Thursday, July 26, 2012

Mamma said there'd be days like these...

   We continued our journey east through Wisconsin through typical farmland scenery and nice roads with little traffic.  Wi. farms are all very picturesque and immaculately kept. Even old farm machinery seems to be artfully placed.  Days have continued really hot and humid so we try to get on the road by 6:30 or so.  Neither of us (no, really, me either) wants to get up at five but it's really a great time to ride.  Beside being cooler, there is more opportunity for seeing wildlife.  As we are cruising past a wooded cornfield Kelly spots a "Very Large" black dog by the road ahead engaged in taking his morning 'movement'.  As we get closer we see that it's actually a large black bear (answering that age old question...No, they do not shit in the woods). We get the pepper spray ready, just in case, but, of course he runs off as we come up to him...a nice treat.  Near the end of the day we come to a section of road construction on our route.  Since detours tend to be lengthy in these parts we decide to go for it.  It ends up being about two miles of loose gravel which Kelly handles wonderfully with her loaded bike and trailer.  I'm more impressed every day with how tough she's gotten and how she handles anything that comes along.  We end up lounging by the pool in a very nice campground and being treated to an amazing rain and lightning storm from the safety of the camp game room.
   Our last day into the ferry town of Manitowoc seems long due to increased hills and legs tired from six consecutive days riding.  We finally get to town and treat ourselves to a well earned night in a motel and a night on the town with a good dinner and trip to a blues club.  The ferry ride across Lk Michigan is a nice change from riding and we enjoy the four hour, 120 mile crossing.  The lake feels like the ocean once away from shore and looks surprisingly clean.  We've made an on-line reservation in a Ludington, Michigan motel and, as sometimes happens with the budget-concious traveler, the accomodations are somewhat less than five-star.  The motel marquis boasts a "love tub" available but I tell Kelly I tried to get it but it is currently being disinfected.  Ludington is a pretty small town, right on the lake, and we go downtown for a late dinner in another nice brew-pub...they sure do that well around these parts.  After a short morning ride we spend the day sunning and swimming at a beautiful white-sand beach along the refreshing waters of Lake Michigan and spend the night in the state park campground.
   As we begin our ride the next morning we immediately like the riding in Michigan.  Our route takes us through nice hardwood forests, more open and sunny than the northwoods of Wi., and flat roads with little traffic that wind through recreational "lake communities" and little towns.  We can't believe how far we've come and congratulate ourselves on how easy the ride has been. The day ends in a nice, mostly deserted, state campground and my last journal entry reads "This ride has almost been too easy.  we've had nothing go wrong at all"...I should have known better.
  It started about an hour after we went to sleep.  Kelly woke me saying "There's something out there."  We could here a kind of step-step-thump noise.  Captain Ahab on a midnight stroll?  We shine our lights out the tent flap to see five sets of glowing eyes at the edge of our camp.  Being 'the Man' I'm elected to check it out and go out to find a raccoon family dragging my fully loaded food pannier into the woods.  The big one leading the pack looks like a damn wolverine but gives up my pack without a struggle and they go off to torment some other camper.  We bring the food pannier into the tent and spend the next sleepless hour or so listening to the neighboring camps chasing off the intruders and are just falling asleep when they come back to get chased off again.  This time I pile all the packs on our trailer and turn on the strobe warning light to keep them away. At this point, I'm starting to feel a little queasy but don't think too much of it and try to settle down to finally get some sleep.  The raccoons continue making their rounds of the campground and I'm still awake and feeling worse by the minute.  A half hour later I'm in the grips of the worst nausea I've ever experienced and crawling out the tent door for a barf-fest like I've never experienced.  With bodily fluids spouting from every available orifice, I'm purging everything I've ever eaten...there's that penny I swallowed when I was six.  The rest of the night is spent laying curled up in the dirt outside the tent cycling through a sweat-freeze-hurl sequence, wishing for the raccoon-wolverine to come rip my throat out and put me out of my misery.  Things have not improved by morning and there is little Kelly can do for me.  I continue to lay there til late morning when it is starting to get really hot again.  We can't bear the thought of a long, hot afternoon at this camp and Kelly finds some cabins we can stay in, but they are six miles away and I'm still feeling really weak (we figure the culprit was an undercooked bratwurst I cooked as a pre dinner snack). A couple of water bottles over my head revive me a little and we mount our bikes to wobble off to find our haven.  After riding about three miles we check the map and find we are gong the wrong direction.  We reverse our path and go for a while more only to come to a dead end...WRONG WAY AGAIN,  Remember we've had no sleep or food.  We reverse again and go back to our first intersection which, conveniently has no signposts.  We've now gone six miles and are a mile from our last camp.  We pull out the ipad, with the gps, and, even with a 'you are here' mark, in our addled state we don't know which way to go and it's VERY HOT!  A passing motorist gets us pointed in the right direction and we finally reach our cabins after the longest ten miles I've ever ridden.  The cabins are very 'rustic' but are a refuge from raccoons and sun and we're grateful to be there.
   By morning I've recovered enough to hit the road again and we wobble off to our next adventure vowing never to offend the travel gods again.   The next couple of days are spent cycling the pleasant roads of Michigan and we enjoy another 36 mile stretch of rail-trail riding, this time on the Pere Marquette trail system across central Mi. We decide to rest up for a day in a motel in Bay City, just south of Lake Huron and on the Saginaw River.  It's a pretty town with a nice lakefront area and we can't tell if it's an up and coming place or town on the decline.  Turns out to be the latter case...too bad.  We're now waiting out some predicted, severe thunderstorms and will be heading out shortly. Hopefully, by the weekend we'll be crossing into Ontario, Canada
   Until nextime...
  

