"Never Say No to Adventure"

Friday, August 1, 2014

Custer to Suring: The Land of the Bait and Switch!

Wisconsin, I so love you, but you need to start being more honest with me. No more of this showing me something amazing only to rip it away and then kick me in the balls. That's not just how to make friends.

I did 96 miles today with 6:18 on bike and arrived to town at 5:15pm. That arrival time isn't bad, but it's a few hours later than I'd like to be arriving. The mileage is.. well... I had figured it to be 80 miles on my stupid map, not 96. Even when I was in Gresham, at mile 60, I had figured it was between 25 and 30 miles away. Not 45 miles. I even asked several locals "Hey Suring is about 30 miles away, right?" They all said "Ya" in their Northern Wisconsin accents, which I now realized means "hell if I know, I drive a car, hippie."

Anyway, now I'm cooking dinner in nice park in Suring (pop ~500) hoping I don't get hassled later because I couldn't find anyone to ask if I could stay here. It's pretty out of the way though so I should be OK. This is the first time I've been back on my "regular routine" since the park in Corsica, SD with the kids in the pool, and before that the park in Interior that I took a picture of the day before my bike weld broke. I guess "regular" isn't the best way to describe anything anymore.

Touring in Wisconsin is weird. First of all, even though I'm in a town of only 500 I'm still in populous area with lots of towns of several hundred people around so the locals are still kind of weird and wary. I'm starting to get that "you are nearing the Eastern US and everyone is afraid of everyone" poison. That's part of why I'm worried about being hassled tonight if I don't get a chance to check in with the Sheriff.

It's also different than touring in other midwestern places like Iowa, Indiana, Illinoise, and Ohio. It's more like Pennsylvania (this keyboard disables my spell check.) In Wisc even towns of almost a thousand may lack a grocery store in gas station, making resupplying and water unpredicable. Out west towns with stuff are rare, but they are predicable. In the lower Midwest every town has a gas station at least, usually Casey's. Around here all the locals go to X town for stuff, that looks just like every other town, and I sure as hell don't know which one it is. "Thank you Mario, but your Chocolate Milk is in another castle..."

So lets talk about the 'ol Wisconsin Bait 'n Switch. We already experienced this with the nice township roads that turn into gravel without any escape. I've learned my lesson, they aren't luring me anymore with their siren song. But Wisconsin adapts!

Their maps are one example. Most states have a free bike map that covers the entire state. Wisconsin has a set of large very detailed maps that you have to pay for. The detail is worthless, because all it adds are the siren township roads and then doesn't differentiate between gravel and paved. All I can ride on are the lettered county roads that fit fine on a full-size map. Also, to use their maps to ride across Wisc you'd need something like 5 of them, taking up a third of your pannier and not fitting in your handlebar bag. Worthless! Why even bother making them? The maps doing even have mileages! None of their stupid maps do. What is the point of a map without mileages? That damn things are even too rough to use as toilet paper in a pinch.

That's a minor example though. Today Wisc got me good with one of it's Rails to Trails trails. Rails to Trails are old railroad tracks turned to bike trails, like the one with the tunnels I did a few days ago. Today my route had planned 24 miles of such a trail, but I had bailouts planned and intersections long the way in case it got rough. Also, I don't really like traveling on crushed limestone because it slows my speed by about 4 mph but it was the shortest and flattest route. My plan was to get to the intersecting town (Hatley, about 30 miles out) see if it looks good, and then decide.

Well it looked great so I went. I stayed good long enough for me to get beyond my first few bailout points (3 miles) and then it turned to poop sticks. It became a double track trail (think truck ruts but a bit smoother) with me jumping back and forth between the two tracks trying to find a smooth route. Luckily it was recently mowed, but I was still in lots of tall grass and my tires were kicking up who knows how many ticks and rabid bats and Lime's Disease all over my legs. I was stuck on this BS for 8 miles until my next bailout spot. DAMN YOU WISCONSIN! YOU TRICKED ME AGAIN!

Anyway, I do love it here. The rest of the ride was beautiful through rolling hills and mostly uneventful. It was overcast and about 70 deg and a bit muggy. My rest day in Wellingville was great and I went to lake and ate pizza and beer. Carol cooked me awesome breakfast this morning . I did the last 40 miles powered almost entirely by a cookie dough blizzard (but generic, no towns big enough for a DQ here). All's good in Suring tonight (assuming I hide well enough).

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Route Update! Exciting!

