Author: Greg Pezoldt

It never rained last night! It did rain for about 3 minutes as I was packing my bike under the pavilion canopy though and the sky looked like rain was going to be a constant possibility today.

Today would be a pretty easy day. 47 miles to St. Ignace. This is the north end of the famous 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge. Bikes are not allowed on the bridge, but I have a plan for that.

The ride to St. Ignace was without incident. It did not rain a single drop during the ride. Once in town, I got a camping spot at the Straits State Park which is right on the lake shore.

Then I went into town and began researching my plan to get across the strait to Mackinac City tomorrow. I will take a ferry ride to Mackinac Island and spend the afternoon exploring the island and then take another ferry to Mackinac City on the south end of the bridge. Next, after I got the logistics of that figured out, I settled in for some food and beverage at one of the restaurants in town.

After all that, I rode the one mile back to the campground and got ready to settle in for the evening. Good thing I got back when I did though. The sky was soon filled with the sound of thunder and flashes of lightening. It was going to get wet tonight. That doesn’t really worry me. I trust my tent to keep me dry. As a matter of fact, once I was in the tent, I rather enjoyed the storm that followed. The sound of rain on the rain fly will always put me to sleep. And tonight was no different.

I was able and willing to get back on the bike this morning. I did not get an early start because I had to dry the tent out again this morning and I also am not used to the new time zone yet.

My route today is pretty easy to follow. I will be on Hwy 2 all day.

I stopped early for lunch today. With my late start, I did not eat any breakfast and my energy level showed it. I was hungry and needed some fuel. After lunch, I felt much better.

The riding in the U-P is interesting. First of all, people from the U-P are called Yoopers and they are proud of it. And they talk like Canadians but I doubt you would ever get them to admit that.

As for riding in the U-P, I am riding right along Lake Michigan for the most part, but I can only see it when the road is right in the shore. Otherwise, the forest obscures the view and you would never know the lake was there, even if it was just 100 feet off the Road. The wind comes off the lake but swirls when you get slightly inland. You get the wind from all angles as you ride. There are less bays as I get more on the extreme north shore and the lake has no end to it. There are also lots of light houses along the shoreline. With GPS, I don’t know how much they are used anymore, but they all have history and I enjoy seeing them.

Today, I had a goal. I wanted to get close enough to St. Ignace that can get there tomorrow. That means riding at least 70 miles today and the weather looks to be closing in on me this afternoon. To put an exclamation point on that, I received two text messages from letting me know there was some potentially serious weather coming from the west. I was very conflicted about this. My weather app said that any rain would hold off until around 8. I made a decision to try for Engadine as an end point for the day. It would be another long day at 83 miles. That would leave me with a very reasonable 46 miles for tomorrow, but I would have to ride hard to beat the rain and darkness.

Once in Engadine, there wasn’t much there. No campground or even a motel. It was going to be dicey getting to the next town by dark as well. Asking people at the town convenience store, they said it would be alright to camp at the city park and even use the covered pavilion as shelter if it stormed.

I took full advantage of it too. I slept on the pavilion stage and used 5 of the 10 picnic tables to spread stuff out onto dry things out from this morning.

I fell asleep waiting for the predicted thunderstorms to hit knowing I was going to be safe and dry.

As advertised, the weather this morning is overcast and not raining. It is not supposed to rain today, but I am going to start off with the assumption that it will at some point. I am wearing warm clothes and my rain coat if for no other reason because it is fairly cool out.

The U-P seems pretty nice so far. There is more cleared acreage than Wisconsin, but it is heavily forested were it hasn’t been cleared. It is also flatter terrain than northern Wisconsin, but not totally flat. Also, the forest has slightly changed to the point that it is mostly conifer trees now. Un other thing. The rivers flow much clearer than the mid west.

I am back on Adventure Cycling Route now. I don’t have the maps but I have the towns it goes through. For that reason, from Crystal Falls I am taking Hwy 69 and not Hwy 2. It seems like a decent road with less traffic than Hwy 2 also.

Also, the weather has really improved through the morning. I stopped and got out of the cold rainy weather clothes and got a short sleeve shirt. Much better now.