Monday, July 16, 2012

Crossing Middle America

   As we near our next state line, Wisconsin, we are treated to more mellow roads through the fertile farmlands of Minnesota.  The riding here is not so spectacular as the western states but is very peaceful and we often get lost in the moment of cruising through the miles of green fields and quaint farm houses.  The afternoons are really starting to heat up and we are relieved to come upon the Adventure Cycling Bunkhouse near Dalbo, Mn.  The bunkhouse is a free service run by an ex-military, turned farmer, named Donn Olsen.  Donn started the bunkhouse in 2005 when he helped out a couple of cyclists who needed a place to camp.  He found there was a need for places to stay along the Adventure Cycling route and he enjoyed meeting with touring folks.  He finished off the lower floor of his unused barn, put in some sleeping rooms and created the wonderful oasis that many now enjoy.  After a hot afternoon of cycling Kelly and I were thrilled to walk into the air conditioned main room complete with a stocked refrigerator, ice cream, frozen pizza, cold drinks, ours for a small donation, and a hot plate for cooking.  A clean solar shower was also available.  All this for free.  Donn even goes out to rescue the occasional stranded cyclist...the man's a saint.
   Our last day in Minnesota found us crossing the Mississippi River, already a large, powerful, muddy river, before crossing into Wisconsin at the town of St croix Falls.  Our day finished with a very hot climb with busy traffic out of the river valley in the Wi side where we treated ourselves to an evening at a nice hotel with a pool and spa with a day off the following day...a nice break after a week of cycling.  We find that about 5or 6 days in a row is about our max.
   Our first real day of cycling Wi took us through lush, rolling terrain across more farmlands and wooded areas.  As the afternoon wore on the hills became steeper and more frequent.  In  a place where the don't have a ski hill with more than 400 ft of vertical how can the riding be this tough?  After a night at a pleasant little camp on the Chetek River we headed out in the rain to see what else Wi had to show us.  After a wrong turn, resulting in a 10 mi. detour, we got back on track on deserted roads snaking through some deep north woods country.  No description of Wisconsin is complete without mentioning their state bird...the deer fly.  these nasty little motivators definitely keep you on the move.  While mosquitos seem to prefer tapping into Kelly, the deer flies obviously prefer man-flesh.  Powering my bulky touring bike through the northwoods with my limbs flailing wildly I must have looked like nothing so much as an entrant in a Special Olympics cycling event.
   We're getting into some very hot afternoons now and, although the riding is great, counting the lite beer cans along the road is losing its entertainment value.  Actually, I'm a bit disappointed...I thought  Wisconsans had better taste in beer.  Like much of the country, the midwest is having an especially hot and humid summer with little rain.  It's getting too hot to camp and we seem to be moteling more and camping less as we go along.  After spending last night at the  "Wildlife Bar and Campground"  (at least they have their priorities straight) we got on the road by six and were done by 10:00 with the temperature already a sultry 91 degrees. We are currently holed up in a motel in Shawano, Wi escaping the heat in our air conditioned room. I'm hoping to ride into Manitowac Wednesday with an old high school friend, Bob Peschel and we should be at the ferry to cross Lake Michigan on Thursday where we will be entering our final time zone and onward to Michigan, Ontario and the final leg of our trip.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Escaping The Great Plains

