Day 44 Tuesday 8/18/09 Herbster, WI to Saxon, WI

Day 44 Tuesday 8/18/09
Herbster, WI to Saxon, WI
73 Miles
2036 total miles

Started the day with some coffee on the beach which I shared with some camping neighbors who needed a morning boost as much as I did! Headed east along 13 to the little village of Cornucopia which is home to the Fish Lipps Café which serves up a great omelet and also boasts of the northernmost Post Office in Wisconsin. Who knows if it will remain so with the upcoming consolidation and planned disappearance of over 1400 PO's around the country? The big news in Wisconsin today isn't Obama's health care concessions, but rather Brett Favre's plans to join the Vikings for $12-14 million. Perhaps there's still hope for my contract! From Cornucopia, I wound my way around the Bayfield peninsula, past the Red Cliff Ojibway reservation and into picturesque Bayfield where I found Tom Hart's world-famous Bayfield Bike Route, bicycle shop extraordinaire. Tom and his assistant Joey were extremely helpful In giving my bike a much-needed tune-up, chain clean and adjustment, which served me in good stead for the rest of the day's ride. I wished I could have stayed longer and explored Bayfield longer, but needed to make some time before reaching Ontonagon, still more than 110 miles away. I shall return someday Bayfield! I arrived in Ashland, WI around 7 p.m. and found that I still really needed to keep riding so that I would reach my intended destination the next day. I pushed into the Bad River Ojibway reservation and thought I might be able to find some camping there or barring that, a room in the casino hotel. I arrived there at around 8 p.m.. and gathering night fall only to find that the hotel was full and no camping was available, so I pushed on another dozen miles to the campground at the top of long Birch Hill which I reached after dark, exhausted but satisfied to find an open bar where I enjoyed some cold ones before pitching the tent for the night.

Day 43 Monday 8/17/09 Saginaw, MN to Herbster, WI

Day 43 Monday 8/17/09
Saginaw, MN to Herbster, WI
78 Miles
1963 total miles

Today was a great ride all the way around-- I got a little off course in the Duluth area and missed my turn for the less urban route, but enjoyed the one I took nevertheless! Riding down into the St. Louis river valley was enjoyable as I descended down to lake level at the St. Louis bay at the south end of Lake Superior near Fond du Lac. The river corssing was quite dramatic and the wind was blowing pretty strong and constant on the high span of the Route 2 bridge crossing, with a panoramic view of all of Duluth, the high bluffs abover the lake, the river, and Superior, Wisconsin on the other side. Riding through parts of Duluth and Superior weren't too great, with road damage and traffic creating the need to be attentive. However, once I started getting past the east side of Superior, things got much better. There is a bike path which leaves the Superior are, the Osaugie trail, which goes all of 62 miles along the old railroad grade to Ashland on the other side of the peninsula. I rode along it for a few miles befofre the Wisconsin Route 13 turnoff and it was enjoyable for the most part, although typical of many bike path projects, there were someneglected sections. It seems to be often the case that a well-intentioned project gets initial funding, gets paved, then is forgotten. Sections get torn up, in this path's case, there are 4 wheeler tracks running parallel to the path and so gravel gets kicked up intot the bike path. Also lots of frost heaves in some sections. Once I turned on to WI Rt. 13, though, the going was really smooth. A good shoulder, nice tailwinds, and for the most part, gradual grades. I was somewhat taken aback at the Rt. 2 to Rt. 13 turn, as I noted the sign-post said 74 miles to Bayfield, which I had earlier thought would be my deistination for today. I misjudged the distance and, in fact, realized in mid-afternoon I would not be able to reach it as I had earlier planned. In the end, it worked out perfectly fine--I reached Herbster around 7 p.m. Which is home to a municipal campground right on the beach of the south Lake Superior shoreline. Look a bath in the refreshing lake -- brrrr-- and ate dinner on the beach while watching a marvelous sunset and churning storms over the lake. Met a visiting cyclist, Mark, from the Twin Cities, who will ride the peninsula over the next 3 days. We may ride together in the morning if our schedules coincide. IU will also be stopping in Bayfield at the Bayfield Bike Route bicycle shop to clean my chain and make some adjustments.