Chuck's Big Ride

Ride Day Twenty-Three: Lockport to Brockport, NY — 41.4 Miles

Yesterday was a great day at Niagara Falls.  It's a place a lot of newlyweds go.  Since we didn't get here in December of 1967, we thought we'd do our visit now, just a few months before our 50th.  Here's a photo that some folks kindly took of the two of us with the falls and Niagara, Canada, behind us.

This is a photo of the Rainbow Bridge from the U.S. to Canada, close to the falls.

We also had the opportunity to visit Fort Niagara and learn a bit about its history.  Here's the oldest building of the fort, built by the French and completed in 1727.  It's called the French Castle.  The French had convinced the Iroquois Confederacy that they wanted to build a trading post and call it a "House of Peace."  They built it to look like a chateau, but it has all of the fortifications of a typical fort.

Since we were only a few miles north of Buffalo, we took advantage of the proximity to visit Talking Leaves Books.  Serendipitously, our friend Jonathon Welch, owner of the store, walked in while we were there and we had a chance to have a nice conversation.

We stayed the last two nights at a motel about a mile from the Erie Canal, so this morning I had only a short ride on city streets before I arrived at this spot at the locks in downtown Lockport.

The weather has made a big switch.  This morning it was only about 47 degrees when I began the ride.  Because of rain predictions I wore a rain jacket, which also helped keep me warm.  I did get rained on a bit, but it was fine.

As for the Erie Canal Trail one could say it was the best of trails, it was the worst of trails.  Short sections — in towns and under bridges — were paved with asphalt like this.

One section was paved with deep grooves and bad potholes.

Most typical, however, was this crushed, packed limestone trail, which was usually pretty smooth.

Vineyards have now yielded to apple orchards, of which I've seen several.

And, if you think they don't grow big apples here, take a look at this.

It's actually an art piece, as this sign explains.

This was something I just couldn't pass without taking a photo.

The juxtaposition of the pirate ship and the canal was just great, and I couldn't help thinking how much I would have loved this as a kid.

I was treated to the sight of four canal boats traveling together under a lift bridge, something a local bike shop owner told me was a bit unusual.  He said they often travel in twos, but not so often in fours.

Here's a lift bridge when it's lowered, which I was able to see happen after these boats passed.

Though this was no where near the size of Niagara Falls, this falls along the canal was beautiful.

It was a rather short ride today as heavier rain was expected this afternoon, and is falling now as I write this.  I'm so happy to have missed this.  Riding in sprinkles is one thing, but this is far beyond sprinkles and a thunderstorm is still predicted.  I arrived in Brockport shortly after noon and we had lunch in Stoneyard Brewery.  We then had a chance to visit Lift Bridge Book Shop and talk with the owners John and Cody.  We're having dinner and staying with the former owners, Archie and Patty tonight, but I'll fill you in on that tomorrow.

Without the distractions of roadside traffic I was finally able to listen to a book while I rode.  I began a book that I've been saving for this trip — Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa. The book is set during the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle.  It's the Whatcom READS book for this coming year and Yapa will be in Bellingham March 8th — 10th for presentations about the book.  The audio edition is available here.  The print edition is available here. 10% of all sales of the book through Village Books will be donated to Whatcom READS.

Ride Day Twenty-Three by the numbers.

41.4 — miles ridden

374 — feet in elevation gained (a pretty flat ride)

4147.07 — calories burned

0 — falls

0 — dogs

 

Ride Day Nineteen: Willowick to Conneaut, OH — 62 Miles

Yesterday morning we said goodbye to our dear friend Richard Hunt at his boyhood home in North Royalton, Ohio.  He was heading home to family...and work.  We had a great five days together from Grand Rapids, Michigan to the Cleveland area. Here's the photo of the two of us on the first day.

I don't know who is going to pull me up those long hills now.  A true Ohio native son, Richard couldn't resist giving us each a symbol of his home state.

The Buckeye.

Yesterday Dee and I had an (overly) ambitious plan to take advantage of our rest day in Cleveland.  We were going to see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Museum of Art.  We arrived at the Rock Museum just at opening at 10am and, had we spent as much time as we really could have, would have been kicked out at 5:30.  As it was, we stayed until a little after four and then headed off to get "lunch." I couldn't resist this pose on our arrival.

There was a Bellingham connection here.  I forgot to take the photo of the poster, but I did get a very bad photo of the description, which is very hard to read, but it's about the Posies, the band that was fronted by Bellinghamsters John Auer and Ken Stringfellow, who, both now living in Europe, continue to perform both individually and together.  It was great to see them mentioned in the museum.

