a higher speed... you really have to pay attention to the
other users of the trail, such as walkers, joggers, rollerbladers, etc.
the fact is that rules for using a trail are not as well known or as
consistently applied as the rules for traveling with a bike in the road
as part of the overall fabric of traffic. following rules such as: travel
in the direction of traffic, stay to the right of the travel lane, as much
as practicable... obey traffic signs and signal lights... use hand
signals... etc. following these rules together with some common sense
rules such as watch out for the other guy, generally make riding in
traffic very safe. all this said, i have to admit that today we rode for
about 25 miles on a beautiful trail... the pere marquette rail trail
between midland and clare. it happened to go exactly where we wanted, was
wide, flat and in perfect repair... so, as they say, the planets came
into alignment, and we had an enjoyable time. it even had restaurants
adjacent to the trail which we came upon exactly at lunchtime.
as fine a time as we had on the trail, i still wonder if the money spent
on it would have been put to better use in education of bikers and
drivers, and in improving some of the really bad shoulders we've
encountered in michigan. so it goes" --ez
June 24
"well, here we are camping about 2 miles outside ludington, mi. tomorrow
we wake at 5:30 to get ourselves packed and ready to ride to the ferry, to
be there an hour before departure on its four hour crossing of lake
michigan. a number of people have made comments about how taking a ferry
for a portion of the distance was, in a sense, "cheating" on the claim
that i am biking across the continent. it never occurred to me that such
a passage might diminish my own sense of satisfaction in having attempted
and (hopfully) completed the trek. i am putting myself through this
ordeal for my own reasons... most of which are at an emotional level and
cannot be articulated. i am definitely not trying to pass some test put
forth by the "distance police", if any there be.
the really odd thing about this part of michigan is the fact that it is on
the extreme western edge of the time zone. being here at or near the
solstice means that i am experiencing the latest sunsets i have ever seen.
in fact, the sun will still be up around 9:30, and it will be light enough
to read at 10pm. similarly, the sunrise is quite late, and daylight holds
off until after 6am. it was odd last night to emerge from a movie
theater... after 9pm and still see the sunlight in the trees and on the
buildings! (by the way, the theater was right across the street from our
hotel, and the movie was one that turned out to be an awful waste of
time... "the mummy's return") i thought it was interesting to see a small
town theater in action... the owner manned the ticket booth and then came
into the audience and greeted by name all his regulars. he even handed
out some free popcorn to them. there was only one choice of film, so it
felt awkward walking up to the booth and only having to say "two,
please"... not needing to specify a title with the request. there was a
"greasy spoon" kind of restaurant next to the theater. open 24 hours a
day, it was unusual to see that kind of availability in such a small town.
steve and i took advantage of the restaurant's hours this morning when we
stopped in for breakfast at 5am... typical hot cakes and eggs kind of
fare.
the ride was a series of contrasts... starting cold (40s), ending hot
(80s). starting flat, ending hilly... (a little). starting with little
traffic on a quiet sunday, ending with a mad rush of vacationers hauling
trailers.
starting with fairly decent road and shoulders, ending with about 7 miles
of rough road with NO shoulders... (construction in progress). bright
sun was constant today... with no humidity, thankfully. so much sun that
in spite of sun block applications and a tan that already is the deepest
i've had in my life, i feel that i've gotten a burn as well. it was a
nice change to leave the predominantly agricultural character of the east
and central sections of michigan, and get into heavily forested areas of
the west. the pere marquette forest and the manistee national forest
reminded me a lot of the berkshires... except that the hills were much
longer and more gradual here than in the eastern states. we're camped
right across a busy street from a wal-mart... so i've taken advantage of
its 1 hour photo development to get two rolls of film developed and
addressed for mailing from the next post office we encounter... probably
in wisconsin. hopefully the best photos will be showing up on the web
site soon. well, it's 8pm and i've got to walk over to a pay phone across
the street to send this journal entry off... maybe find some ice cream
too! so it goes..." --ez
June 25
"I've got to figure out something to do with my time while I'm sitting
here on the S. S. Badger making the trip across Lake Michigan, so I'm
practicing touch-typing on this little keyboard. We abandoned plans to
sit out on the deck once we got under wsy. Even though the sun is out and
there isn't a cloud in the sky, the breeze caused by the ship's progress
has driven Steve and me inside, where he sits reading Kerouac's "On the
Road", and I pound out some thoughts... both of us clutching coffees to
help keep warm! I recalled enough about ship travel to bring my jacket,
which I've offered to Steve, but he has yet to use. At the moment the
coffee is keeping us comfortable.
