Lots to type up – recapping my trip to Wisconsin over the last week.
Day 1 – June 16th – Harvard to Lena, IL
This first day was harder than I was hoping for, as 67 miles planned turned into 88 miles, with a couple detours for supplies. To get to Harvard from Chicago I got to take my first “real” train ride, about 2 hours in all. Gladly the train ride was smooth, and not packed, since I traveled in the middle of the day. Rode to Wal-Mart and McDonalds before leaving town. The new Wal-Mart is hard to find, since it faces away from US14 and has a sign obscured by some silos.
McD’s in Harvard:
Weather was great today, not too hot or humid, with a slight breeze. The first half of the day was flat, but started rolling after I crossed the Sugar River. The rolling hills really did a number on my speed and energy, which made it so I had to roll into a small town to get some more food and water around 5 o’clock. With all the maps I took, I should have had a copy of the section of Illinois I was in so I could have changed the route just a bit on the fly.
I rolled into camp around 9 pm and set up, and barely made it into Lena in time for the closing of the drive-in on the north side of town. If I had even been a minute late I would have had nothing to eat for the night, since nothing else was open! I was surprised even the gas stations were closed when I rode around downtown Lena, but I suppose that’s small towns for you.
Camping was fun, though I was a bit spooked by the animals at a couple points during the night when I heard them sniffing around for my food. I double bagged the food and kept it with me in the tent, but I made the mistake of sleeping with the rainfly on, even though it was a dry evening. I couldn’t see outside, which is what I think spooked me the most.
Plans for Thursday: Watch food & water stops better. 70 miles or so on tap, with a scheduled stop at Galena’s Wal-Mart before heading north to Hazel Green. Temps expected hotter, in the low 90s, breezy (S) and more humid.
Day 2 – June 17th – Lena, IL to Hazel Green, WI
Rode through the Driftless Region of NW IL today, which features some great hilly roads that remind me a bit of the steep stuff around the Lake of the Ozarks. Almost all of the roads were paved, which was a nice difference from MO riding. There was one cool section of abandoned road going east from Lena; a good test for off-roading all loaded down. Made me glad to have my granny gear.
Driftless Hill near Galena:
I stopped a lot today, partly due to GI distress, but more due to the combination of heat, hills, and plenty of time. My one day I figure I don’t have to ride really hard! I felt really bad going into Galena and crawled up the hill through town to get to Wal-Mart. I shopped around a while and got most of the supplies I thought I needed, then sat by my bike in the shade and refueled for a bit. Got back on the bike and rode the flat highway (with tailwind!) into Hazel Green to the meet spot (Gangsters Bar & Grill, a great place!)
Behind Gangster’s:
Rode to the grocery store north of town and resupplied some more, then rode down to the park south of town.
It turns out Charlie Farrow and I had the same idea: copy the pages we needed out of the Gazetter and take them with us. It turned out to be a great idea, especially when we needed to reroute for food stops.
It was storming real bad in Minnesota when we were at the bar, so I was hoping it wouldn’t storm too bad the night before the event. It turned out to not be too bad, just windy as heck.
Day 3 – June 18th – Hazel Green to Mt. Sterling, WI
Pre-event prerequisite pee break:
We all lined up for a quick photo before heading out after some great breakfast at Gangster’s:
This was one heck of a first day for TW – got 115 miles in today! Weather was good from 9 am to 1pm, dry, but warm and quite humid as the storms rolled across Iowa to our position. The skies started to look ominous outside of Cassville, then opened up right as we left the town limits.
After a downpour, it drizzled on and off all afternoon, including a couple really close calls with lightning. One bolt was so close the powerlines next to the road sparked! Skies finally cleared up when we stopped in Mt. Sterling. Our group (Steve, Dave, Jim, & I) were hoping for some services or food at Mt. Sterling, but there were none. We were seriously concerned about food at that point, so we looked up the BP in Eastman and, upon Steve’s suggestion, called them up to beg them to deliver a pizza or two to us. Much to our surprise (and relief!), the clerk actually lived in Mt. Sterling and had her husband pick up Steve & Jim to go down there to get some food – needless to say, the niceness of a complete stranger helped save the day.
Mike and Steve F. rolled into town around dark, and camped out with us at the community shelter. It was good to have enough people there, and especially good to have enough supplies for all of us to keep going in the morning.
Weather looks great for Saturday, but there is a chance for rain on Sunday again. So far it looks like trimming the ride down a day or two is feasible, so we’ll see how the terrain treats us. It looks like we’ll be going through maps 2,3 and maybe even 4 tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to the singletrack and the rail-trail to Sparta.
Day 4 – June 19 – Mt. Sterling to outside Black River Falls, WI
Rode through maps 1, 2, 3, 4, and part of 5 today. The trail sections are killers, with the sand roads the farther north we go being brutal. The section 2 map needs a bit more work, but we found our way through the trails to the lake near Viroqua.