On our way out we had a chance to tour the bus that Johnny Cash toured in for years.  He, June Carter, and their son, John Carter Cash, each had separate compartments in the bus.  Johnny's was lined with illegally imported hardwood from Jamaica that was smuggled in especially for the bus.  We tried to trade our Rialta for it, but weren't successful. 

Just because we missed seeing the Cleveland Museum of Art, I wouldn't want you to think we missed seeing art.  First, there were many great concert posters at the Rock museum, including this one that promotes a show with the Doors, Chuck Berry, Big Brother and the Holding Company and others.  The reason we were so interested in this one is the groups performed for six nights, including December 30, 1967, the night of our wedding.

A few blocks away, on our way to the Urban Farmer restaurant, a place where I'd eaten when I was in Cleveland three years ago for a community foundation convention, we spotted this sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. 

I've been a big fan of their work for years. Seattle has the Typewriter Eraser Scale X at Sculpture Park, and Minneapolis has Spoonbridge and Cherry.  I'm not sure this qualifies as art, but this sign got our attention and might really be considered satiric art.

The early part of this morning's ride was on quiet, suburban streets, followed by a sign any biker loves to see, especially when accompanied by a well-marked, well-paved lane.

The roads varied greatly today.  Some had very narrow and rough shoulders.  Others were wide, quiet country roads with varying surfaces. Once again, most drivers were very respectful and gave a wide berth.

I chose to ride without music for the first part of the day, maybe two and a half hours.  I spent the time thinking about the past few days, our Cleveland visit yesterday included.  As one comment noted the other night, "Cleveland is no longer the mistake on the lake."  We really want to come back to visit here again, and to see the art museum.

Later, perhaps in honor of yesterday's visit, I cranked up a Rock Anthems album, then Linda Ronstadt, a longtime favorite who we saw in concert in L.A. back in 1977.  I ended the day with Jake Shimabukuro, my favorite ukulele player.  I own three ukes, which I don't play often, and I vacillate between being inspired and totally daunted by his playing.  Either way, I love to hear him.  I think I went through the album at least one and a half times before arriving at the campground.

Fairly early today I spotted this gaggle of geese on the grounds of an elementary school.  They are sure pretty birds to see, but they leave a real mess.  The photo only shows about half of the geese that were in the school yard.

As far as other wildlife, most of what I've seen in Ohio are those that haven't made it across the road.  I've seen many raccoons, several possums, and a number of carcasses that were unidentifiable.  I imagine that the urbanization of the area has concentrated these smaller animals in places were there is a lot of traffic to contend with.  It's not such a pleasant sight, and sometimes not such a pleasant odor.

There were two semi-encounters with dogs today, very close together.  In the first case, a medium sized black dog came straight at me.  I yelled "NO" and pedaled faster, leaving him behind.  In the second case, a ways farther on, a dog who could have been the first dog's cousin began to rush toward the bike then ran along side a bit, barking as we went.  I also left him behind.  So, no harm, no foul.

 There were often views of Lake Erie today as much of the route was near the lake.  That will continue tomorrow when I have the chance to ride in three states in one day.  I'll begin here in Ohio and in about quarter of an hour ride into Pennsylvania.  Later in the day we'll end up in New York State.

Ride Day Nineteen by the numbers:

62 — miles ridden

1036.7 — feet in elevation gained

6200.89 — calories burned

0 — falls

2 — dogs (see above)

 

 

 

Ride Day Eighteen: Sandusky to North Royalton, OH — 58.2 Miles

Last night's stay in Marblehead was terrific.  We arrived early afternoon and after cooling down, showering, writing the blog, and letting Richard take care of some business, we headed out to an early dinner.  The traditional yellow perch dinner hit the spot, and was followed by Vernors Ginger Ale floats at Netty's.

This close-up might explain the smiles on Dee's and Richard's faces.

I was introduced to Vernors years ago by Dee's family in Nebraska.  Their relatives in Michigan (Vernors is a Detroit product) would always bring some when they came to visit.  In later years Vernors could be found outside the Michigan area, and we've always been fans.  Add a lot of soft-serve ice cream and it's hard to beat this treat, especially after a day on the bike.

Appetites sated, we headed over to see the Marblehead Light House, where Dee snapped this shot of me.  A friend, who saw this photo made a sideways comment about the name of the lighthouse and my head.

