Cycling and other musings
62 miles, 1788 feet climbed
An easy day, relatively speaking. Our hotel was on the south side of Fond du Lac, just within the city limits. In 2004, we were right downtown and even that was a long walk to see Lake Winnebago, but I did it, only to be late for route rap. Luckily ABB routed us up right by the lake on the way out of town.
Continue reading “Day 35 Fond du Lac to Manitowoc, Wisconsin”96 miles, 2516 feet climbed
After a light catered breakfast (1 egg cheese omelet + meat + toast, or 2 eggs + meat + toast, 2 pancakes + toast–choose one). We headed off. Add that our first SAG wasn’t until the 40 mile mark and I was expecting to bonk. Instead, I did just fine. I even rode for a while with Jerry Springer (of Racine Wisconsin, not that other guy) for a bit. Jerry was riding a loop from his cabin in the vicinity.
Continue reading “Day 34 – Mauston to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin”75 miles, 2493 feet climbed
This day was one of my personal favorites on the 2004 ride. Primarily because of the Elroy-Sparta trail, and secondarily because I got to get some pie from Gina’s Pies are Square in Wilton. I knew about it going into the trip because Bicycling magazine had highlighted it.
Sadly, Gina’s has closed and the trail is suffering from the effects of storms over recent years, including those this June. The maintenance budget is said to be minimal. My fear is that the trail won’t be rideable with road bikes in another 15 years and maybe not even with mountain bikes Very little of the trail resembled the medium gray decomposed granite surface that I recall from 2004. Instead, it was covered with sand and in a few spots, sandy mud. if this keeps up. In 2004 we rode the trail all the way from Sparta to Elroy; this year the second half was closed and we exited the trail in Wilton.
Continue reading “Day 33 – La Crosse to Mauston, Wisconsin”88 miles, 3379 feet climbed
Pretty much just another day on the saddle. Weather was conducive, not too cold or hot. A nice bike path in the middle and crossing the Mississippi at the end.
Continue reading “Day 32 – Rochester, Minnesota to La Crosse, Wisconsin”101 miles, 2421 feet climbed
These last two posts have been a couple of days late in part because I’m a little worn down but mostly because the hotel WiFi connections have been too slow to successfully upload the photos. I hope to catch up in a day or two.
Today’s ride followed 112 miles yesterday. I didn’t have the spring in my pedaling but keeping the pedals turning will eventually get you there. Another day of mild weather helped too.
Continue reading “Day 31 – Mankato to Rochester, Minnesota”112 miles, 1293 feet climbed
Considering the distance, today went pretty well. I wasn’t too worn out at the end and the weather was accommodating–low 60’s top start, ending in the 80’s. So far on the trip we’ve had cooler than normal weather with just a couple days of rain while we were on the road. We have another 100 miles tomorrow.
Continue reading “Day 30 – Worthington to Mankato, Minnesota”71 miles, 1417 feet climbed
Today started out cool and remained so for most of the day. After our first an only SAG, slight headwinds increased but were nothing compared to Saturday’s winds (Day 27). The roads are less rolling, some good smooth asphalt and others the “kerchunky” concrete we’ve recently seen. The highlight was the first 9 miles ridden on the bike path that loops through what seemed like a continuous series of parks ringing Sioux Falls. The pavement was remarkably free of the tree-root upheaves we’ve seen in other places. Our time on the bike path ended at the Sioux Falls.
Continue reading “Day 29 – Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Worthington, Minnesota”Today I went on a walkabout. I got as far as the Shiells store on 41st Street, where I scored a Dark Side of the Moon jersey, something I’ve always wanted. At Best Buy, I picked up a camera cleaning kit as my Fuji mirrorless camera all of a sudden was showing a persistent dot in its viewfinder. Laundry, a visit to Culver’s for frozen custard, and resting completed the day.
Continue reading “Day 28 – Sioux Falls, South Dakota (rest day)”71 miles, 2497 feet climbed
Our departure was delayed by a big storm with very strong winds. At the start they were blowing from the west and would’ve made a great tailwind but half an hour later they turned around. And then there was the rain. We waited until the rain passed and loaded out luggage at 9 am. The winds remained, however, 25 – 30 mph blowing right at us. Some chose to put their bikes on the vans and ride. Most chose to ride, including me.
Continue reading “Day 27 – Mitchell to Sioux Falls, South Dakota”75 miles, 1132 feet climbed
Today the headwinds turned in our favor. Except for the miles of concrete roads with mismatched heights at the seams every 10 feet or so–called “ker-dunk” or something similar by staff. Not as bad as the road heading north out of Pocatello, but still annoying. I don’t think I mentioned that I picked up a suspension seatpost in Rapid City to tame those kind of roads. It seems to be working to reduce their impact, making for a little less fatigue and less rough on my camera hanging in a bag attached to the underside of my seat.
Continue reading “Day 26 – Chamberlain to Mitchell, South Dakota”