Alright, I figured out my route from here and future plans. As you recall my original plan was to go to Brattleborough, VT via a fairly direct route after RAGBRAI. I was also going to catch a ride to Steven's Point with the Team RoadShow bus saving me three days. However, since Mark isn't moving to Brattleborough, I'm changing my goal a bit. I could have made it, but this will be more fun. Instead of shooting across Michigan and taking the ferry, I'm going to do some exploring and go to places that I've been meaning to visit, like Mackinaw Island. My new goal is Tunbridge, VT where another RoadShower lives, but I doubt I'll make it in time.

My new route, barring any meandering, is 1,563 miles. I have to be back at work on the 26th, and would prefer to get back around the 20th so I can readjust to stationary life before work. When I originally planned this trip I didn't think I had to get back to work until Sept 1st, but my district decided that spending time on meetings was valuable or something so now I have to do that. Tomorrow is August 1st, so that would mean 20 days at an average of 79 miles a day. If I ride up to the 26th that's 60 miles a day. I would prefer 60-70 mile days for this part of the trip with at least a short day in Mackinaw and maybe other cool places, so that's not going to work.

However, I think I'm still going to head towards Tunbridge anyway. I'm not sure where I'll stop, but I'll figure that out as the days pass. I should mention that this trip will be longer miles than any of the other x-country trips I've done, even though I won't make it to the coast or likely even Vermont this time. I've done the ocean to ocean thing twice, nothing wrong with meandering around the inland states.

I'll be on Adventure Cycling routes for most of it, but only 1 or 2 days will be a repeat of 2003. The rest will be brand new which I like. The AC maps do feel a bit like cheating, but when I find my own routes I often end up on AC routes by accident anyway because, well, both AC and I know what we are doing and great minds think alike. I don't have lots of time left, so I'll let them think for me. Plus Iris has done some of this Great Lakes stuff before and I miss her so maybe this will help.

From here I head almost directly to Escanaba, MI (about 2.5 days) to get on the Great Lakes Route map 2 and ride 153 miles to Mackinaw. From there I get on Great Lakes Route Map 3 and do about half that route (220 miles) to map section 26 near Wolf Lake. Then I head straight east on the Lake Erie Connector 504 miles partially through Canada to Fort Erie by Buffalo, NY. There I cross at Niagra Falls (this is the part I've done before) and get on the Northern Tier map 10 (which overlaps part of NY State Bike Route 5, my originally planned NY route) 421 miles to Ticoderoga, NY which is 66 miles from Tunbridge, VT. Likely I'll run out of time somewhere on this last section, especially if I detour which could happen, and have to fly back.

I'm thinking of getting in contact with Michelle, the Great Divide rider who I met in the jail in Ovando, MT and who lives in Rochester, NY, and ending there. It seems soon, but time is time and I'll still have done enough miles to have gotten to the Atlantic if I'd gone straight there.

I'm gonna try and link the map routes in pictures here, but if they don't show up just click on the links in the paragraph above to see the routes.

North Lakes Section 2, I'm doing the top part once I get to Escanaba in a couple days. 153 miles.

North Lakes Section 3, I'm only going halfway down (just south of Messick) : 220 miles

Lake Erie Connector: 504 miles

Northern Tier Section 10: 421 Miles

New Lisbon to Custer photos

Remember you can click on these pictures for larger versions / slideshow!

The back roads of Wisconsin are so beautiful until they turn to gravel!

Hops from the passenger seat of Doug's pickup dropping me off in the morning.

This was going to be my water/food stop 27 miles out. The next stop was another 20-25 miles. This is why I always carry extra water and food, even in the "easy" midwest.

I mean, can you really blame me for stopping to take pictures all the time?

Approaching Wellingville!

My day off "office"

Wellingville!

The corn here looks weird. I think it might be popcorn or sweet corn.

Team RoadShow reunion! Most of these folks missed RAGBRAI this year. Sad Face.

Magic.

New Lisbon to Custer: Wellingville, and the differences between West and East touring.

I broke my streak of updating every night last night, but I have an excuse. I'm in Wellingville and fun was happening! Also, before I forget, Matt from La Crosse has a blog for his trip that will likely be lasting for months and months and months. It's http://www.cyclingbychoice.com His blog is funnier and less pretentious than mine, you should read it. It doesn't hurt that there is a picture of handsome 'ol me in his most recent post.