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From the area around the lighthouse there are great views of Lake Erie.  The first photo is of the islands in the lake, the second is of Cedar Point Amusement Park, the second oldest operating amusement park in the country, the 16 roller coasters — the second largest collection in the country.

Wishing to avoid the 50-mile backtrack along the spit that runs out into Lake Erie to Marblehead, we drove across Sandusky Bay to ...Sandusky, where we began our morning ride.  Much of the ride in the early part of the day was along U.S. 6, a road whose Midwestern portions I know well — it ran about 20 miles north of my hometown in Illinois, and right through Dee's home town of Hastings, Nebraska. In these parts route 6 has some special designations, as this sign indicates.

Wearing the Whatcom Community College jersey today reminded me of how much fall gives me a sense of new beginnings.  In my pre-bookstore years I was a teacher and a special education consultant, and my year always began in the fall.  The book business reinforced that for nearly four decades as fall is the major release season for big books, and is the run-up to the big holiday season.  This year, in the midst of the ride I haven't thought about that much, but I'm guessing that when the ride is over it will seem like I'm still near the beginning of a new year.

Our first rendezvous with Dee today was in the town of Birmingham.  Richard has a special affinity for BIrmingham, because that's where the main office of AdventureKEEN is located.  But wait.  That office is in Alabama.  Nonetheless, Richard took a photo of a Birmingham sign to send to the folks in the main office.  I also took some photos in the park where the Birmingham High School had been located.  An attempt to save the building failed, but this arch was preserved when the property became a park in 1995.

We were fortunate today to be able to ride on trails on three occasions.  One of the early ones was only a mile and a half long, but even that relief from riding on roads and being able to talk was welcome.  Later we stumbled upon a trail that caused us to reroute  Here's Richard at the beginning of that trail.

The final trail of the day was in Richard's old neighborhood, where he grew up.  We were on that trail, which is  part of the "Emerald Necklace" for about 4 miles.

On numerous rides I've seen the signs with an image of a truck on a downhill grade.  Today is the first time I've spotted this sign.

Sadly, the hill did not live up to our expectations, but I do still love the sign.

Richard, once again, came through for us for lodging.  Tonight we're in the house in which he grew up, now owned by his sister.  He's shown us around the town a bit, taken us to the Shake Shoppe for burgers and malts, and introduced us to two of his three sisters. We had a nice surprise when we returned to the house after dinner — a yard full of deer.  You might be able to see 5 deer in this photo, but we counted 10 in the yard.

Tomorrow we, unfortunately, bid Richard farewell as he returns home to Cincinnati.  It's been a great five days together.  I only wish it could be longer.  We'll have a rest day in Cleveland tomorrow, then push on toward New York State.

Ride Day Eighteen by the numbers:

58.2 - miles ridden

1235 - feet in elevation gained

5881.59 - calories burned

0 - falls

0 - dogs (except for several barking from afar)

 

 

Ride Day Sixteen: Manchester, MI to Perrysburg, OH — 71 Miles

It's been an eventful couple of days.  When we awoke near Albion yesterday morning — Tuesday, September 19 — it was raining and the radar promised not only rain, but the possibility of thunder storms on our journey toward Manchester.  With a late afternoon appointment there and the desire to see another bookstore or two before the event, we decided to take a "safety day."  OK, you can call it a wimp day if you wish, but with wet roads and lots of traffic, it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We did get to Nicola's Bookstore in Ann Arbor and had a chance to meet Megan, the new store manager.  Here's a photo of her with Richard and me.

And, here's a photo of part of the store.

We also got a chance to have lunch at the famous Zingerman's Deli.  We were too hungry to take photos, but if you're ever in Ann Arbor, don't miss it.

Late in the afternoon we went to Literati Bookstore.  It's been around about three years, and it's a terrific store.  Here's a photo of one section with a quote I absolutely love.

In the evening we met with the folks from the Book Industry Charitable Foundation for dinner (they're based in Ann Arbor).  Here's a photo of their Development Director, Kathy Bartson with me and Richard.

Here's a photo of a presentation of a check to Binc from Richard, on behalf of his company, AdventureKEEN, through a special promotion they did with bookstores. The folks in the photo, (L to R) are Richard, Kathy Bartson, the Development Director at Binc; Joan Noricks, the Office Coordinator at Binc;  Deb Leonard, the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association; and Pam French, the Executive Director of Binc.

Last night we were graciously hosted by Pam French, the Executive Director of Binc, and her partner, Lisa Brown, in their home at Manchester, MI.  I would be remiss not to mention their lovely dog, Lilie who we wanted to take with us. Here's a photo of Lilie with beautiful raspberries and tomatoes from their garden.

