Author: Greg Pezoldt

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!

I would love to stay at Marg and Allen’s house, but I need to keep at the trip. But today is hard to get motivated. They are just such great hosts.

It is overcast which is good for riding. The wind is blowing and the wrong way which is bad for riding. But ride I must. But I am fueled by a huge breakfast topped off by more pie!

Allen has showed me how to access the Old Abe Trial to Connell. I am looking forward to it. I look forward to riding on all trails. And the trail did not disappoint.

Once past Connell it was back to roads. My plan today was to ride to the National Forest. I did not know they had a national forest in Wisconsin so I was curious.

As I go north, the country side is increasingly more tree covered so it makes some sense that there would be some sort of forest. I rode over the hills and did a lot of the old north, then east routine. And I finally got to the NF.

It is the Chequamegon National Forest. I would say say that three times real fast, but I don’t know how to pronounce it even once! It is mostly hard wood but there are some evergreen mixed in with the hardwood too. I was going to try to camp at the Mondreaux Flowage Dam. I am not sure what a “flowage” is but I needed a campsite and this was the closest.

The area was pretty nice. Not very busy which was a bonus.

I got everything set up for the night and then made dinner. Boy did I miss having pie!

Today, I am meeting the family! Not any of my family, the Chernak’s.

Lou Chernak is a good friend of mine and a former working collègue. And he is from Wisconsin. He told me if I got close to Eau Claire/ Chippewa Falls that I should contact his family. So I did.

I need to ride about 20 miles from Isseo to Eau Claire first. It is overcast, but doesn’t look like rain, yet anyway. The afternoons are always a different deal as far as rain goes. I just need to keep following Hwy 53 into town. It is mostly flat today. Once in south Eau Claire, I need to negotiate my way to the airport where the restaurant we agreed to meet us at.

When I got there, it was like a family reunion. Marg, Lou’s sister was the organizer with her husband Allen, John, Lou’s brother and his wife Betty were there , and Lyle, the husband of another of Lou’s sister was also there. And they are all great people to know (as is Lou of course).

After lunch, I had hoped to get in some more miles, but after two beers and a forecast of afternoon rain I decided to opt for a visit to Marg and Allen’s house and to stay over for the night.

I did have to ride about 20 miles Tiger to their house. The route give through Chippewa Falls so there was one thing I needed to do.

I have drank plenty of “Leinie’s” so I had to at least go by the brewery and pay homage.

Marg and Allen’s house is nice! Lots if special details since they customized it themselves and solar power too. I was impressed. And they grow most of their own vegetables (all organic I might add). Another of Lou’s brothers Dave came over for dinner to meet me and of course, he was also super nice.

We had a fantastic dinner topped off by Allen’s apple pie. Pie two days in a row. I am getting spoiled.

It didn’t rain. I didn’t care either. The stay at Allen and Marg’s house was worth it.

Today the weather is supposed to be nice ALL DAY. I am heading north along the Mississippi River, at least for a while. I am riding up to La Crosse. Anyone need any new boots?

The river gets VERY wide here. In places, it must be close to 2 miles wide. There are islands, multiple channels, wildlife refugees, and other interesting features. Lots of parks and boat launch ramps which on the Mississippi are called “boat landings”.

In La Crosse, I went to the hardware store to buy duct tape. The fabric on my bike saddle finally gave up the ghost and now has a nice new duct tape cover! Very avant guard. Than at the advice of a local who was attracted to my bike, I ate at Rosie’s. Very good and a La Crosse Institution.

I want to try to get within a morning’s ride of Eau Claire today. I am going to try to meet up with my good friend Lou’s sister and husband who live in the area. For even more incentive, the lady at the visitor information center in Onalaska told me about a good restaurant in Osseo which happened to serve great pie. I like pie so Osseo was the day’s goal. It was going to be a LONG day to get there.

After leaving La Crosse, I found some new hills to have fun with. Not big hills, but enough to keep my attention. I rode pretty hard to get to Osseo before the restaurant I targeted for dinner closed. Fast and long. I rolled into Osseo at 7:20 after a huge 92 mile day. That is the record so far for the trip. But the pie was good! Mmmmm.

If all goes according to plan, today will be my last in Iowa. If all goes according to plan…..

I got out of camp early by my standard. I was excited about today’s ride. A lot was going to happen.

First, I got to the Mississippi River first thing in the town of Marquette. No, not THAT Marquette. Marquette University is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Mississippi is impressive! It is huge and beautiful. It is not heavily industrialized up here. Just some barge traffic, but the shore is very natural and tree lined.

