(It Seems Like) A Century . . .

Devil’s River Campground – Shawano – Abbotsford, Wisconsin

For reasons that will become obvious here soon, there is not much time to write this blog tonight. 

We will, accordingly, skip some of the usual philosophizing and history . . .

Yesterday.

A good, but not great, day. This part of Wisconsin is okay – but not really highlight reel type stuff. Farms. A few trees. A few leaves turning – but nothing too dramatic.

Two things that stood out . . .

The first – the rail trail we found ourselves on: The Mountain Bay Trail. Sounds kind of spectacular, doesn’t it? They definitely scored some points in the naming department. Much better than, say, the Root River Trail or the Gateway Trail, or, my personal favorite: The Willard Munger Trail. 

I guess the trail here runs from Rib Mountain in Wausau to Green Bay – otherwise known as Titletown USA – thus mountain to bay, or Mountain Bay Trail.

One problem with the trail is really a problem with most rail trails: it’s straight and flat. Read: boring! But the other, much more important, problem was the trail surface. Basically grass, with two little 6” wide lanes of gravel/dirt. The upshot is you’re riding along at about 8 miles per hour. Dr. Liu gets especially irritated with trails like this. 

She doesn’t have the patience . . .

”Why should we ride on this boring trail for three hours when we could reach the next town – and ice cream – in two hours?”

She kind of has a point . . .

After ten or fifteen miles, we finally just decide to take the roads instead. More interesting. Faster. And, not that it would make much difference to us anyway, but it’s not like there was any real traffic to avoid on these roads – not enough people living between Green Bay and Wausau for that . . .

The other notable from yesterday: Shawano. We ended up staying there because: 1) it was too cold to camp last night, 2) there weren’t any campgrounds anyway, and 3) this was the only place where there were any hotels. 

Now, we didn’t know much about Shawano before last night. First we heard of it was when Gloria – of John and Gloria, whom we met in Manitowoc the other day – told us that she had grown up there. 

After being there, I guess I’m not real surprised we’d never heard of it before . . . Just a big strip with every chain you can possibly think of . . . 

Except, sadly, not much in the way of hotels. We ended up staying in a place that used to be an AmericInn. You can tell because if you squint hard enough you can still see the old name on the sign. 

Bottom line: this middle-of-Wisconsin area is maybe not the most interesting. Not a lot here. Farms. McDonald’s and Burger Kings. And an occasional generic farm town.

All of which relates to our real story for the day – that is, today and today’s decisions . . .

So we’re at breakfast and looking ahead a bit. It’s something like 275 miles to home. It’s nice for the next few days, but then it’s supposed to rain on Monday. 

Conclusions . . . We could probably make it back by Sunday if we really had to . . . Would be nice to camp someplace like William O’Brien or, better yet, Willow River State Park, on Saturday night. We could even invite friends and then bike back to the cities with folks Sunday . . . 

Okay – but to make that work we need to cover some serious ground today. Because the wind is supposed to be at our back today, but then turn against us tomorrow. But the problem is that there are hotels in Wausau, which is about 60-70 miles away (depending upon which mapping app we use and whether we use the biking or driving-no-highways directions), but then nothing for 35 miles or so – until Abbotsford – which is essentially 100 miles from Shawano. 

We head out with the general plan of getting to Wausau, and then figuring things out . . . Other problem: we spent so much time deciding all this at breakfast that it’s now almost 9 a.m. In other words, we’ve burned about two hours of daylight – and the days are short now so that was not real bright, actually . . .

Immediately upon leaving breakfast my phone tells us to turn onto a side road. And then it (that is, my mind) clicks: forget driving-no-highway; we can just take highway 29 directly. Or as we call it, driving-with-highways. Abbotsford is only 90 miles this way . . .

For the next 40 miles that’s what we do. And we do make good time. Wind at our backs. Relatively flat. We’re flying. 

At this rate we’ll be done riding by 3:30 – even with a good stop for lunch . . .

So the decision is made. We’re going to Abbotsford. When we sit down for lunch Diana, books a room at the Home Motel. 

Now we’re committed . . . 

It’s about fifteen minutes later that the day starts to unravel . . .

First problem: The sign on the highway that says that bikes are not allowed. 

We pull off and switch to driving-no-highways mode (note that we can’t switch to biking mode because biking mode will send us on the Mountain Bay Trail – and Diana wants no part of that . . .). It’s an additional four miles to go this way . . . So now we’re up to 94 or so. Bad, but not that bad . . .

We’re still cruising along – now on a side road – but soon there’s a sign saying: Road Closed Ahead. 

Hmm. 

What can you do? Usually we can figure out a way to get through anyway . . . In fact, just yesterday we ran into construction on our way into Green Bay – they were working on some train tracks or something. One of the contractors wouldn’t let us through – but we just went into the grass and over the tracks. He wasn’t happy – and told us that “if you want exercise so bad you should just go around. It’s further. You should like that. More exercise . . .” 

We ignored him . . .

Where was I? Oh yes. The Road Closed Ahead sign. Sadly, the road really is closed, and there really is no way through. We end up having to bike an extra two miles because of it. Now we’re up to something like 96. 

Starting to be kind of forbidding . . .

But we forge ahead and eventually make it to Wausau. Do you know what Wausau means? It comes from the Ojibwe, and means “far away” or “a long way from here . . .” The name probably should have been a hint. Far away was probably far enough . . .

(By the way, I feel like Wausau must have been the place that Shrek, Fiona and the Donkey were going in Shrek 2. Wasn’t it the Kingdom of Far, Far Away?)

Well, we didn’t take the hint, and despite the late hour – now 3 p.m. or so – we forge ahead. One more little detour and we’re up to, 98 or 99 miles. Uff dah! But it’s a straight shot of 37 miles to go . . . We just need to put our heads down and pedal right along with the wind . . .

Except now the wind has shifted. What had been a tailwind is now, at best, a cross-wind. Not necessarily against us. But definitely not with us . . . 

Oh, and remember how it was flat this morning? No longer. I started thinking of the hills that made me cry on my first big ride with my Dad when I was 10. Every time we climbed over a hill there would just be another one . . . Sad, sad, sad.

The riding that had been joyous this morning is now a slog. 

Team Munger begins to flag . . . 

The miles are just dragging by . . . 73. 73.2. 73.23. 73.24. 73.243. . . . 

The only saving grace was the Salted Nut Roll I bought at Kwik Trip. Salted Nut Rolls are pretty much essential for any serious riding . . . Thank goodness for Pearson’s!

Finally, at 6:20 or so – just before sunset – we finally pull in. 99.6 miles! 

It’s good to be here . . . 

No time left to write more. Diana just turned the light out . . . 

I’ll just say this one other thing. Wisconsin has some mean cheese curds. Back in the fun part of the day – this morning – Diana directed a stop at a place called Neuske’s. By far the best cheese curds I’ve ever had. SO squeaky! SO good.

Don’t think we could have made it this far without them. Total saving grace for the great state of Wisconsin . . .

Two housekeeping items . . .

If you are interested in camping with us Saturday night we have a group site reserved at Willow River State Park. Let us know. We’re eager to see folks again . . .

And then on Sunday we’ll be biking in the last 40 miles or so from Willow River. We’ll try to send our route if you want to try to intercept us and maybe ride with us for a bit. 

That’s it. Off to bed. The wind is supposed to be against us again tomorrow – so we’ll need to get an early start . . .