As I got to the end of Hwy 69, another surprise. I have crossed into the eastern time zone just before the town of Escanaba. No more time zones. This is the last one!

Escanaba is the goal for today. Once I turned onto Hwy 2 for the last 9 miles I picked up a great tailwind. I really flew into town. Even before finding a llCe to stay or eat, I wanted to see Lake Michigan. I was anxious to see it even though I will be following it for many days to come.

Escanaba is on a bay so when you look out on the lake, it seems big, but not BIG. That will change in the coming days.

Now on to the other important things like dinner and finding a place to camp. Dinner was easy enough since I had already ridden past a brew pub that liked good. The bad news was that it turned out there were no campgrounds in Escanaba and I would have to ride 8 more miles after eating to Gladstone.

This has been a long day already. These 8 additional miles will push me up to 93 for the day. A new record, one that I did not intend on setting. The high mileage days always create a question about the next day. We will see how anxious I am to get back on the bike in the morning.

I woke up in the morning and it wasn’t raining. At least not yet. Not raining in the morning is a huge deal for me. It allowes me to pack away my tent dry. I keep it in a dry bag so it is guaranteed to stay dry that way, no matter even if it starts raining later on in the day.

I am off early this morning. I want to try to get some miles in in case it does rain this morning. As the fates would have it, it started raining within 15 minutes of my start. It rained pretty hard for 30 minutes so I stopped in a donut shop to warm up. And had a donut of course.

The rain stopped during my rest at the donut shop so after a while I set out again. It continued to sprinkle rain every now and then. Not to the point where I wanted to stop though. It was just a little annoying since I was always worrying if it was going to intensify at any time.

I stopped at one last Wisconsin tavern for lunch and had one last Spotted Cow beer. They do not sell it outside of the state.

After lunch, I hit the Michigan border within 2 miles.

And equally important, I am in the U-P! (Also known as the Upper Peninsula).

With the constant threat of rain, I am just riding from town to town and then reevaluating whether to ride to the next town or to hunker down. First I rode to Delma. I decided to carry on to Iron River. At Iron River it began raining again in ernest. I found out about a place to stay in case it continued raining at Chicaugon Lake that was about 16 miles away so I decided to ride on. I figured that even if the rain continued I could get a hot shower there since it was going to be a motel room today instead of camping. Sure enough, it was still raining and even intensified at that point so the motel room it was. And a good decision it turns out since it continued to rain until about 7:00.

Tomorrow, it is supposed to be overcast, but no rain. We will see.

After several days of a semi dry tent, this morning the tent was again soaked in dew. Thus, I did not exactly get an early start since I waited for the tent to dry out since the sun was out again today.

When I turned onto Hwy 70 yesterday, I have decided that is the line of demarcation for north Wisconsin. It also marks the point at which I am heading primarily east again. From now on, it is mostly east. Well, except for riding straight south through Michigan.

Northern Wisconsin is great cycling country, especially when you get off the Hwy system and onto the county road system. The traffic is predictably low up here. It is a beautiful landscape with heavy tree coverage and a lot of lakes. Maybe not 10,000 lakes like Minnesota, but a lot of concentrated lakes in a small area. The roads are curvy to go around the lakes. There are also lots of hills now. They are short, but they can be steep in places. So the riding is anything but boring. Actually, it would be a great cycling destination.

The wind has continued to be a tailwind this morning so I might get some serious miles ridden. My first stop today is in Lac du Flambeau at the Lake of the Torches Tribal Casino. And you what that means…..

All you can eat lunch buffet! And it did not disappoint.

After lunch (which included pie!), I set out for Conover. I was going to meet some more if Lou’s shirt tail relatives. John and Joyce are the parents of the spouse of Allen and Marg’s kid. We met for dinner and did some more route planning while enjoying dinner at an authentic northern Wisconsin tavern. An expérience that everyone should do at least once.

After our dinner, I decided to camp instead of riding any further. There was a park just 2 miles away from Conover. The camp host let me set up my tent on his campsite at half cost if a regular campsite. It worked out for me and I am sure he just pocketed the money I gave him. Win- Win.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. There is heavy rain in the morning forecast. This might disturb my sleep.