Yesterday I did 84.3 miles in 5:53 on bike through mostly flat Wisconsin back roads. Doug drove me back to New Lisbon in the morning where he had picked me up the night before and then treated me to breakfast at a diner inside a gas station. We picked up our good conversations from the night before and had some fun. Doug had a bit of insight into why people are nice/trusting to me that I hadn't though of: He mentioned a few times that whatever people think about me, no-one is thinking that I'm lazy. I guess that says a lot about someone. They might think I'm insane, crazy, or a little "off"; but no-one is thinking I'm lazy. I guess bike touring is so common in my life and among my friends that I lose that outside perspective sometimes. Most people think this is hard. Which, if you refer to back to first post about difficulty, is funny. Because out west travelers tend to bottleneck through the few oasis's around, I've met a lot of people. I think the two people I've met walking across the US are doing something hard. So was Tim when he ran about a 1/3 of RAGBRAI doing 40-50 miles a day. Or the tons of unicyclers on Team RoadShow who've unicycled RAGBRAI. Those are things that are hard... but maybe they don't think so either. It's all what you get used to. Except for the running RAGBRAI thing, I think Tim will admit that that is ridiculous. Anyway, I'm I wouldn't call myself lazy, but I have met lazy bike tourers.

I didn't hit the road until about 9:30 or 10am, which meant for another long day. I've gotten late starts all three days since RAGBRAI, and that combined with the long miles and the frequent crazy scenery, towns, and people who want to chat, means that I've been getting into town at 7pm or later every day. That really cuts down on recovery time and also means I stay up later, which starts the cycle again the next day. I'm taking a rest day here in Wellingville do hang and do more route planning and I hope that tomorrow I can leave early and get my days back to "normal." I prefer to be done by 5pm at the latest.

I think my old normal is over though. Touring east of Iowa is way different than out west. I haven't read my book since a few days before leaving South Dakota. My western routine of rolling into town, locating a park or church, buying dinner, cooking dinner while reading, singing a few songs, blogging, then sleeping (with a few adventures mixed in) doesn't really happen out here. Here bike touring is less you navigating nature and more you navigating different social situations and lack of sleep. I like it a lot - touring is half about the location and half about the people who live there - but it is exhausting in it's own way. Another difference that water is readily available so I'm no-longer carrying gallons but only two or three 24 oz bottles. On a similar token, the humidity is much higher so chaff and other skin issues creep up that don't happen too bad in the desert.

Out west life is simple; here life is complicated. One example is that I have way more choices of route. Out west you have only a few choices, so you picked the least traveled highway that stills gives you access to towns and stay on that for days. Now I have tons of state highways, county highways, and local roads to choose from. That clutters up the map and means that I frequently don't get mileages on the maps anymore, so determining my planned mileage for the day gets difficult. Instead of knowing exactly how far I'm going to go, I now have to estimate with a margin of error of about 10 miles. That's frustrating for me. Out west a lone highway will have similar traffic (if it's not a truck route) to smaller county and township roads out here. In Wisconsin there are tons of those roads to choose from so it's nice... except...

THEY ARE ALL TRAPS! The Wisconsin bike maps, a series of maps that you pay for (most state bike maps are free), are very nice, except that for some crazy reason they don't differentiate between gravel and paved roads. In most midwestern states I'm fine with this. I just get on a low traveled farm road (they are more like bike paths where you occasionally get chased by farm dogs) and ride them and if they turn to gravel it's usually at an intersection so I just jog a mile to the left or right until another road going that direction is paved. It's all grids in Iowa, Illinoise, Indiana, and Ohio. But not in Wisconsin! In Wisconsin they turn their roads to gravel in the middle of nowhere, trapping you! And it's not good gravel either, it's terrible break your bike make you want to cry gravel. I don't have a nice heavy Africa-class touring bike. I have a midweight touring bike that already broke once this trip. I don't want to end up on gravel with 4-inch deep washboarding.

Lesson learned. After getting trapped twice and spending about 10 of my 85 miles on gravel yesterday, I will not trust any more idealic country back roads in Wisconsin. It's county highways from here on out. They are generally about the same traffic as western highways anyway, just not always as pretty as the back roads.

And now I am in Wellingville, home of the BJ and Carol, and childhood homes of Ariel, Orian, and I think tons of their friends. It's a magic place just north of Custer set in the woods and hand built by BJ. I met Orian my first night of my first RAGBRAI in 2000 in a pickup game of ultimate frisbee, and met Ariel the next night. We became friends quickly, and Ariel was a co-founder of Team RoadShow (the RAGBRAI version) in 2004 and a principle recruiter of the Wisconsin contingent. As you've read, we also bike across the country together in 2007. BJ is now a co-leader of Team RoadShow and the steward of our team bus. I could tell Welling stories for days and days, but suffice to say they are a magical people and being here is something I've been looking forward to all trip. They are hosts on Warm Showers, so if you ever tour through here do yourself a favor and look them up!