Heading north, I am now heading for the Effigy Mounds National Monument. I had never heard of this place until last year but found out about it by looking at the reverse side of a quarter! The US Mint has been putting Parks and Monuments on the reverse side of quarters since they finished the 50 States. Since it was in NE Iowa, I have been planning on visiting here ever since.

The Effigy Mounds are ancient burial mounds made by ancient native Americans between 800 and 2500 years ago. They are mounds of earth that are in the shapes of bears, eagles, and other shapes. I would guess they are about 100 in length.

It is hard to photograph but you can see the legs of the bear in this one. It was very interesting. I hiked about 2 hours exploring several of these mounds.

The hours of hiking and time spent at the Visitor’s Center took a lot out of my riding day , but it was well worth the time.

Now lunch was on my agenda. I was hoping to find a cafe in the next town, Harper’s Ferry. No, not that Harper’s Ferry. The historical one is in West Virginia! As for lunch, no such luck. It now looks like my best bet would be an early dinner in Lancing. No, not that Lancing. East Lancing is the home of Michigan State University….. in Michigan of course.

It was going to be my last day in Iowa, but Iowa still had one last surprise for me. Hills! Big Hills. I believe they were formed by earths great earth movers, the glaciers. There were hills I found earlier in Iowa, but they were hills that I could cruise up. These required me to gear down and grind them out. And then there were real downhills too. Nice.

In Lancing, I crossed the Mississippi and entered Wisconsin.

I was headed for the Blackhawk Park just north of De Soto, Wisc. Today was a shorter day as far as mileage goes. But between the great river, the Effigy Mounds and crossing into Wisconsin, it was a BIG day.

OK- Let’s try this again. I want to try to put in a big effort TODAY especially to make up for yesterday.

All dry again and ready to rock. It is foggy out today, but it doesn’t look like there is rain in the forecast, at least for the morning. Thunderstorms seem to arise at random in the afternoons around here.

I am again doing the “north, then east” repetition from the last many days. I am headed for Oelwein for lunch. After that, there are some opportunities for some efficient riding on some north easterly roadways. Finally.

Iowa May be flat, but there are surprises along the way.

I am in Amish country! I had no idea they were in Iowa, but then again, I really have no idea where Amish country begins and ends.

The Amish and I have a lot in common. My life on the trip is simple as are the lives of the Amish, but we are on opposite ends of the opinion spectrum when it comes to road shoulders. I want a wide PAVED shoulder. The Amish want a wide UNPAVED shoulder so their horses pulling their carriages don’t have to trot on the hard surface. Viva la différence!

After lunch in Oelwein, I thought that I might have a chance to make it to the mighty Mississippi River today. The afternoon weather was now sunny after the fog lifted, but it was starting to look like the thunderstorms might start up again. I did get some rain before getting into Elkader, but it was short and not a big deal. I would easily dry out from it.

After getting an early dinner at the Subway in Elkader I could just barely make it to the Pike’s Peak State Park just south of McGregor before dark. Right on the river! Mother Nature had other plans!

I thought that I might get around this thunderstorm, but no such luck. I rode right into the middle of it and it was a humdinger. At the first drops if rain, I pulled over by a hedge of trees. I pulled my ground tarp over the bike and myself by the side of the road and rode out the storm as best I could. It lasted about 40 minutes. I managed to stay warm, but did get a little wet.

So now, it was going to be real close if I could get to McGregor before dark. When I was about 7 miles out, I saw a sign for camping at Spook Cave. To get to a camp before dark, I changed plans on the fly and chose Spook Cave. I made it before dark and all was good.

I made about 70 miles today. I think that made up for yesterday’s inadvertent short day. I was now set up nicely for a big day tomorrow. I can’t wait.

I did feel fine this morning. My big pan of spaghetti and pesto sauce must have done the trick last night.

This morning, it was foggy. But no wind. It would be a good day for riding and I wanted to put in a big effort today. I wanted to knock out about 30-40 miles and have lunch in Waterloo, IA and then some more serious miles afterwards.

The ground is still rolling hills and nice riding. The fog is also keeping the temperature down for now.

As I headed north and east the weather turned to mostly cloudy. Still good riding weather. A brief note about the roads of Iowa. They either run north and south or east and west. No roads that run diagonal which happens to be the way I want to travel. So when I say I am riding north and east, I really mean that I am riding north, then east, north then east, etc. Not very efficient. Remind me to send a letter to the Iowa DOT and all of the counties in the state about that.

