Today is sunny. Finally. It has been a few days now. It is also a little breezy, but I’ll take the sun.
I am going to ride to another section of the National Forest today. It should be about another 60 mile day. I need to ride east and hit the Hwy 13 first off. But I might have a problem. As I was going down the county roads I encountered a “Road Closed” sign with no detour as an alternative. In this case I am hoping that I can get my bicycle through whatever they have going on.
Today was not so easy. The county was replacing a culvert and had a deep trench all the way across the roadway. Luckily they said I could carry my bike across the trench which was still a major chore. I had to take all of the bags off to lower the weight to manage the steep trench. But I got it accomplished which saved about 10 miles of backtracking.
After getting past the trench and getting on Hwy 13 I headed north. I had some lunch in Prentice and made a decision to bypass the town of Phillips in lieu of taking backroads to the forest and eventually Hwy 70. The plan was to ride on Country Road H and then road 139 north to Hwy 70.
All went according to plan except I just couldn’t find Road 139!
I saw a road to Sailor Lake but it was a gravel road. So obviously that was not the correct road. So I kept on riding. And eventually ride into Phillips which was the town I had originally decided to bypass. Well, I only lost an hour and a half on this road snipe hunt.
From Phillips, I decided to ride north on Hwy 13 to Fifield, then east on Hwy 70. I was a little dejected about having to ride so many extra miles but then decided that it was just “bonus miles” for the trip. That made it alright.
When I got to Fifield and turned east, I finally picked up the tailwind I had been fighting all day so that made it even MORE alright. Along the way, I solved the mystery of Road 139. 139 was a Forest Service road number and it was the Sailor Lake Road all along. I wasn’t going to have been able to ride it anyway since it was gravel. It would have been nice to have figured this all out before hand. C’est La Vie
I made 20 miles on hwy 70 in about an hour- 10. Pretty fast. Then it was on to the Moose Jaw resort to camp, eat dinner, and enjoy a few Spotted Cow drafts from the New Glaurus brewery in Wisconsin.
I think I will sleep good tonight. And to my friend Tom in Wenatchee but originally from Wisconsin who loves Spotted Cow, eat your heart out!
You should rename your trip, Greg’s Nationwide tour of microbreweries! The countryside looks beautiful and the roads really nice. Are you pretty much back on track for your eastward travel now (no more north?) Are you seeing any wildlife- lets hear about it!
Stay safe!
I will be discussing this on my next posting. Basically, I am finished going north and will be heading straight east now. Well, except for going south in Michigan.
what is your ultimate destination- somewhere in northern Maine? had you thought about venturing up into the Great White North, maybe keep going east to the tip of Nova Scotia? I am totally ignorant on this, how big of an issue is it moving back and forth across the border on a bicycle?
I did not bring my passport so going into Canada is not really possible. I am headed for Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor in Northern Maine. I will probably have to continue on turning south to Portland to catch a train to Boston. I have yet to work out the final details on getting home. That may be a whole other adventure!
The train home, what a cool idea. Or you could ride south to key west. That is something on my bucket list someday.