Today is sunny. Finally. It has been a few days now. It is also a little breezy, but I’ll take the sun.

I am going to ride to another section of the National Forest today. It should be about another 60 mile day. I need to ride east and hit the Hwy 13 first off. But I might have a problem. As I was going down the county roads I encountered a “Road Closed” sign with no detour as an alternative. In this case I am hoping that I can get my bicycle through whatever they have going on.

Today was not so easy. The county was replacing a culvert and had a deep trench all the way across the roadway. Luckily they said I could carry my bike across the trench which was still a major chore. I had to take all of the bags off to lower the weight to manage the steep trench. But I got it accomplished which saved about 10 miles of backtracking.

After getting past the trench and getting on Hwy 13 I headed north. I had some lunch in Prentice and made a decision to bypass the town of Phillips in lieu of taking backroads to the forest and eventually Hwy 70. The plan was to ride on Country Road H and then road 139 north to Hwy 70.

All went according to plan except I just couldn’t find Road 139!

I saw a road to Sailor Lake but it was a gravel road. So obviously that was not the correct road. So I kept on riding. And eventually ride into Phillips which was the town I had originally decided to bypass. Well, I only lost an hour and a half on this road snipe hunt.

From Phillips, I decided to ride north on Hwy 13 to Fifield, then east on Hwy 70. I was a little dejected about having to ride so many extra miles but then decided that it was just “bonus miles” for the trip. That made it alright.

When I got to Fifield and turned east, I finally picked up the tailwind I had been fighting all day so that made it even MORE alright. Along the way, I solved the mystery of Road 139. 139 was a Forest Service road number and it was the Sailor Lake Road all along. I wasn’t going to have been able to ride it anyway since it was gravel. It would have been nice to have figured this all out before hand. C’est La Vie

I made 20 miles on hwy 70 in about an hour- 10. Pretty fast. Then it was on to the Moose Jaw resort to camp, eat dinner, and enjoy a few Spotted Cow drafts from the New Glaurus brewery in Wisconsin.

I think I will sleep good tonight. And to my friend Tom in Wenatchee but originally from Wisconsin who loves Spotted Cow, eat your heart out!

I would love to stay at Marg and Allen’s house, but I need to keep at the trip. But today is hard to get motivated. They are just such great hosts.

It is overcast which is good for riding. The wind is blowing and the wrong way which is bad for riding. But ride I must. But I am fueled by a huge breakfast topped off by more pie!

Allen has showed me how to access the Old Abe Trial to Connell. I am looking forward to it. I look forward to riding on all trails. And the trail did not disappoint.

Once past Connell it was back to roads. My plan today was to ride to the National Forest. I did not know they had a national forest in Wisconsin so I was curious.

As I go north, the country side is increasingly more tree covered so it makes some sense that there would be some sort of forest. I rode over the hills and did a lot of the old north, then east routine. And I finally got to the NF.

It is the Chequamegon National Forest. I would say say that three times real fast, but I don’t know how to pronounce it even once! It is mostly hard wood but there are some evergreen mixed in with the hardwood too. I was going to try to camp at the Mondreaux Flowage Dam. I am not sure what a “flowage” is but I needed a campsite and this was the closest.

The area was pretty nice. Not very busy which was a bonus.

I got everything set up for the night and then made dinner. Boy did I miss having pie!

Today, I am meeting the family! Not any of my family, the Chernak’s.

Lou Chernak is a good friend of mine and a former working collègue. And he is from Wisconsin. He told me if I got close to Eau Claire/ Chippewa Falls that I should contact his family. So I did.

I need to ride about 20 miles from Isseo to Eau Claire first. It is overcast, but doesn’t look like rain, yet anyway. The afternoons are always a different deal as far as rain goes. I just need to keep following Hwy 53 into town. It is mostly flat today. Once in south Eau Claire, I need to negotiate my way to the airport where the restaurant we agreed to meet us at.

When I got there, it was like a family reunion. Marg, Lou’s sister was the organizer with her husband Allen, John, Lou’s brother and his wife Betty were there , and Lyle, the husband of another of Lou’s sister was also there. And they are all great people to know (as is Lou of course).

