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Saturday, 23 Jul 2022
106.80 miles
2979 ft of climbing

I got up at dawn, which was pretty early in Central Time. This was the first night on my new sleeping pad, and I woke up several times during the night wondering if it was holding air or if I was on the ground. It held up fine, and I felt no lingering effects from yesterday's ride.

In the early morning quiet I made myself coffee and oatmeal on my little woodgas stove. I checked the weather forecast, hmm, storm coming in the late afternoon. Time to break camp and get going toward Marientte County. Today would be a route I hadn't taken before, one without a lot of alternate options if the big highways turned out to be busy.

I made my way down to Highway 70 on a forest road lined with glacial erratic boulders hidden in the shadows of the trees. It was cool and quiet so far, and I opted to stay on 70 and then 139 instead of taking the gravel bypass I had planned. What was I thinking with that gravel route anyway?

Oh, hmm. Maybe my routing software knew better than me. I followed the detour route to Tipler, and stopped at a pavilion there to look at a map and see how many miles this detour was likely to add.

Ah ha! I had found a detour off of this detour, and it seemed like it was all paved. Well, it wasn't but it worked out in the end and was much, much shorter than the official detour.

I rejoined Highway 139 just south of the "out" bridge, and had it all to myself as I made my way to the town of Long Lake. Between Grandma Sally's bakery, the general store, and the water spigot at the fire hall, I left fully restocked and ready to enjoy the 20-odd miles to the next town.

It was warming up again but I was trying to take it easy and avoid another round of heat exhaustion. I stopped at a park in Laona for a short break.

(Definitely making plans to come back to Laona for the community soup, sounds delicious.) I topped off my water bottles at a convenience store, and then, well, I couldn't just ride on by the ice cream shop.

Back on rural roads, I was watching the forest gradually turn to fields, and on one of the rolling hills I found my first farm selling fresh produce. Bodwéwadmi Ktëgan farm has a large hydroponic operation, and I was eager to stock up on veggies. But their store was nearly empty so I left with...one cucumber. I figured that would be enough to balance the ice cream and pork rinds I'd had earlier.

My cucumber and I emerged from the farm roads in Wabeno (or was it Soperton? Are these the Twin Cities of Wisconsin?). Downtown Wabeno is a the most Wisconsin place, with a Paul Bunyan, a steam locomotive, a museum, and a good place to get a chicken sandwich to go.

And about 20 bars, more or less. None for me today, back up the hill to beat the storm.

As I rolled down County Road C, I felt a few raindrops and stopped to zip up my bags and pack away anything I didn't want to get wet.

I left County Road C for Parkway Road, noting a couple of other campgrounds along the way in case I needed to turn back from my first choice, Veterans Memorial Park just south of the High Falls Reservoir.

About 13 miles later I rolled into the park, quickly scanned the check-in instructions, and chose a spot in the walk-in tent camping area. Just in time, too. It was sprinkling as I set up my tent, but I managed to keep everything relatively dry.

As I was walking back from the self-registration station, another camper flagged me down. "Hey, we were walking over by your site earlier today...check out this snake we saw! I don't know what it was, but it was big and hooded!" He showed me photos on his phone, and I concluded that I should probably step carefully and keep my tent zipped up. Our conversation was cut short by the rain and wind, which were picking up fast, and I retreated to my tent to stay dry.

After texting Nancy to warn of my probable fate (snake bite and/or blown away in a thunderstorm), I decided that I would probably not head back up the road to find some food for supper, and I broke into my reserves. A packet of tuna, one delicious cucumber, a muffin and a few other things, and I was full enough.

One last check of the tent door zippers, and off to bed.

Friday, 22 Jul 2022
112.36 miles
4042 ft of climbing

It was finally time for another ride from home to Madison, Wisconsin! Plans for a bike tour earlier this year had fallen through, so I was getting itchy to get out the door and onto my bike for a few days.

