73 miles. Mixed day on roads and paths

After Egg McMuffins we got on the road north from Chilton. The shoulder was OK but cars and trucks were very close and very loud so when we got a chance, we shifted over to the Fox River Trail that took us all the way into Green Bay. For about 16 miles we rode on well maintained crushed limestone. In spots the stone was a little too deep so we had trouble making good speeds but 9 miles or so from Green Bay the path was wonderfully paved, wide and heavily used by cyclists, roller bladers and others. Across the river we could see Lambeau Field, mecca for all the cheese heads out there.

Leaving the path and into Green Bay the streets were rough and very little in the way of shoulder or bike lane. Google maps and our Garmin helped us get through the urban maze of streets and paths but often they disagreed so we picked Google maps as our guide and it worked pretty well.

We made it out of the city and back into fields and countryside with no help from a wind coming from our left sides and paralleled the Lake Michigan shoreline all the way to Oconto.

Pretty uneventful day but that’s OK. Tomorrow we leave Wisconsin and into Michigan and the Eastern Time Zone and begin our trek around the north shore of Lake Michigan.

63 miles. Avoided the rain but never found the predicted tail winds. Rats!

We awoke to thunder and pouring rain so after breakfast we postponed our departure for close to two hours while the storm raced through. Weather radar was very helpful in timing our leaving since I could see the clean air behind the rain. We were anticipating strong winds from the south and we were headed north for most of the day but except for a half hour at the very beginning, the winds weren’t much help.

26 miles of our route today was on the Wild Goose State Trail, another rail to trail project with a crushed limestone surface. There were many holes dug by various animals so we had to be attentive all the time. One 500 yard section was all grass and we would have abandoned the trail for the road if the grass had lasted any longer. We only saw three people in the entire 26 mile run, two of whom were walking dogs, so we had that world to ourselves.

The trail dumped us into Fond du Lac and our Google map directions were incomplete, leaving out about 3 miles that we had to decipher on the fly but we made it through and rode on highway the rest of the way into Chilton.

We stopped in front of our hotel, The Rang Inn Thunderbird Motel, a 60’s throwback, and saw an ice cream shop! You had me at chocolate malt! Inside we met a woman in her 70s who had ridden the Southern Tier across the US, another woman who was curious about our trip and a guy with his daughter who also asked about out trip. I gave him the blog info and he logged on there on the spot then linked Bikewright.org to his Facebook page. He also pulled out his wallet and tried to give us cash for the Foundation! Our nephew Andy who is administering the blog says that one or two people a day click on the donation link!!! As we checked into the hotel, two women approached us to ask about the ride. They are sisters and one of them had lived close to Spring Green so was very familiar with Wright. The other sister had her house designed by a Taliesin Fellow!

Pizza at Papa Don’s (not John but Don – maybe Papa John’s little brother!) and now we are settling in. Tomorrow we are off through Green Bay to Oconto, our last stop in Wisconsin.

25:9. Hint: every single one of you will recognize both things I’m counting.

85 miles. Rolling hills and a wrong turn at the very end that added 6 miles to the trip when we least expected them.

After a busy “rest-day” yesterday we said good-bye to Taliesin and started riding back toward our original planned route in the north. We will rejoin the Northern Tier route at Escanaba, MI where we hope to be on Tuesday. Spring Green is the most southerly point in our journey.

I have been asked several times what my expectations were for the countryside we would be riding through. I can tell you that I had no idea what eastern Montana or North Dakota would be like. I also hadn’t expected so much of our riding to be on relatively busy country highways with trucks, RVs and pickups hauling heavy loads. But today was a day much as I had imagined we might be having.

It was almost a picture perfect day. It started out cool — we actually had to put jackets on — and the fog was lifting picturesquely over the pond at Taliesin and the Wisconsin River as we started our ride at 6:45 am.

 

The fog quickly lifted and soon we were riding under crystal clear skies that turned partly cloudy toward the late afternoon with beautiful, fair weather cumulus clouds. The temps maxed out at about 90 degrees, but it never really felt too hot.