This beautiful morning Richard and I rolled out shortly after 9am, heading for Ohio.  Our first six miles or so were on very quiet, packed dirt and gravel roads, and it was very pleasant. Much of the day was on quiet country roads, and occasionally on busier highways, with pretty good shoulders.

One of the interesting inexplicable sights (even to two guys raised in farm country) was this striped field.  Is it a difference in fertilizer or herbicide spray?  Different hybrids?  Does anyone have an explanation?

In addition to running the AdventureKEEN publishing operations, Richard also operates Roebling Point Books & Coffee in Covington, KY.  So, he had to attend to business at one point today.  Here's a photo of him paying his bookstore bill online to the Ingram Book Company.  We're both certain that no Ingram bill has ever been paid from this spot before.

Lunch today was a picnic from Zingerman's that Richard purchased yesterday when we ate lunch there.  I would love to share a picture of the great salami, bread, and cheeses we ate, but we were so hungry there wasn't time for photos.

Mid-afternoon we were blessed with being able to ride the Wabash Cannonball Trail — a wide, smooth paved trail that was often shaded in spots.  We were thrilled.  Here's a photo of Richard riding the trail.

One of the signs along the trail had us wondering if we should drop in and give some advice to President Trump.

A short distance before the end of the trail, and a rendezvous point with Dee, Richard discovered that there was a place called Freeze Daddy, that served ice cream, malts, and shakes.  Here's a photo of us arriving and the place.

And here is a shot of Dee and me going in.

We exited refreshed (partly from the air conditioning and partly from the sugar high) and resumed the ride.  We were mostly on the shoulders of roads from the end of the trail to our campground in Perrysburg.  There was one interesting sight, and I wished we had been closer to see this beautiful mosque.

We arrived at our campground, had a great dinner (thanks to Dee) and sat outside on a beautiful fall night, in spite of some mosquitoes.  It's been a great day.  Tomorrow morning, shortly into the ride, I'll hit the 1000 mile mark — half way to Bar Harbor.

Ride Day Sixteen by the numbers:

71 - miles ridden

610 - feet in elevation gained (it's pretty flat here folks)

6625 - calories burned

0 - falls

1 - dog (sweet Lilie, who we wanted to kidnap from Pam & Lisa and take on the rest of the ride)

Ride Day Fourteen: Reed City to Grand Rapids, MI — 64.6 Miles

Giving Here Matters!  Donate Now!

I had first thought that I would listen to music or a book today, but then decided to have a playlist-free day and enjoy the solitude. I thought almost immediately of the book Quiet by Susan Cain.  It's about introverts, which I'm not, but Dee is.  If you haven't read the book, you really should, and it should be required of every teacher in the country. We have long known, as our friend Janet Ott teaches, introversion and extroversion are not about whether you like being around people or not, they're about how you get your energy and recharge.  Dee recharges by being alone reading.  She loves socializing, not necessarily at big functions, but certainly loves being around people.  But, that doesn't give her energy.  I love being around people, small crowds or large, and I get energized. So, as you might imagine, I don't spend a lot of time in solitude.  The time I've spent on this trip has caused me to think I should spend more time in quiet contemplation.  Maybe it will recharge parts of me I haven't been recharging.

I rode the entire day on the White Pine Trail, except for a short detour, which you'll read about below.  It was a pleasant fall morning and the first 14+ miles of the trail were paved.  So it was a good start.

Here's the sign that one sees at each trail entrance point.

There was little human activity along the trail this morning, but the wildlife were pretty active. There were lots of birds chirping and swooping, including a beautiful Blue Jay.  I saw numerous ground squirrels or chipmunks (I wasn't close enough to see if they had head stripes — chipmunks do, ground squirrels don't). I also had a black tree squirrel play chicken with me, dashing back and forth right in front of the bike.  If it had made one more false move I might have run over it.  Maybe I would have found out if it tasted like chicken.  I never hunted squirrels growing up.  I did hunt rabbits, cleaned them, and Mom or Dad fried them.  I love rabbit to this day, though I no longer hunt. I did see a rabbit that ran beside me along the trail for a few yards.  I think my brother Bruce has hunted squirrels — he's hunted most everything.  The only color squirrel I knew growing up were the reddish brown ones.  I don't believe I ever saw a black squirrel when I was young.  Now we have black squirrels where we live in Lynden.  I have very rarely seen white squirrels, but I've seen two on this trip, neither close enough to photograph.