   When last seen, your fearful travelers were quivering in fear of the North Dakota wastelands.  Not wanting to leave Montana just yet we decided to take a couple of days exploring the Bear Paw Mts. south of Havre, Mt.   We were delighted to find gently ascending hills into an area of pretty green hills at elevations of about 4000 ft.  We spent a couple of days relaxing by the lake and taking some nice bike rides without carrying any gear.  After a month of carrying 40 or 50 lbs of extra weight every day it was a joy to ride unencumbered.  Being on bikes, we were lacking in cold beverages and after making friends with the very friendly RV campers next door we ended up accepting the offer of some cold beers.  I must admit to drinking 4  Bud Lites (judging by the cans along the road, this the official beer of Montana.  It does my heart glad to know all the Montanans drinking and driving are watching their weight) and spent most of the night getting up to pee...they sure were cold though.
   Back in Havre we loaded up for the 13 hr train ride across No. Dakota.  At the last minute we changed our destination to Fargo as it was on our Adventure Cycling route.  In the Amtrak station we met David and Nick, two young cyclists from Wa. also skipping ND.  They had ridden 60mi east of Havre before hearing the the horror stories of what lay waiting in ND before coming back to get the train.
   For those of you who have never traveled by train, you must try it sometime.  The seats are roomy, you can look at the scenery, and the whole experience is far more laid back than air travel.  You can bring food or beverages on with you or eat in their dining car (try the chicken!)  We spent the afternoon making Jack and Cokes with our new cyclist friends while watching the mind numbing scenery of ND glide by the viewing windows of our air conditioned car delighted by the fact that we were not cycling this 700 miles.  Later, after dinner in the dining car, Kelly and I watched 4th of July fireworks light up the twilight sky under a full moon rising over the plains...very magical.  Of course, the down side of train travel is rolling into Fargo, ND at 4am and having to reassemble your bikes for a walk to a motel for a couple hours sleep before shoving off for our next adventure.
   Within minutes of leaving Fargo we entered Minnesota.  We left the arid plains behind and entered the Corn (or soy) Belt.  The riding was flat and easy with little traffic and beautiful farmland all around. Over the next  two days (with several torrential downpours thrown in just to keep us on our toes...I also discovered that my 25 year old rain jacket is not waterproof...go figure!) we found our way to Fergus Falls and the start of the Central Lakes/Lk. Wobegon trail system.  This is a wonderful bike trail that goes most of the way across Mn on old railroad bed.  The pavement is "champagne powder" asphalt and the scenery is beautiful, going through endless cornfields and many lakes.  The best part... no cars or hills more than a 2percent grade. Along the way, we were hailed by an older gentleman on a recumbent bike with hearty "Where ya from?"  He said his name was Myrvin ("With a 'y'!!) Secord.  He rides about 8000 mi a year and was on his way for an 80 mi jaunt this day.  He informed us that the secret to a long life is "Get lot's of exercise, eat right, and don't use sun screen (causes cancer) or toilet paper...you ever see a cow or elephant use toilet paper?"  He had me on that one...who am I to argue with success? We are now camped in the city park in Bowlus, Mn  The gal in the cafe who is in charge of camping says "The bathroom doors  lock at dusk so just stick a shoe in the door over night."  The adventure continues as we head east into Wisconsin by day after tomorrow.  We should make good time from here on and have a bet for our ETA in NJ...Kelly says Aug 15 or sooner and I have the 16th or later.  Place your bets now and get a chance to win a slightly used bike saddle...I never want to see that thing again!