I jogged around the lake again and determined the distance around is 7.4 miles.
I received the replacement freewheel for my bike and it is in very good shape. It is now installed. I’ll give it a test ride tomorrow.
I visited my dad again and played checkers with him again. He seems to enjoy that.
I went with my mom and sister to the Jefferson county fair. The most impressive part were the teams of horses that they had in a pulling contest. Those horses are very impressive beasts.
I put up a ceiling fan for Charlene this morning. I’m pretty impressed that the builder wired her bedroom for a fan and light. It’s all working except I need to fix the paint around the fixture, as the fan’s footprint is smaller than the lamp that was there and the ceiling had been repainted. My first attempt to paint it was close, but not quite right. There is one more can of paint in her storeroom to try, I’m hoping that last can matches the rest of the ceiling.
I went for a walk around my old home town of Whitewater, WI. Quite frankly it has changed so much that I hardly recognize the place. It’s kind of funny feeling like a stranger in the town you grew up in.
For those of you that desire some bicycle content, I wrote this story a year or two back about how I learned to ride a bike. I hope you enjoy reading it.
https://www.willegal.net/feature_stories/learning%20to%20ride.pdf
I went on a much needed run this morning. I jogged around Rock Lake. I’m not sure how far it was, but it seemed like a long ways.
I helped Jerry tune up the free receiver he picked up off a curb. Except for some burn out lights, it seems to be working fairly well, though I think the AM receiver still seems just a bit weak. Jerry ordered a replacement light kit that should arrive before I leave.
I went over to Charlene’s and fixed the bad paint job around the replaced doorbell chime. We watched some TV and made burgers on her new grill. I scorched the buns.
I read the book, “The Beekeeper’s Lament” by Hannah Nordhaus. There is a lot in it about Jason Miller’s father, John, which is why I picked up the book. Jason operates the Honey Hut in Gackle, SD, where I stayed last month. There were quite a few sections that described things in Gackle. I liked the book, but wouldn’t give it great status.
Lastly, seeing the northern lights is a bucket list thing for me and there was supposed to be some possibility of seeing them from here over the last couple of days. Last night, we were rained out. Tonight, might be clear enough, but maybe they aren’t coming down this far south. I did see some flashes in the sky, but turned out to be a distant thunderstorm.
I thought that I would take this opportunity to produce an inventory of what I am currently carrying on this adventure. Note that I have a fairly light load when compared many other bike-packers.
Cycling Gear
1985 Trek 520 sport-touring bike
Attached to Bike
Attached to racks
Right rear pannier
Left Rear Pannier
All food is carried in this pannier so it is easier to put in bear box or hang. All items needed for meals are also carried in this pannier to make fixing meals more convenient.
Front Panniers
All clothing except booties, cold weather gloves and skull cap are in front panniers. An attempt is made to keep dirty laundry separated from clean, which the garbage bag helps with.
*I should also carry a 4mm Allen wrench for cleats, but forgot to bring it.
** Especially highly recommended
Finished fixing Charlene’s door bell in the morning, though I have to find the correct paint for the wall where the chime was replaced and do a bit of touch up. There are about 5 cans of paint in her basement all labeled ultra-white, but the one I chose to use has some subtle pigment in it.
Redid the part of the tape job on the handlebars of my bike that I first did at my cousin Scott’s house im Bismarck, ND. Also, as a precautionary move, I decided to order a replacement used freewheel off of eBay as the bearings in the one on my bike have a crazy large amount of play. Hopefully this replacement gets here in time and is in decent shape.
Jerry and I got his stereo receiver working, though it’s unclear exactly what was wrong. I believe it most likely was a bad solder joint, so reflowed some solder joints on the suspect board. In any case, if it fails again in the same way, we will have a head start on where to look.
I went to visit dad and we had a fun game of checkers.
Went out dinner with Jerry and Wendy and some neighbors.
Took a look at a second receiver of Jerrys that seems to be working, except for some indicator lamps. Removing the lamp board seems a bit problematic, so decided to call it a day.