After lunch, I had hoped to get in some more miles, but after two beers and a forecast of afternoon rain I decided to opt for a visit to Marg and Allen’s house and to stay over for the night.

I did have to ride about 20 miles Tiger to their house. The route give through Chippewa Falls so there was one thing I needed to do.

I have drank plenty of “Leinie’s” so I had to at least go by the brewery and pay homage.

Marg and Allen’s house is nice! Lots if special details since they customized it themselves and solar power too. I was impressed. And they grow most of their own vegetables (all organic I might add). Another of Lou’s brothers Dave came over for dinner to meet me and of course, he was also super nice.

We had a fantastic dinner topped off by Allen’s apple pie. Pie two days in a row. I am getting spoiled.

It didn’t rain. I didn’t care either. The stay at Allen and Marg’s house was worth it.

Today the weather is supposed to be nice ALL DAY. I am heading north along the Mississippi River, at least for a while. I am riding up to La Crosse. Anyone need any new boots?

The river gets VERY wide here. In places, it must be close to 2 miles wide. There are islands, multiple channels, wildlife refugees, and other interesting features. Lots of parks and boat launch ramps which on the Mississippi are called “boat landings”.

In La Crosse, I went to the hardware store to buy duct tape. The fabric on my bike saddle finally gave up the ghost and now has a nice new duct tape cover! Very avant guard. Than at the advice of a local who was attracted to my bike, I ate at Rosie’s. Very good and a La Crosse Institution.

I want to try to get within a morning’s ride of Eau Claire today. I am going to try to meet up with my good friend Lou’s sister and husband who live in the area. For even more incentive, the lady at the visitor information center in Onalaska told me about a good restaurant in Osseo which happened to serve great pie. I like pie so Osseo was the day’s goal. It was going to be a LONG day to get there.

After leaving La Crosse, I found some new hills to have fun with. Not big hills, but enough to keep my attention. I rode pretty hard to get to Osseo before the restaurant I targeted for dinner closed. Fast and long. I rolled into Osseo at 7:20 after a huge 92 mile day. That is the record so far for the trip. But the pie was good! Mmmmm.

If all goes according to plan, today will be my last in Iowa. If all goes according to plan…..

I got out of camp early by my standard. I was excited about today’s ride. A lot was going to happen.

First, I got to the Mississippi River first thing in the town of Marquette. No, not THAT Marquette. Marquette University is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Mississippi is impressive! It is huge and beautiful. It is not heavily industrialized up here. Just some barge traffic, but the shore is very natural and tree lined.

Heading north, I am now heading for the Effigy Mounds National Monument. I had never heard of this place until last year but found out about it by looking at the reverse side of a quarter! The US Mint has been putting Parks and Monuments on the reverse side of quarters since they finished the 50 States. Since it was in NE Iowa, I have been planning on visiting here ever since.

The Effigy Mounds are ancient burial mounds made by ancient native Americans between 800 and 2500 years ago. They are mounds of earth that are in the shapes of bears, eagles, and other shapes. I would guess they are about 100 in length.

It is hard to photograph but you can see the legs of the bear in this one. It was very interesting. I hiked about 2 hours exploring several of these mounds.

The hours of hiking and time spent at the Visitor’s Center took a lot out of my riding day , but it was well worth the time.

Now lunch was on my agenda. I was hoping to find a cafe in the next town, Harper’s Ferry. No, not that Harper’s Ferry. The historical one is in West Virginia! As for lunch, no such luck. It now looks like my best bet would be an early dinner in Lancing. No, not that Lancing. East Lancing is the home of Michigan State University….. in Michigan of course.

It was going to be my last day in Iowa, but Iowa still had one last surprise for me. Hills! Big Hills. I believe they were formed by earths great earth movers, the glaciers. There were hills I found earlier in Iowa, but they were hills that I could cruise up. These required me to gear down and grind them out. And then there were real downhills too. Nice.

In Lancing, I crossed the Mississippi and entered Wisconsin.

I was headed for the Blackhawk Park just north of De Soto, Wisc. Today was a shorter day as far as mileage goes. But between the great river, the Effigy Mounds and crossing into Wisconsin, it was a BIG day.