For the most part we were riding on quiet back-country roads imaginatively named County Road T or V or S with a couple of Mueller or Lange roads thrown in. There was little traffic, which was good since most of the roads had no shoulders. With the exception of some stretches that had annoying expansion joints, the riding was smooth and enjoyable. There were rolling hills for the whole day, with as many downs as ups so we got to coast as much as we climbed. The wind was calmish and coming from the south, so we enjoyed a slight tailwind during parts of our day as we zig-zagged first north then east then back to north, etc. for the day. It was fun to switch it up a bit, rather than being on the same road all day long.

I found the scenery today very, well, scenic. We were riding through lots and lots of corn already silking out, wheat that is very heavy on the stalk and about ready to be harvested, some soy beans, and hay that was being turned as we biked by, enveloping us in its aroma. Some of the corn fields were bordered by beautiful wild flowers including corn flowers, Queen Anne’s lace, Black-eyed Susans and alfalfa. As we biked I was thinking that with the addition of some vineyards, this area could be sold as the American Tuscany. We even saw some sunflowers!

We also passed numerous dairies. The area seems much more financially stable than some other parts of the US we’ve biked through. The farms are well maintained and beautiful and I think we passed only one establishment that was permanently closed. Interestingly, even though we were still biking in the country, we saw folks walking their dogs, a couple of joggers, and some cyclists out for day rides. Maybe this is more of a function of today being a Saturday, but I think it also has to do with the area not being dedicated 100% to agriculture.

We were entertained for a bit by a barn cat and her romping kittens and saw the usual numerous bird populations: herons, geese, ducks and songbirds. We also saw the saddest thing on our trip to date: a poor chipmunk pulling itself across the road by its front legs; its back legs were dragging behind it. It must have just gotten clipped by a car. Heart breaking.

We had lunch in the shadow of a quite large Catholic Church, St. Joseph, and passed a historic one-room school on the way.

The neighborhoods of the two towns we rode through were also very picturesque and upscale and included a few old Victorian houses.

All in all, it was a perfect day for a bike ride and the scenery was enjoyable and interesting. The only downside came at the end when we turned right instead of left just a few miles from our destination for the day. By the time we realized what we had done, we had biked three miles into a head wind. So we turned around and biked seven miles to our motel in Beaver Dam, this time with a tail wind. When we got here we were pretty well pooped. So we took showers and then had chocolate malts at a family restaurant next door. We look forward to dinner at a neighboring sports bar and catching up on emails and reading. We continue to follow the news from Turkey. Luckily, Stuart has not personally experienced any hardship associated with the attempted coup and the meetings he was there to attend will continue tomorrow after a break today.

67 miles.  All on unpaved bike trail.

The entrance to the La Crosse River Trail was very near our hotel. Most of the reviews of the trail bemoaned its sorry condition and warned against riding it with anything other than a fat tire mountain bike – not what we’re riding. We had planned to meet another Wright Foundation Board member, Ray, in Sparta, a little town 22 miles down the trail to bike with him to Hillsboro and Ray had learned that the actual condition of the trail was quite a bit different from the reviews and was very rideable. Besides, the highway alternative is very hilly so we gave the trail a shot and it was good.

There is a $5 daily user fee payable at a kiosk at the trail head so we stopped to pay our dues and were engulfed with mosquitos! A quick getaway freed us from the swarm and got us on our way. The surface of the original crushed limestone path was largely eroded but the dirt base was fine for riding with no ruts or potholes. I think the number of bad trail reviews is yet another proof that it is mostly negative views that get posted on the web. Very few people will take the time to write something positive.

We made it to Sparta just as Ray was riding up so the timing was perfect and away the three of us rode. The Elroy-Sparta Trail was the first rail to trail conversion in the country and includes three very dark railroad tunnels from the late 1800s through which one must walk the bike.  Water dripped from overhead and seeped down the stone walls illuminated eerily by our very bright LED bike lights. The longest tunnel is over 3500 feet long of total darkness. The cool air inside the tunnels was welcome on this hot and humid day and we emerged through a fog of condensation at the other end.

On we rode to the town of Kendall where we stopped at a bar (The Hidden Inn) for lunch and wi fi so Ray and Maja could join in a Foundation Board conference call. The call lasted long enough for all three of us to dread getting back on the bikes but at least Maja and I had our first taste of Wisconsin fried cheese curds!