I've already set my watch back an hour to Wisconsin time and I've lost
sight of the Michigan shore... I hope that in parking the cars below, our
bikes were left unscathed! All we had for breakfast was some pop-tarts
that I picked up at K-Mart last night, knowing we would need to move fast
this morning. I'm now starting to think about some large cinnamon rolls
that are outrageously priced here on board, but are calling to me
nevertheless. That's one of the great things about long distance biking,
you can eat whatever and as much of anything you want without guilt!
...[later]...
A bit of a crisis happened when we got off the ferry... I wanted to pump
up the tires on my trailer and when I took the pump off the bike to do so
I found out that a small, but critical piece was missing, making the pump
useless. I'm sure it must have fallen off the bike during the lengthy
stretch of rough road we encountered late yesterday as we approached
Ludington. Lesson learned: stow important stuff in panniers or trailer,
even if they come with a clip that allows them to attach directly to the
frame!
We found a bike shop in Manitowoc and picked up a new pump, pressure
guage, and spare right pedal for my bike. The pedal has been making some
increasingly frequent clicking noises, and I don't want to be left in the
middle of nowhere if a catastrophic failure should occur! We also got
directions to a great bagel shop for lunch and afterwards we headed out
expecting to make a short day of it since we were already at the hot part
of the day.
We began by following the Adventure Cycling route out of Manitowoc, to
avoid as much of the busy US Rte 10 as possible. our overall plan was to
take that route across the state to Minnesota and hook up with the
remainder of the ACA's Northern Tier route. Lacking a better plan, we
were following AAA maps, and just expected to grind it out, regardless of
the conditions. This would have been a huge mistake!... and we have a
different plan now... more on that in a moment.
Wisconsin is called America's dairyland and we soon saw why as we began
following the rural ACA route. At one point, we saw, in quick succession,
a hay-baler launching bundles into a trailer cage... "he shoots, HE
SCORES"; dairy farms with cattle being fed hay; milk trucks transporting
the milk; and a Schwan's truck delivering ice cream to the dairy
farmhouses! It was like a perfect example of a closed ecological
system!
We had gone about 38 miles and were pushing on for about another ten miles
to camp in a state park on the northern shores of Lake Winnebago, when a
miracle of sorts intervened. Steve and I altered our route slightly to go
into a town and look for my favorite beverage, Gatorade. We stopped at a
gas station that had a convenience store and were about to walk inside,
when one of the station's gas customers started a conversation with Steve
about the usual... We told him our plans for finding the campgrounds and
he offered us an alternative: If we didn't mind going a little further, we
could spend the night at his house! I've heard and read of touring
cyclists having offers like this, but never really expected it to happen
to me! John gave us detailed directions to his house from the gas
station, and even photocopied a page of the Wisconsin topographic map
booklet that he had with him in the car. He then asked us what route we
were planning to use in going across Wisconsin to the Twin Cities, and was
horrified when we told him... "You'll die!" he said. He told us that he
could come up with much better route choices for us than Route 10, and
would photocopy all the additional pages out of his book when he returned
to work. Later, when we met up with him at his house he said he would
walk through the route choices with me in detail. 30 miles later, we
pulled into his driveway, and met Brenda, his wife and their two small
children. It turns out that John is an avid cyclist and has done
extensive racing. He even showed us a picture of him and Greg Lemond at
the starting line of a race, which Lemond won. His passion these days is
cross country ski racing, but he still does an hour ride in the mornings,
and knows many good roads in Wisconsin... having gone to college here as
well. Whenever he has seen touring cyclists he has made them the same
offer. .. but we were the first to take him up on it!
Steve and I enjoyed our showers and an energy-restoring pasta dinner
before John and I spent a good bit of time discussing and hiliting a route
that should get us to Minnesota a whole lot safer and saner when all is
said and done! He then drove us and his family to get ice cream before
putting the kids to bed. Knowing from experience just how exhausting
children can be at that age... I am forever impressed, and in his and his
wife's debt for taking on the additional responsibility of caring for two
strangers that happened across his path! so it goes..." --ez
June 26
"The sun rises quite early in this location of the central time zone...
So Steve and I were out of bed (John had set up two cots for us in his
living room) and were preparing to hit the road at 4:30 this morning.
John came downstairs and fixed us breakfast which included fruit, juice
and cereal, with some additional fruit packed for the road! by 5:30 we
said goodbye and hit the road. Our new route was composed of beautifully
maintained, low-traffic roads that wandered through the delightful
Wisconsin countryside. We traveled for a time along the Wolf River,
crossing it at least 4 times. The terrain was rolling low hills...