The route was nothing too different, but would hopefully hit the high points of past trips and avoid long stretches between towns and the busier highways I'd encountered on previous rides. This was a more central route, staying east of Wausau but not going as far as Marinette.

Anyway, 7:00, time to go! Or maybe I'll just wait until this angry storm cell passes. If I can ride out the worst rain of the day sitting at the kitchen table, I will.

Anyway, 7:30, time to go! The sky was clearing and everything was lush. I paused at the hop sign for good luck.

Steam rose off the asphalt as it warmed, and I settled in for a quiet spin to Tapiola. One of the old men chatting outside Karvakko's store called out to me, "Hey, slow down, there's a speed limit here!" "Ha!" I waved.

Should I stop at Kurt's Korner to get a snack? I'm always debating whether to stop for a bit or keep rolling, especially today, not having a locked-in place to stay the night. The correct answer was yes, and I had half a giant cookie bar while sitting at the picnic table in front.

Then off to M-38 for several miles until I got to the forest highway. Sometimes this stretch is stressful and unpleasant, but with no traffic and just a light breeze, it was less of a slog than usual. I turned to the south on FH-16, entering the Ottawa National Forest. Two swans and their babies welcomed me!

I rolled on to Kenton where I stopped for lunch (a huge sandwich I'd made that morning), and filled my water bottles from the well. Things were feeling pretty good so far, though the temperature was into the 80s already and I knew I had a long, open stretch of road ahead of me.

Back on the road and, whew, yeah, sunny and warm. I paused at the Golden Lake campground about 88 miles in and found it completely empty. Maybe a good stop for a future trip.

At some point I entered Wisconsin and the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest; there wasn't really a sign or anything. But there was a bench with instructions written on it, so I obeyed.

But not for too long. I still had the voice in the back of my head telling me I'd find a full campground and need to head to the next one down the line. So back on the bike and toward Phelps, Wisconsin.

A few miles later on Highway 17 my bike started to feel weird. I looked down, yep, rear tire looks low. Bounce-bounce in the saddle, okay, it's losing air pretty fast. I found a precious bit of shade just off on a gravel side road and stopped.

Well, no big deal. I took my bags off the bike, arranged them in a neat pile, and flipped the bike upside down so it stood on its handlebars and saddle. As I went back toward my bags to get my tools and a spare tube, I spotted a tiny skunk waddling through the grass with apparently the same goal. I let out a little yelp, stepped back, and pleaded with him to not spray me and all of my belongings. He seemed as startled as me but complied, and scurried back into the ditch without emitting even a whiff.

I laughed and then texted Nancy to let her know about my brush with danger. Thinking that the skunk might be on his way back with Mom to investigate, I quickly swapped in a new tube, put everything back on my bike, and got ready to leave the shade behind. It was really getting hot now and I was starting to run out of water.

Not knowing what I would find at the campground, I opted to head into the town of Phelps to fill up on water and get some food even though that added a few miles to my ride. As I stood outside the convenience store I started to feel nauseated and tired, and knew I definitely hadn't been taking on enough water. I drank as much cold water as I dared, but again felt the need to push on to the campground to find a spot.

About eight hilly, hot miles later I rolled into Spectacle Lake Campground, a nice little national forest park, and was relieved to find that it was only about half full. I plopped down at the first tent site I found, now feeling more effects of heat exhaustion. I drank more water, poured some over my head, and after a while felt well enough to set up my tent and register my site.

Time for a swim to cool off some more and rinse the grit off me and my bike clothes. The campground was buzzing with parties and generators at this point, but the beach was completely empty! This little lake was clear with a sandy bottom, and I felt as good as new when I got out of the water.

One last thing to take care of: charging my USB battery so my phone, GPS, and lights would work the next day. None of the normal campsites had electricity, but I noticed that the campground hosts had some lights strung up on their site. I pretended to be extroverted and struck up a conversation with the (very good-natured) hosts. They were kind enough to let me plug in my battery to charge overnight. Thanks! Off to bed, 112 miles behind me and feeling back to normal again.