The next couple of weeks will mostly be about family.
In the morning, I started work helping my brother fix an old Marantz HI-FI receiver that had lost a channel. We had to go out and buy a Multimeter before we could make much progress. We were in the middle of determining where the signal was lost when we had to put it aside in order to join a meeting with the health care professionals that were taking care of my father.
That meeting turned into two meetings, the one afterward was a family meeting, that got everyone in the family up to speed.
It was nice to see my father was physically doing pretty well, and his sense of humor was as sharp as ever, if not more than ever. He is truly a very funny man. On the other hand, it’s horribly sad to see how some people slowly decline and eventually lose control of their own destiny.
After the meeting, we reconvened at my mom and my sisters in order to christen my sister’s new grill with some brats. I found their doorbell was broken and determined that she needs a new chime. I pulled the old one off the wall and started preparing the wall for a new chime. The button also needed wiring work, but I think it will work OK.
My mom and I ended the day by driving over to Home Depot in order to pick up a new chime. This new one had 16 different chimes, so I think we will have some fun picking the perfect one.
Yesterday had an interesting conclusion when some wardens from the DNR rousted me out of my tent after I had gone to bed. It turned out that they had never seen the emergency tent sites legitimately being used and assumed that I was a freeloader. After the astonishment subsided when they saw I had a valid pass, we had a very nice conversation.
This conversation went along the same lines as conversations I’ve had with many people along the way. Where did you start from? Where are you going? How many miles per day? After a few minutes they said they would like to talk longer, but they had to get on with their jobs. I don’t know why I said this, but I thanked them for keeping everyone safe. I think I noticed one of the officers get a bit choked up just a bit when I said this, so maybe this emotional thing is not just about me.
The highlight of today’s ride was the ride on the Merrimack Ferry over the Wisconsin River. The fellow that took my picture worked in a local bike shop and also was on the warm showers website and wanted to know why I hadn’t called him. He was headed to Chicago to pick up a bike.
Over the past couple of days I’ve noticed something different about the cows in the parts of Wisconsin I traveled in this summer. They don’t seem to have any interest in cyclist. Maybe the numbers make a difference as there have been a lot of cyclists on these Wisconsin rail-trails.
Todays ride was down to my brothers place which is just about 20 miles east of Madison. I tried following the US cycling route number 30 turn by turn instructions through Madison to the Glacial Drumlin trail. However they were so detailed and complicated that eventually I said forget it and decided to navigate by dead reckoning, figuring that I probably knew enough about the city to manage to get through it. This strategy worked out pretty well. I was aided towards the east side of the city by a cyclist who wanted to know about my travels. He ended up going a bit out of his way to guide me onto a bike path that lead to the road I needed to get onto to get to the Glacial Drumlin Trail.
Once at my brothers and Wendys place. we had a bit of family reunion, when my mom and sister came over. We had burgers and went in a cruise around the lake.
Todays ride was roughly 66 miles for a total of 2393.
For the next few weeks, I’m going to be doing a lot of family and non-adventure stuff, so will probably keep the posts pretty minimal.
Today I rode the Sparta-Elroy bike trail. This trail was created in the mid-60s and is supposed to be the first rail-trail ever made. It is 32 miles long and has three really creepy railroad tunnels, all created in 1873.
I think the longest is over 3000 feet long. I’m glad I had a headlamp with me, as it was dark in those tunnels.
It is Saturday and there were numerous groups of bike-packers out riding this trail. This really surprised me since Bismarck I had only seen one possible bike-packer and I didn’t get a chance to talk to that fellow, so I’m not sure he was actually bike-packing. Today, I talked to one group that came up the Minnesota side of the Mississippi from Dubuque, Iowa and crossed over at LaCross to get to these trails.
At Elroy I took a break, had some lunch and bought a jersey at the small shop there. I also talked to people from several groups, all who were doing shorter excursions of a day or two.