Wisconsin is starting to gently train our recently unused climbing
muscles! We were trying to get to the town of Marshfield for the stopping
point, however, we made it to Steven's Point... a beautiful college town,
home to a branch of the University of Wisconsin. For those of you
recumbent enthusiasts, Steven's Point is also the home of
HostelShoppe.com, a site that has come in very handy in preparing for this
trek. We had to stop in and say hi and ogle at the 'bents... they even
had a Green Speed Trike on display! I picked up an additional replacement
tube for my front 451 tire (presta valve) and then went a few doors down
Main Street to have lunch at a bagel shop. By this time, we had already
traveled 70+ miles, and with the heat, we were not willing to do another
35 to get to Marshfield. So, after some errors in following directions
along a bike path on the Wisconsin River, we finally made it to a motel
for the night, after putting 81 miles in for the day.
Steve is doing the laundry now, and as soon as he returns, we'll make some
decisions about dinner. so it goes..." --ez
June 27
"Today was a push. It seems to me that in my vision of a bicycle
tour/adventure, ideally, I shouldn't be focused so much on the riding, as
on the opportunities to absorb the places that I ride. Realistically,
though, I can't ignore the needs of the day, especially where I will spend
the night. One of the things that I noticed about our planned route from
Steven's Point, today, was that after the town of Marshfield, there wasn't
a whole lot of sizeable towns to offer the liklihood of campsites, or
motels for the day's end. Marshfield was too soon in the ride (40 miles)
to consider it as a stopping point, and everything beyond it was located
far enough away to make it seem that we were in for a long day. We got
another early start to try and beat the expected heat and humidity that
were forecast for today, so before 6AM, we were on the road. The wind was
cooperating beautifully, coming as it was from the southeast, with us
traveling to the northwest. It was especially beautiful riding this
morning with the cool air and the long shadows cast by the sun giving us
ample shade as we made our way through the Wisconsin countryside. The
dogs weren't out yet, and the red winged blackbirds seemed to be the only
creatures aware of us as they occasionally darted above us trying to chase
us away from their nesting areas. We seemed to be climbing more than
descending, and soon the heat became noticeable. The terrain beyond
Marshfield was wetlands, with a surprising scarcity of farms. I wonder if
the Wisconsin River, which spreads out in that area occasionally overflows
and floods the region, making it unsuitable for agriculture. I noticed
that the local name of the road or town (I'm not sure which) was "eau
pleine", which if my French is not too rusty, suggests an abundance of
water! I may have mentioned that my favorite drink en route, in the heat,
is Gatorade. I drank over a gallon of it today in an effort to help keep
me fresh and strong as the day wore on. Both Steve and I felt very strong
today, so we kept on until the town of Stanley, where we stopped for the
day after having traveled 97 miles averaging 13.2 mph. We felt that we
could have made it to the town of Chippewa Falls, which would have added
another 20 or so miles on the day, but we decided that we needed to keep
something in reserve for another hot day tomorrow, and we checked into
another motel. One thing I noticed about the little towns we passed
thru... most having a population in the hundreds, was the optimism
expressed on the welcome signs leading into the community: "small but
growing", "room to grow", etc. Occasionally pride in the accomplishments
of a local school: "Home of the 1980 high school quiz champions"... etc.
The previous evening Steve and I got into a philosophical discussion of
immortality, and if immortality lies in being remembered for what you do,
then those quiz champions are on their way, because I'm sure that sign
will be up there forever! :) So it goes..." --ez
June 28
"It's a little before 6AM here (CST) and I'm trying to catch up on my
journal entry for yesterday's ride. I was too exhausted at the end of the
day to work on it then. We got a late start and didn't get on the road
until about 6:30. We started to encounter one gradual hill after another,
which was to set the tone for the day. Don't read too much into that last
statement, I've come to accept hills and the technique I'm following to
get through them is to find the right balance between spinning (pedaling
more quickly in a lower gear) and hammering (using more muscle force in a
higher gear). It also helps to have some rhythmic mantra or tune running
through your head as you climb. I already owe a debt of gratitude to "Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight
Runners...;) Except for the really long or steep hills that force me to
get into my absolute lowest gear and grind it out, I can usually find some
compromise that doesn't wear me out too quickly and yet allows me to
continue moving at a speed greater than 5 mph.
