Day 25 - Midland MI to Imlay City MI, 102 miles, 1200' cumulative climbing

Finally an easy and uneventful day today! No angry drivers, no big headwinds, no rain, great lunch stop (as usual), short flat route and early to the finish.  Whew!  A perfect recovery day as we prepare to enter Canada tomorrow on a day that includes 140 miles. Today's route of 102 miles was a fast ride, our average speed a mile an hour faster than usual.  We had a bonus stop with hand-dipped ice cream cones in the late morning.  There's not much to compare with ice cream on a hot summer day's bike ride.

I had dinner tonight with a couple in our group who live in Tucson, Kathleen and Tim.  It was nice to get to know them a little more than the typical snatches of chat exchanged on daily rides.  In our winter visits to Tucson they'll definitely be on the list of new friends that we can connect with.  Tim operates a custom bike fitting business, while Kathleen is a Life Coach consultant.  I could probably use both of their services and be way better off!
Tomorrow we go to Canada and more flat ground to ride.  Climbing awaits in New York but that's still a couple days away.

Eastern Michigan offers less interesting views but is flatter

Marigolds lining Midland's main streets

Triple peanut butter cup.  Yum!

Day 24 - Ludington MI to Midland MI, 136 miles, 3000' cumulative climbing

 Why didn't my legs respond with more oomph today after a 24 hour break?  Seemed like I was more tired while riding today than yesterday while sitting on the ferry.  Maybe this is some of the accumulated fatigue I keep talking about.  I now know for sure that I've gotten to be a stronger rider through this trial by fire expedition, but with that has come a level of fatigue that one day off won't fix.  Not a big deal, as the good news is my stubbornness keeps my legs pedaling even when they don't want to!

The other good news is that today's route, and the next couple of days to follow, are all pretty flat terrain, and the hills are what wears me down first. 

So today's route was a nice look at western Michigan, and a big contrast with the Wisconsin we just passed through.  Different soils, trees, grasses in the two states, both beautiful in different ways, but the separation of the huge lake and resulting change in weather patterns makes for an interesting change of scenery.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the landscape today.  Conversation in our little riding group was muted; I think everyone else is just as fatigued as I am.  
Muted until mile 70 that is.  I've heard others experience moments like this but it was a first for me.  A driver inexplicably lost his temper because he thought we four bikers were impeding his use of the road.  When he swerved into us to try and force us off the road, grazing one of my riding partners, it briefly threatened to get ugly.  But after a short verbal altercation when he stopped, we took his license number and he drove off.  No injuries but a scary couple of minutes. Our only practical recourse is to report him and hope the county he lives in keeps a record of his aggressive driving in case he does something like that again.  And it's an important reminder that we are vulnerable and must pay attention all the time. Fortunately this instance ended with no real harm done.
 Tonight we're in a nice Holiday Inn, definitely an above average franchise.  Very comfortable which is just what I was thinking would be nice!  The show goes on......

Day 23 - Rest day! Riding the Badger Ferry from Manitowoc WI to Ludington MI

 It finally arrived: our day off the bikes after 22 straight days of pedaling, covering 2624 miles.  All day yesterday I think many of us were already shutting down in anticipation of this rest; it may be one of the reasons yesterday's route felt so difficult.  Anyway, it felt terrific to sleep in a little later this morning and go out to a local cafe for a relaxed breakfast and a refill of gourmet coffee.

This might be the day you would expect some introspective wisdom to spring forth, perhaps some keen insights into the spiritual nature of riding a bike for days on end seeing America.  Well, not today.  Someone asked me recently what I think about while riding.  Is it problem-solving time, goal-setting ideas, resolving work or relationship issues and so on?  After thinking it over I realized that often my on-the-bike thoughts are just a random series of unconnected threads.  Sometimes I get a song stuck in my head, sometimes I look at the plant life and try to identify trees and flowers, occasionally I replay conversations of recent days and sometimes probably meditate without even being conscious of it.  But whatever deep meaning may come from this adventure is more likely to reveal itself in the days to come after the journey ends.  For now it's important to be present for what the experience offers at face value.  That is plenty, believe me, including my aching right knee.  Thank goodness for this day of leisure!

Day 22 - Portage WI to Manitowoc WI, 126 miles, 5000' cumulative climbing

Oh, did I mention the final and best part of yesterday's experience?  Mark drove up from home with Maggie to visit for two days and work on some routes for next year's WCCC Madison Weekend.  They were a terrific boost to my morale.  He has been my biggest and best supporter, coach, fan and source of encouragement starting from even before I signed up for this journey.  So after 3 weeks on the road it's great to have them here.  Maggie was a hit with the other riders.  She's always in a good mood and I think she knows how cute she is!
The day's ride, the last before our rest day, looked pretty moderate from the profile and description.  But like some of the other days out west that seemed easier at first, this was a very tough day of cycling.  Lots more climbing than I expected, with the entire middle third of the ride being medium size hills to scale.  And not "rollers" where you can get some momentum going down one to get partway up the next one, but steep and more sustained climbs that wore us all out.  Still some of the best roads in Wisconsin, but after yesterday I think we were mentally hoping for a less strenuous effort.