I still occasionally get choked up a bit with emotion when telling the story of my journey. At one point, I thought I was over that little issue. I still don’t understand why sharing this story with people sometimes affects me that way.
One gal had a leak in a tubeless tire on her mountain bike. She said she could sometimes see sealant coming out around the rim. She said her husband set it up for 30 PSI. I looked at it and suggested that if she finds a bike shop, she have them put a tube in there.
I didn’t say anything about the ridiculous nature of such low pressure in a tubeless tire on a trail that is smoother than many paved roads that I been on. After I rode on, I realized that it was possible that the bead hadn’t seated with such low pressure. All she might need to do to fix it would be to pump it up to 40 or 50 pounds, which it might as well be at on these trails.
From there, the “400” bike trail took me another 22 miles to Reedsburg. At Reedsburg, I asked the man in the information/old railroad station/chamber of commerce about the best way to reach Devil’s Lake State Park. He gave me a map and directions out of town. Of course on the way out of town anther dog came out of his yard to harass me.
I decided on Devils Lake because the Wisconsin DNR has a policy of not turning away hikers and bikers and I knew that it being a holiday weekend in this area, it was going to be difficult to find a safe place to stay at reasonable cost. I did a quick look at motel rates and they ranged up to 250$ for one night for a Motel 6 type place. Once at Devils Lake, I got a minor amount of resistance but, plead my case and got one of their emergency sites.
Internet is not working here, so I will have to post tomorrow. Mileage is 32+22+21 =75. Total mileage is 75+2252=2327.
No cramps or nightmares in the tent. I think I’m actually sleeping better in the tent these days than in a motel room, at least when the raccoons aren’t harassing me.
I woke up to this incredible sunrise.
I got on the road early and was cruising right along most of the day. One person at a convenience store said I was moving pretty fast – she had apparently clocked me at 15 MPH. Not really that fast, but it’s better than 14. I got this picture of a train cause trains have been so much a part of this trip. Almost everywhere I’ve been there has been an active railroad nearby.
I finally got off the fairly busy Great River Road, Wisconsin Route 35 and onto Wisconsin’s Great River Road Bicycle trail. This is a rail-trail that is dirt/gravel. I much prefer it to asphalt rail-trails that often have expansion cracks every 20 feet. I don’t know how it would work out on a wet day, though. Still it often has the rail-trail problem of limited visibility due to brush and trees lining much of the route.
I’m camping at a walk in DNR campground just south of Sparta, WI that you can only access from the rail-trail. No car campers or RVs here. When I called they said all the sites, except the group site was reserved. At first they were going to put me in an overflow area, but then they decided to give me the group site at the non-group rate. Irene was very nice and really worked to take care of me.
78 miles crossed today for a total of 2252.
Last night was a tough one as I woke up with cramps in both legs. It’s really difficult to understand what causes them. I can’t identify anything different in diet or exercise that might bring them on. It was a long day on the bike, but I didn’t feel particularly tired at the end of the days ride. As far as diet goes, the only thing different that I can think of, is that yesterday I didn’t have any cheese. Go figure.
Also I had a rare for me, dream/nightmare last night. I dreamt I was a software engineer again, and management held a meeting at my house in order to question my competence regarding some project that I inherited and was supposed to fix. Apparently the project wasn’t going very well. Except for meeting at my house, this sort of scenario wasn’t that far from several real world cases that I had to endure during my career. It’s no wonder that I don’t miss that job, though I do miss being around many of the people.
The ride today was along the Mississippi River and there were some nice views of Lake Pepin, a naturally formed lake that is part of the Mississippi. It reminds me a bit of the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.
Nothing else special to report, the usual questions from curious passers by and I stopped to try to help a guy in one of those ubiquitous Sysco semis find route 88.
I’m camping at Riech’s Lake Park near Alma, WI.
65 miles covered today for a total of 2174. It looks like well over 200 miles to my brothers house in southeastern Wisconsin. I told him that I’d be there Sunday or Monday.