Enough about my approach to hills! In spite of the late start, we found
ourselves crossing the Eau Claire river in Chippewa Falls before 8 in the
morning, and so we were unable to look up John's friend Joe, who works
there, in order to ask his advice on a suitable route to follow to the
Minnesota border. Also, I must have misplaced the copy of the contour
maps for this section of the ride that I got from John, so we were left to
following potential routes on a AAA map of Wisconsin, which showed much
less detail. After mistakenly trying to follow a busy road (29) out to
where we could pick up what looked to be a less busy one (12).... too
many trucks and road construction!... we grabbed the first county road
heading where we thought we wanted to go and got ourselves away from the
insanity. This route turned out to be an absolute delight! The terrain
was one of numerous rolling hills, and the road was never straight, but
curved in, around and over the land... keeping us guessing as to what we
would see around the next bend. There was no traffic at all! We owned
the road. At this time of year there are thousands of butterflies of a
certain kind mostly black with some white dots, but also having a
distinctive orange stripe crossing each wing. I'm guessing that the
coloration is a defense mechanism since it so resembles the coloration on
the ever-present red-winged blackbirds. These butterflies sit in the road
by the dozens (warming in the sun?) and take flight as we approach within
a few feet on our bikes. The result is like riding through a blizzard of
large black snowflakes! At one point we passed a group of about 2 dozen
horses including several very young colts. As we approached, they all
began to run alongside us in the field, which must have been a quarter
mile long. It was a treat to be biking along with this fantastic hooved
escort! The entire scene brought to mind my image of what the Shire must
have been like in Tolkien's book "The Hobbit".
All good roads come to an end, however, and soon the heat of the day was
on us. Like yesterday, we were in an awkward spot with respect to
deciding where to stop. Our plan was to take the next day off from riding
and somehow get a car rental to explore the Twin Cities area, including
the "Mall of America". In order to do this, we had to make it close
to the Minnesota border, so the 2nd half of the day became another push.
When all was done, we had arrived at our resting place for the next two
nights... a Super 8 motel in Stillwater, MN... having traveled over 116
miles, averaging 13.1 mph (despite the hills!). Steve experimented later
in the day with removing his feet from his cleated shoes, and riding
barefoot with his feet pressed against the tops of his clipped-in shoes.
I asked him to put sun block on the tops of his feet, or he'd lose the use
of his shoes! so it goes..." --ez
June 29
"Ahhhhhh... a day of rest! However, isn't it funny how, to get the most
out of an opportunity to stop and look around an interesting area like the
Twin Cities, one has to work just as hard to make the time count? Our
first task was to secure a rental car in order to be able to see anything
more than what was within a mile or so of our motel.... We were NOT going
to ride our bikes, on a rest day, to see the sights!... especially when
what we wanted most to see (The Mall of America) was about 25 miles away.
Getting a rental to use for the day is not that easy... you have the
catch-22 problem of how to get to the car to pick it up, and then once it
gets dropped off... how to get back to the motel. We were incredibly
lucky to have an Enterprise rent-a-car office about a mile away from out
motel. Enterprise provides the service of picking you up to get to the
car, and dropping you off after returning the car... which was perfect.
our car was ready at 10am and shortly afterwards we headed out. To make a
long story short, we got to see the Mall... which turned out to be just
like any mall, only bigger. The amusement park in the center was
interesting, but targeted more for younger kids. I did get to visit the
Lake Wobegon store, and picked up a couple books, including one on how to
speak Minnesotan, which probably would have come in handy, but rather than
carry the extra weight, I decided to mail it home from the Post office in
the mall. I will enjoy it after the trip is done, I'm sure.
Our plan after the mall was to stop in St. Paul and visit the Como Park
Zoo... however, we ran into a traffic jam trying to get through
Minneapolis which wasted an hour, and, needing to both satisfy our hunger
and do a laundry, we had to give up on the zoo idea. The traffic jam
reminded us of one of the downsides of the internal combustion engine, and
made us feel good about continuing our trip by bike! We did stop at an
overlook in Stillwater to view the St. Croix river, but as an overlook,
it would have been more effective if the town had kept up with trimming
the numerous bushes and trees that blocked the view!
We managed to get a couple rolls of film developed, representing week 3 of
the trek. Tomorrow we will mail the pictures and hopefully within a few
days the best will appear on the website.
Tomorrow we also begin a new segment of the tour... we actually start by
retracing our path back into Wisconsin, for a bit, before returning to
Minnesota a little farther north. We are now on the official Adventure
Cycling Northern Tier route for the remainder of our trip. Tomorrow's
forecast is for 10 to 15 mph winds out of the northeast with a 30% chance
of afternoon thunderstorms... :( so it goes..." --ez
This week's photos
Week 2 journal
Week 4 journal