A faster group passing our paceline

We made it through, though, and hung up the bike shoes for a well-earned day off tomorrow.

 

 
Hills, hills, beautiful hills 

Steep!

Day 21 - LaCrosse WI to Portage WI, 133 miles, 4300' cumulative climbing

 I have biked thousands of miles in Wisconsin over the last 15 years, and am convinced it's one of the finest areas in the country for cycling.  At least of the parts of the country I've seen.  And today underscored and reinforced that opinion. Wisconsin has it all: Rolling farmland, steep wooded hill climbs, great secondary roads with light car and truck traffic, rivers, lakes, wildlife, etc.  Get it?  And I had been anticipating this day to be a good one because Lon Haldeman knows Wisconsin cycling like nobody else and picked a great variety of roads for us today.

We rode out of LaCrosse with 5 big climbs on the route, the very first starting on the edge of town and being the toughest one of the day.  It was about 2 miles long and varied in steepness from 6-10%.  But the morning was cool and calm and the surroundings were lovely. So while the climbing was difficult, it was a spectacular day of challenge and beauty.  The route also laid out in the way I particularly like; the tough climbing was all in the first half, and the second half was easier, flatter farmland roads that offered a chance to cruise along with just moderate energy output.

Along the way we passed Amish farmers and families, lots and lots of classic dairy barns and cows, horses, goats, steep uphill and downhill runs, vistas from hilltops that go for miles, and woods of pine and hardwood trees that cooled the air.  This was epic Wisconsin biking.  This is what keeps me coming back for more.

Stats for Week 3:                                               Trip so far (21 days)

899.7 miles ridden                                             2398.1 miles ridden
22,370' total climbing                                         82,990' total climbing
Replaced broken cue sheet holder

 Riding through farmland with David Groat from Littleton, CO.  His wife Alice joined us in LaCrosse as a crew member for the eastern leg of the trip.

Hand-baled Amish hay

Day 20 - Albert Lea MN to LaCrosse WI, 143 miles, 1500' cumulative climbing

 I've been looking forward to this day's ride for some time, because a few years ago Mark and I rode a portion of it and loved the experience.  The Root River Trail runs through a number of small towns in southeast Minnesota and has dense wooded sections, many miles along the river, open sections with views of farmland, and is well maintained.  And, the forecast for today called for more favorable winds.  Yes! 

And the day delivered, with a most enjoyable day on the bike.  We rode through rolling farmland, over the Root River several times over the course of 45 miles on the trail that follows it, had lunch in a park in Whalen, one of several towns along the Root River that have made something of a bicycle tourism industry out of the path's attractions. And had a memorable day on the road.  For whatever reasons, sometimes a day just stands out as one of the really good experiences.  






And finally a big symbolic sign of progress on the journey:   crossing the Mighty Mississippi into LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  Now I feel sort of like I'm in the neighborhood of home, since we ride so many miles in the Wisconsin hills every year.

Wrong turn!

Crossing into familar territory in Wisconsin

Day 19 - Worthington MN to Albert Lea MN, 120 miles, 1400" cumulative climbing

Being obsessed with the weather forecast is a common thread among all the riders.  If one person's weather app doesn't give you the kind of info you want, you just keep looking at other apps until the "right" forecast appears. But lately we don't care whether it rains or not, since it's so warm.  It's all about the wind.  Last night the forecasts finally showed some hope that we would get some relief from the never-ending headwinds we've been struggling to get through.  And though it rained briefly before we set out, the wind was very calm and the roads almost dry for our first few miles.  As the morning went on, the wind began to tick up a little bit at a time, and as we had hoped it was partly at our backs. Good enough to help increase our average speed over yesterday by more than 2 mph.  And good enough to call today a "120 mile recovery ride", because with very little hillwork and favorable winds we didn't have to work nearly as hard as the previous 3 days' ordeals.
As Cliff joked, "you know you're on PAC Tour when.....you call a 120 mile day a recovery ride!"

Bike cleanup area a few minutes later!

The change in mental outlook was palpable among many of our riders, and crew as well.  What a difference a day makes!  Now looking forward to tomorrow with a bit more enthusiasm as it might just be even better.  And an evening downpour, just after everyone had arrived at the finish and mostly cleaned up their bikes, didn't phase us a bit!

Bike cleanup at the end of the day