Biking Dude Blog

I stopped by the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison before heading out friday morning. After having ridden from Madison to (almost) the twin cities, I think it would be really cool to do a week long capitol to capitol tour, going from st Paul to Madison.

I traveled about 169.7 miles today.
Ok, time to catch up on posts. For starters, my post from my night in wonewoc (friday) didn't send until Saturday afternoon, so I've combined the millage from Saturday (75.9) and today (93.8) in today's miles. This is a picture of Emily, Dan, and Jake, my hosts in Madison. Only three days ago, but feels like such a long time. Dan made a great breakfast friday morning before I hit the road to go to wonewoc.

I traveled about 80.9 miles today.
Good day, but long. Will post more tomorrow. Looks like we're getting a good storm tonight, I'll be setting up my sleeping stuff under a shelter.

I traveled about 88.3 miles today.
The rain broke quickly this afternoon, far less water than I had expected, but still enough to get some mud on my tires. Madison is a really cool city, lots of cyclists. I'm staying with Emily, Dan, and their son Jake. After dinner, Dan and I took Jake for a walk and stopped at a really great ice cream place near their house. Camping at the American legion park in wonewoc tomorrow, hopefully the weather will be ok.

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!