Just before I arrived in Paris (no, not that Paris, nor the ones in Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, or Maine — the one in Michigan), I spotted this clever sign painted on the trail.

It says "Paris Swamp."  Indeed, if one looked to either side of the trail, there was a swamp.

After a rendezvous with Dee at Big Rapids to pick up more water and rest a few minutes, I headed south again.  Here's the sign a the south edge of Big Rapids (I missed the one at the north).

It was also at this point that I snapped this photo of the trail change.

As you can see, it rapidly changes from a smooth asphalt surface to two crushed rock tracks.  The trail conditions varied widely from smooth packed gravel and dirt to very loose rock and sand.  The trail was advertised as a crushed rock and grass trail and I had assumed it meant mostly like what's pictured here, until I came along patches like this.

For short distances one was literally riding across a grass lawn, but these stretches didn't last long.

I mentioned yesterday that our friend Lori Tucker-Sullivan was riding with me.  In addition to chairing the Book Industry Charitable Foundation board, and working as the Executive Director of the Independent Booksellers Consortium, Lori is also a freelance journalist and college professor.  On Wednesday her essay, "I'm a widow.  Why do people assume I can't handle going to a wedding," was published in the Washington Post.  If you have a widow in your family you just might want to read this.

If Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes (it actually has nearly 12,000 of at least 4 acres in size), perhaps Wisconsin and Michigan can vie for the title of Land of Many Rivers.  I rode today along the Muskegon, where I took this photo from a bridge on the trail.

Later in the day I rode along the Rogue River — I know, all of you West Coasters think the Rogue is in Oregon.  This one is not. Here's a sign identifying a park along the river.

There was one section of the trail that was closed, but clear directions on the sign identified a detour and where to rejoin the trail.  Shortly into the detour I thought that I wished I had taken a photo of the closed sign for the blog.  A short time later I wished I'd taken a photo of the sign so I could remember how to get back to the trail.  I did remember that I was supposed to turn on 185th, which I did.  I rode some distance, and up three pretty steep hills, but didn't see a place to join the trail.  So, I turned around and rode back to where I came onto 185th.  There I spotted a Sheriff's car parked at the side of the road.  I asked the extremely pleasant deputy where the trail resumed and he pointed me back on 185th the direction I had first ridden.  Seems I turned around about a quarter of a mile short of Johnson Road, where it was evident that the trail resumed.  So, back up the three hills and back on the trail. 

Shortly after getting back on the trail a car stopped at a crossing and it was evident that someone was going to ride the mountain bike on the bike carrier.  Trying to do my good deed for the day, I rolled over to the car and said to the woman emerging from the passenger seat "if you're going north, the trail is washed out and there's a detour.  She said her husband was riding south.  Good deed done, I went on my way.

When I stopped a ways down the trail to drink some water, the guy from the car —George Davis — caught up with me.  We struck up a conversation.  He's a "local" who lives in Rockford and works for Xerox in Grand Rapids.  He rides the trail often. So, we rode together, conversing as we rode, from near Stanwood, where his wife let him off, to Cedar Springs, about 25 miles.

Before getting to Cedar Springs I came upon this.

As you might guess, this is pretty deep sand.  George tells me that the Amish often ride their horse buggies along these trails —there was some organic evidence of that all along — and that when they're first turning on the sideways motion of the cart and the hoofs of the horses churn up this sand and keep it loose.  This is right after a road crossing.  When my bike hit the sand, it stopped.  I didn't.  the water bottle in the sand marks the spot where the bike went down. Now I have scratches on my right calf that match those on my left, acquired in the day-one fall.  Aside from a few scratches and deeply wounded pride there was nothing hurt, including the bike.  Luckily, as George pointed out, the sand made for a pretty soft landing, which rocks would not have.

When we arrived in Cedar Springs we stopped for beer and food at the Cedar Springs Brewing Company. It's a great place that serves German-style beer and food, and George and his wife Coleen come here regularly.  Coleen joined us.  She is the Executive Director of Alternatives in Motion, a nonprofit that rehabs electric wheelchairs and distributes them to folks who can't afford to buy one.  We had a great time talking about nonprofits.

Here's a photo of George outside the Brewing Company.  It was great to have an unexpected companion on part of the trip today.