Section 4 we had to bypass some trails due to a lack of signage, but we ended up at the biker bar for a quick refuel before heading to Sparta. Jim fell over on my front wheel, knocking it out of true, but that’s my fault for following too close on a rutted section of trail. I futzed around with it a bit, but it’s stable.
Weather on Saturday was beautiful, and the terrain gets more agreeable each mile as we leave the Driftless and make it to glacierland. Going on the Sparta rail-trail was great, since half was up a 1% grade and half was down a 1% grade, with an awesome tunnel in the middle that was over a mile long.
I’m hoping for some sleep tonight and that I can continue on with these 4 (Steve, Dave, Jim, Mike) tomorrow since they’re all holding a great pace. My legs don’t feel too bad even after 4 days, and still having a great time up here!
Day 5 – June 20 – Black River Falls to Thorp, WI
Short day today! Steve, Dave, and Jim took off about 15 minutes before I did, so I rode into Black River Falls and had a long breakfast/planning session at McDonalds. Rode by a roadkill porcupine on the highway, that was different! Leaving BRF, I rode about half a mile on a sand road, then turned around to take the roads into Hatfield instead, which as it turns out, is what everyone else did to some degree.
Met up with Steve, Dave, and Jim in Hatfield, S & D stayed there to catch up on some sleep (they didn’t sleep well at our cold stop on the side of the road), and I kept moving, followed by Jim, who caught me on the ATV trails and passed me. I didn’t see him until he caught us off-route in Thorp. On Bachelors Rd north of US10, I caught up with Steve & Dave and rode with them into Thorpe on the roads. Had my one bad motorist south of Thorp, but I was surprised it was also my last bad encounter with such.
Steve & Dave sounded exhausted, so we all shared a hotel room (I slept on the rollup bed) and slept a full 9 hours (8-5), which was perfect. S & D are riding some gravel roads to Superior now, and I intend to take a slightly different route to meet up with some towns on the route, but following the exact route sounds nearly impossible with the way the sand roads are hurting us. Currently the goal is a Wednesday finish.
Day 6 – June 21 – Thorp to Winter, WI
Went way off route for most of the day, which was also my first true solo day of TW. Rode out to Perkinstown, then rode the course from Perkinstown to the Yellow River. Turns out there used to be a bridge there, but it hasn’t been there for quite a while. This forced a drastic reroute on roads over to Jump River, with a rainstorm along the way.
Right before the storms started rolling in:
Stopped at the store in Hawkins, and camped out at the county park on the west side of the Jeld-Win factory while some nasty storms rolled through. In all, I waited 4 hours, but that gave me plenty of time to regroup and figure out my plan for the rest of the trip. I moved all my reservations around so I could arrive in Superior on Wednesday night and start driving on Thursday.
After the storms finished, I got back on the bike and rode almost to midnight to camp outside of Winter, WI. Got some great progress today!
Day 7 – June 22 – Winter to Washburn, WI
Good long day in the saddle again. 120 miles in the heat, dodging storms later in the day. Woke up in the morning with about 20 slugs on my tent, which was a little gross, but I shook them off and packed up, a bit later start than I had hoped for. Had a great breakfast in Winter at a little cafe.
Crossed the Chippewa River in the middle of the day:
I slogged it up to Drummond (almost running out of water in the process), near the northern terminus of US63.
Took off for Washburn under the threat of a storm brewing to the south. After some sections of trail, I found that I had forgotten to close a pannier, and had lost a little bit of food and an arm warmer in the process. Bummer.
The flies really came out this evening, at a couple points when I was riding slow I was swarmed, and on some slower downhills had a swarm drafting behind me! I put my head down and cruised into Washburn, getting there by dark, and got an awesome cabin on the edge of town. Got some dinner at the Holidays convenience store a block over, and some good shuteye after watching the news. Turns out the storms were staying south that evening thanks to the jetstream, but that one big storm had spawned a tornado just west of where I was last night. One more day and I’ll be in Superior!
Day 8 – June 23 – Washburn to Superior, WI
Saw 2 black bears today! Had to yell at both of them, but they luckily ran off into the woods like any good bear.
The ride to Camp Detour was terrible – sand roads really suck the life out of the ride. I still made it up there and stopped for some food at the campsite.
I took off to Cornucopia, and found Mike heading the opposite way, trying to intercept his ride on WI 13. Sounds like he made it! After some rain, rode into Cornucopia and bought a ton of food at Ehler’s while it rained. It took me a bit to find the pavilion; turns out it was back on the northeast entrance to town, so I sat down there and ate a big lunch for my ride west. I worked my way down to Iron River in intermittent rain, then refueled and took off down US2. I tried the Tri-County Trail for a little bit, but the upward grade and soggy ground made it super slow. I stayed on US2 until it started pitching downward, then took the trail into Superior – a 1% downhill grade is awesome, especially compared to the flat Katy Trail!
Finished up around 10:30 pm, so I just have one more hour tomorrow to the airport, but about a 500 foot climb to get above the lake.
All in all, a fun trip, and a great learning experience! Thanks to Joe for the vision of the ride, and thanks to everyone that rode, hope to see you all around on some more epic rides!
