Biking Dude Blog

The air was warm this morning, and heavy with humidity and the expectation of rain this afternoon. As the bike trail turned from paved asphalt to crushed limestone, and then to twin tracks of dirty and gravel, it started to feel like I was biking through Jurassic park. I hope I don't get eaten. I worked on my bike a bit yesterday morning, fine tuning the derailleurs and brakes and adjusting my saddle. I took the time to adjust the cleat on my left shoe, so I'm riding with both feet clipped in today. So far, so good. I really enjoyed my stay with family in west bend, but it's good to be moving again. Bye Granny, Ompah, and Uncle Karl, thanks for having me! I left very early this morning, around 6:30, so I could put on add many miles before the rain started. I made it to Deerfield by noon (a little over 70 miles), and I'm waiting here for the rain to pass before continuing on the final 15-20 miles to Madison.

I'm taking a few days break to spend time with some family near Milwaukee. My plan for the next week is as follows: Thursday, bike to Madison via glacial drumlin trail Friday, bike to near Reedsburg Saturday, bike to La Crosse via several state trails Sunday, bike along Mississippi river, end a little before Red Wing Monday, bike to Minneapolis area If anyone wants to ride with me as I get closer to the twin cities, let me know. After I get back to the twin cities, I'll take a few days break to meet up with people and plan my route to glacier national park. I'm leaning towards going through south Dakota to see the badlands and black hills, then stopping to see devils tower in Wyoming before heading north into Montana.

There was a heavy fog over Milwaukee when I arrived. Made it difficult to navigate to my friend Ben's house, but I got there without incident. I'm taking a rest day today, will likely visit the Sprecher brewery in the afternoon. It has been mentally taxing to ride all day and then be constantly figuring out my next route and where I'll be staying the next few days, so a little break is much appreciated. Ben is working on converting a small van into a mobile living space in which he will venture west and pursue a career as a mountain/rock climbing guide. Very cool project, I helped a little with putting in the insulation today.

Passed right through a big rainstorm on the ferry to Milwaukee. I went up on the deck once we were through to be greeted by this sight. It was really cool, there was a faint rainbow to be seen over the stern of the boat in the mist kicked up by the wake. There was a head wind in addition to the 40 mph spotted of the boat, to I was able to lean forward into the wind a little bit, which was fun.

Met a bunch of people yesterday when I stopped by Bardic Wells meadery in Whitehall Michigan. I talked with Steve, the owner, for a while about mead, cider, and brewing before being joined by Abbey, Emily, and Kyle, who were in the area for a friend's wedding. We were later joined by Steve's friend Abbey (yup, two Abbeys) who is an artist and works as a welder at founder's brewing, as well as Mary and Tharon of the tipsy gypsy (their sailboat/home). They had just sailed into Muskegon from father north and were stopping in for a visit. Steve is a very fun guy who had an obvious passion for creating excellent meads and cysers (Bardic Wells produces it's own honey for the mead), yet is very down to earth and a real jokester. My two favorite meads were root fruit (mead with carrot, Apple, and ginger) and whipper snapper (a ginger cyser). Really great stuff, definitely worth tracking down if you're in Michigan. I ended up staying much longer than I had originally planned, so I had to really ride hard to Muskegon from Whitehall to catch my ferry. Totally worth it, though.

Lots of stuff from yesterday, so I'll do a few posts today. This is Larry, he was my host on Thursday, and rode out for 15 miles with me in the morning after making a great breakfast of French toast. Thanks for hosting Larry, it was great to meet you!

I traveled about 67.1 miles today.
Will post more on today's trip later, but here is a picture of my bike all strapped down for its trip across lake Michigan.

I traveled about 70 miles today.
This is Terri, my host from last night. She rode out with me for seven or eight miles this morning. Really cool person, she did a tour down the west coast from Canada to Mexico a few years ago.
Most of my ride today was along highway 10. The adventure cycling route and bike route 20 go farther north, but I was told that the highway had decent shoulders. There wasn't much traffic, and the shoulders were acceptable, though not great. The really bad part was the 8 or so miles from Scotsville to Ludington. The highway went to two lanes and the shoulder disappeared. However, there is a nice looking bike path/sidewalk on the side of the road. Unfortunately, whoever was in charge of building this wasn't thinking very clearly, because the sidewalk has vertical instead of sloped curbs when intersecting with a driveway or cross road, making the bike path unusable. Luckily, the highway was only 55 mph, as I was forced to ride in the right hand lane and have the cars just go around me. Also, there wasn't too much traffic, so it didn't slow anyone down. Still, not a fun ride.
Visited a brewery in Ludington before heading down bike route 35 to Pentwater. That was a nice ride. Rolling hills, good roads, low traffic, great scenery.
Got to my host a little after 2 (Larry and Zan), which gave me some much needed time to relax before helping make dinner. Showed Larry how to make a long island iced tea.
All in all, a good day, just a little stressful riding along 10 in the morning.

I traveled about 70 miles today.
Michigan has some of the best rail trails that I've seen yet. I took the Pere Marquette trail all the way to Reed City, then white pine to Big Rapids to visit some breweries and meet up with my host. Paved the whole way, I definitely got spoiled on these trails.
Stopped in Clare this morning on Dean's recommendation to visit cos and doughnuts. It's a donut shop started by local police officers that had become something of an internationally known tourist attraction. Bought a sticker and a doughnut there.
Staying in Ludington tomorrow, then biking to Muskegon and taking the ferry to Milwaukee on Saturday.

I traveled about 57.5 miles today.
Spent the morning exploring the bay city state park and the tobico marsh. Really beautiful place, with many birds everywhere. It was a nice break from biking all morning like the last few days. Made my way to Coleman in the afternoon. A lot of rain came pouring down at the Marquette trailhead in Midland, but I found some cover until it let up and stopped thundering. It was nice to finally get some real rain after two weeks of sun. Staying with Dean and his wife Keri tonight. Really cool people with lots of stories, and some of the best cookies I've ever eaten. Yum. Should be taking the ferry to Milwaukee on Saturday, looking forward to seeing family and friends in the area.