Day Fourteen by the numbers:

64.6 - miles ridden

1364.8  - feet in elevation gained

6470.91 - calories burned

1 - fall (see story above)

0 - dogs

Ride Day Eight: Circle Pines, MN, to Menomonie, WI - 76 miles

{lack of internet last night didn't allow me to post Ride Day Eight...here it is now.  Stand by for Day Nine}

We just spent two great rest days in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, staying with a college friend and his wife and getting a chance to see a couple of other long-time friends.  On Friday our friend Dennis, who was the editor of our college newspaper the year before me, and for whom I served as business manager (read “ad salesman”), took us to Como Park where we visited the conservatory.

He also took us to St. Paul’s City Hall, where we saw this giant sculpture by Carl Milles.  He was commissioned to create a WWII memorial and he came up with Native Americans smoking a peace pipe and invoking the Vision of Peace.  It’s an amazing piece of sculpture, weighing 60 tons.

We visited the St. Paul Cathedral — a magnificent building — on the way to dinner with another college friend.  We ate at the Commodore, a revived restaurant from the days of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Chicago mobsters.  It was great spending time with friends of 50 years, with whom we still have a lot in common.  There was great conversation about everything from personal reminiscences of college days to current politics.

On Saturday we were escorted about town by our friend Don Drake, the first director of the Whatcom Community Foundation, whose jersey I was wearing today.  Don lived in this area more than 20 years ago and returned a couple of years back.  We visited the Wiseman Museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota where we saw a great pottery exhibit, in addition to parts of the permanent collection.  The building is a Frank Gehry creation.




We also saw two iconic Twin City bookstores.  Louise Erdrich’s “Birch Bark” book store.





The store has a comprehensive collection of Native American books as well as offering fine Native crafts.  It’s a beautiful store.




We also visited Garrison Keillor’s store, “Common Good Books.”  It’s a great general bookstore with a terrific selection in both fiction and nonfiction categories. 




This morning, after bidding farewell to our hosts, I hit the road on a very typical Midwestern fall morning — not too warm, not too cool…just right for riding.  The sky was a bit overcast and it was a bit breezy.  Given recent events in Houston, the Caribbean, and now Florida, it seems pretty pathetic to mention riding into 13 mph winds.

Much of the first leg to Stillwater was on roadside trails, and the last seven miles or so dipped into the woods on a beautiful paved trail that was being used by walkers, bikers, and skaters, this lovely Sunday morning.  One of the features along the trail was this display.




Which was accompanied by this explanatory sign.




From Stillwater I crossed the St. Croix River into Wisconsin and encountered this sign.

Riding through the Wisconsin countryside I encountered several of these signs, but never the actual horse carts.  It’s possible that they’re not out on Sunday afternoons.




We’re beginning to see the first signs of fall here, with leaves beginning to change color.  I stopped to take a photo of this beautiful tree.

While stopped I noticed that just across the road was this beautiful weeping willow.  I couldn’t resist taking its photo.

I spent the last five miles or so on the Red Cedar State Trail, along the Red Cedar River.  Here’s a sign for the Wisconsin trail system that’s near the beginning of the trail.

Tomorrow I’ll ride a number of miles on this trail, as well as the Chippewa River State Trail between Menomonie and Eau Claire. 

My playlist today was a bit eclectic.  I began with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, then moved on to Derek and the Dominoes, the Drifters, Clapton Unplugged (guess I didn't hear enough  of Clapton in the second album today), John Prine, Roy Orbison, and Joe Cocker.

Oddly enough, according to Google, Wisconsin has two towns by the same name, though spelled differently.  I discovered it yesterday when I checked  the distance between Circle Pines, where we were staying, and Menomonee.  When more than 200 miles popped up I gasped.  I wasn’t ready for that ride.  Turns out Menomonee is actually Menomonee falls and I was looking for the town of Menomonie — someone should tell Google about that I guess.

I did have two dog encounters today, though neither turned out to be too threatening.  The first seemed at first that it could be a problem.  As I looked ahead in the road I spotted a very large dog in the road, walking toward me.  As you likely know by now, I’ve become much more cautious about dogs, so I got off of and behind the bike and pulled out my water bottle preparing to squirt the dog if it came closer.  It stopped and I yelled go and pointed.  The dog turned tail and ran.  Apparently it just wanted to say hi and this old grouch scared it away.  Well, better safe than sorry I guess.

The second encounter was pretty benign.  A dog that looked to be a Pomeranian mix was yapping and chasing along in its yard on the other side of the road, but never came any closer.


Day 8 by the numbers:

76 - miles ridden

2762.4 - feet of elevation gained

7519.93 - calories burned

0 - falls

2 - dogs (see last paragraph above “by the numbers”