Just outside of Waterloo, in Hudson, it started to sprinkle. Sprinkling rain causes a small dilemma. Do you put your rain jacket on or not. With the humidity and warm weather, you get just about as wet with sweat and condensation under your jacket as if you just ride in the rain without it. So for now I chose to ride without. It was just a sprinkle and it wasn’t going to last by looking at the skies ahead.

I picked up a real nice bike path heading into Waterloo. It is always nice to get on the bikepath without the traffic to worry about. Just before I hit downtown Waterloo, the rain returned, a little more serious this time. I was SO close to downtown and a lunch stop that I kept going without the jacket. I was pretty wet by the time I found a restaurant but I would dry out eventually. I try to eat lunch for at least an hour if not longer just to get a rest from the bike for a while.

I kept looking out the window at the place I was eating at and the sky kept getting darker and darker. Then the rain came. And kept coming. Harder and harder.

It didn’t take much thought at that point to decide to call it a day. I met my Waterloo in Waterloo, IA. There are benefits to weather shortened days. More rest (and I think I need some extra rest) and I get a chance to do some laundry. (I know I need to do laundry). And I can get everything dried out. The humidity keeps everything damp…. all the time which has caused some issues with my bike seat interface.

So I lost half a day on my planned ride through Iowa. Life will go on and I think I am still on pace to finish the ride in early October. I hope!

Sure enough, it was raining when I woke up this morning. A wet tent was the least of my worries at the moment. I was concerned if I was going to ride at all today.

The rain stopped about 8:30 so I decided to chance it and took down my tent and packed up. The weather forecast was for decent weather in the morning and chances of thunderstorms in the afternoon. If I could get at least a few miles in today it would be better than sitting in the tent all day. A few miles might be all I have in me today anyway. My legs are really tired as I started pedaling. Sometimes it starts off that way and you end up feeling better as you get warmed up. Hope that is what happens today.

First I wanted to get to Ames and find a bike shop. I never really got a good measurement on my air pressure in my tire from the flat I got in Columbus to feel comfortable so I wanted to top them off with a good floor pump. Ames was a madhouse today. Freshman registration day! Students and parents everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It took forever to get to and then through Ames. So long as a matter of fact that I ended up having lunch there after only about 10-15 miles.

Finally leaving Ames, I headed out east again for Marshalltown. The land had now turned to rolling hills on my way. And I was watching the horizon for those predicted thunderstorms.

I finally got to Marshalltown, but something seemed odd. There were lots of demolished buildings. I mean a lot. And there was just this smell that did not seem right. Then a guy on a bike said that they had had a huge tornado back in late July and that I was seeing the results of it. It really caused a lot of damage. I saw even more evidence of it as I left town.

Trees that were broken like twigs and trash EVERYWHERE. It was a sobering experience. I have seen and read about tornados in the paper but to see the effects for yourself brought new meaning to the terror that goes along with them. I wish the people of Marshalltown the best as they rebuild.

Well, as bad as that was, I still had about 16 more miles to cover today. The rain never came so that was good. The bad part was that I started to “bonk” really for the first time of the whole trip. For those of you who do not bike, bonking is when you just run out of energy and you can barely turn the pedals. The French call it “Meeting the man with the hammer”. I guess that tired feeling from this morning finally caught up with me. I did eat a power bar and that really helped.

I arrived at Union Grove State Park about 7:15. Much later than I had hoped for, but still in plenty of time to get my camp set up and eat dinner. I felt fairly recovered as I set off for bed. I hope that is the case. I would like to avoid the whole “Bonking” thing tomorrow.

Camping at Swan Lake, I was worried about the morning dew and condensation on my tent again. I guess I was set up far enough away from the lake. My tent was nice and dry this morning. Go figure.

The sky was overcast this morning. And significantly cooler. It could turn out to be a nice day for cycling. Well, I mean almost every day is a nice day for cycling, but today might be even better than the last few.

My goal today is to try to get close to Ames, IA, home of Iowa State University. Actually, I have a plan to camp at Ledges State Park just outside of Boone. It is about 10 miles from Ames. The terrain again is pretty flat and the overcast skies seems to keep the wind down. So far in Iowa, the wind has not been much of a factor. Mostly it has been calm or just a very slight breeze. Nothing to really affect my pedaling…..yet anyway.

I am still riding on Hwy 30. It has been pretty good for cycling. It generally has an adequate shoulder and light traffic. That is starting to change now that I am approaching the larger city of Ames. I think I better start looking at an alternate route and abandon Hwy 30 for something with much lighter traffic. As a result, I took the next cross street to get off the Hwy so I could consult my map. The road was Hwy 169 and it looked like it would go about where I needed to go except for one detail. The roads was closed for construction.