After the call we dragged slowly to Hillsboro and the Hillsboro Hotel where we are recycling and headed to dinner at the Hillsboro Brewing Company – they make a great IPA.  Tomorrow we ride through Richland Center and have just arranged a tour of Wright’s A.D. German Warehouse and hope to see the house where old Frank was born.

72 miles.  Good biking day … for the most part.

Our route stayed on State 35, The Great River Road, from the beginning almost to our hotel in Onalaska, La Crosse.  We never strayed far from the Mississippi or the train tracks so it was flat most of the way with a decent shoulder and smooth pavement.

When we had our three day stay in Glacier National Park waiting for the pass to open we attended a Park Ranger lecture about bald eagles and learned that at one point, the total US population of the national bird was 480 mating pairs, endangered by the use of DDT.  Genetic studies place the minimum number of mating pairs necessary for any species’ survival somewhere around 460 so bald eagles were truly on the knife edge of extinction. Now there are estimated to be over 5000 nesting pairs in the continental US with an estimated 70,000 birds in North America. Yesterday when we stopped for lunch we saw two bald eagles swooping low and landing on a spit of land in the river. Today we saw two more of them, one in a tree next to the road. We also saw lots of vultures but the bald eagle’s survival is an arresting story.

We stopped for lunch at a fruit and vegetable stand and were told of a more scenic short cut to La Crosse so, against the cyclists’ rule never to trust a non-cyclist for route information, we followed her advice and enjoyed a few miles of country road cycling away from the zooming trucks on the state road.

After we rejoined old 35 for the last run in to town we made the decision to follow the business loop instead of the busy highway. Cue the “Fail” buzzer! We had to fight for road space along a 5 mile construction zone with no shoulder, no place to pull off and impatient motorists and truck drivers squeezing by us with little or no room to do so. It was a very stressful end to the day.

Tomorrow we will be on one of the first rail to trail bike paths in the country that, we are assured, is in better repair than the reviews

45 miles. It’s more like 60 from Craig and Steve’s house but since this part of our journey is the 180 mile detour to Spring Green and Taliesin and not on our cross country route, we “allowed” Steve to drive us through the Twin Cities (simply called “The Cities” around these parts) and rush hour traffic to the town of Prescot, WI, where we began pedaling. Please don’t think we are cheating, these are extra miles and in a different category! But we did appreciate the ride.

On the way we were alerted by a passing motorist that one of our bikes was perilously close to falling off of Steve’s bike rack and, after stopping, we found that my bike was being dragged on its rear tire! A careful inspection in Prescot showed only a scuffed tire so disaster was avoided.

The forecast for today had been for very strong winds in our faces and sunshine but the day, thankfully, started very overcast and almost windless. So away we went. I think we have determined that two days’ rest is too much for our legs and our motivation because today was hard. There were lots of ups and downs but the old energy levels just weren’t there. Going forward we may limit our rest days to a mere one.

For the most part the ride went smoothly – nice shoulder, not too much traffic, glimpses of the river. We reached Lake Pepin. The lake is more like a bulge in the Mississippi formed by the confluence of that river and the Cherokee eons ago.

We had a nice break for lunch at a park on a bluff above the lake where we saw a pair of bald eagles on the river below.

We then pedaled the rest of the way into the town of Pepin and the Pepin Hotel. It was hot for the last part of our ride so we walked to the public beach (they also have a nice sheltered marina for sailboats) and dunked ourselves.

On the way to the beach we spotted a nice looking restaurant for dinner and we just ate there, by unanimous acclaim the best meal we’ve had on our trip so far! We heartily recommend the Harbor View Café.

Tomorrow we’re off to La Crosse, WI, and had planned on taking a scenic bike path that runs through state parks and bird sanctuaries but a little research revealed that the trail is suffering greatly from lack of maintenance due to state budget cuts and is unrideable with our bikes. There is a fee for using the trail so one has to wonder where that money is going.

Antique shops on the route and you can tell folks around here take their fishing seriously!

Cast your vote for the most ridiculous tan lines. Vote early and vote often.