Here is the thing about road construction. Sometimes it is your enemy and sometimes your friend. It is your enemy if the surface is down to gravel and it is your only route, etc. Sometimes you just end up walking. But, it can be your friend if the road is closed so the contractor can save money on traffic control such as flagging and pilot cars, but at least one lane of the pavement is intact. Then sometimes the contractor will let bicycles snake through. And this is the case with Hwy 169 today. The contractor has scarified the pavement getting ready to do an asphalt overlay of the pavement but the surface is rideable. And he lets me through. So not only am I out of the increasing traffic of Hwy 30, I now have the road to myself except for a few cars and pickups of the local residents. For 5 miles. Then, I need to turn east again, but this road is barricaded to keep traffic off of Hwy 169 so there isn’t much traffic on this road either. Sometimes things just work out.

I crossed the Des Moines River. It offered the only real topography of the day. I had a nice descent to the river through a tree filled valley only to have to climb back out of it again. But this also meant I was getting close to “The Ledges”. Just a few more miles and a couple of turns to go now.

When I got there, I was a little surprised that there wasn’t anyone else there. And I was also surprised that I hadn’t really even seen a sign on how to get here. I had just followed my map but usually there are signs along the road too. There was a guy on a tractor moving some tables around so I flagged him down to ask if I was at the right place for camping. He informed me that the campground was closed and had been closed since December. So, sometimes things just don’t work out. He said I could camp in the public fish and wildlife area about a mile away, but there weren’t any facilities there. He said my other option would be to go up across the Hwy and camp at the Boone County Fairgrounds. This was backtracking a slight bit but sounded like the best option. So off to Boone I went.

Right when I got there it started to sprinkle. I set up the tent quickly because if you can set it up in a dry condition, then the inside of the tent will stay dry. If you set it up in wet conditions, the moisture gets everywhere and can be damp inside. Once the tent was set up the rain got a little more serious. But not bad….yet. Now onto cooking. There wasn’t a picnic table at the campground but there was a covered grandstands for the rodeo arena that looked like a good place to cook.

With dinner out if the way the only thing left to do was get ready for bed. Once in the tent, I now listened to thunder in the distance. It could be one of those nights!

I am learning a lot about geography on the trip. For instance, today I cross into Iowa and the first town I will come to is named Missouri Valley. This strikes me as an odd name for a city since it is not anywhere near Missouri and I don’t think the Missouri River is any where near here either. Wrong!

It turns out the Missouri River makes up the entire western boundary of Iowa! It does’t look anything like the portion of the Missouri I am familiar with at it’s headwaters in Montana. It is a big, slow river that you cannot see anywhere close to the bottom. Both because it is deep and because it is brown water. A far cry from the clear trout bearing river I know.

I crossed the river about 2 miles into today’s ride and was now in Iowa.

I was not amused when the adequate shoulder I was riding on changed to a very wide, large aggregate gravel shoulder! I was going to have to find a new route other than Hwy 30 if this continued. I was going to have to deal with it for a while though. I needed to get to the Iowa Welcome Center in Missouri Valley to get an Iowa map to see what my options were though. And it was 13 miles away. Luckily, a narrow paved shoulder appeared after only a few miles. Not great but better than gravel. Whew.

In Missouri Valley, I got my map. Actually, I got a nice Iowa Hwy Cycling map! It shows the traffic volumes and shoulder widths for all of the hwys and county roads. It is a great resource. Hwy 30 has a 4-6 foot shoulder for much of the way through Ames so I will maintain course for the time being.

After some initial rolling hills, I find myself riding through the now familiar flat terrain of the rural Midwest farm belt. I am also riding in the now familiar heat and humidity. There is an interesting phenomena. I am not very up on my thermodynamics, but I am a lot cooler when I am riding than when I stop! When I stop, I just start sweating more and feel the heat more intensely.

My goal for the day is Denison, IA. It is about 55 miles and a decent sized city. The camping options are a little unclear. When I got there, it was about 5:30. It was still hot and I decided to go ahead and ride on to Carroll, IA. It was 27 miles past Denison and about 2 hours more riding but there was a State Park to camp at. It sounded like a good deal to me.

I got to Swan Lake State Park about 7:45. There was still plenty of daylight left so my plan worked out fine. 87 miles for the day was a bit much so I will be curious how I feel tomorrow. It makes 529 miles in the last 7 days. I am pretty sure that is an all time record for riding in one week for me.