Another beautiful day in Wisconsin. OK, there was a bit of headwind all day and mosquitoes were still out, but still beautiful. One interesting thing that happened was I stopped at a diner for a bit of lunch and there was an Eric Hovde campaign event at the same time. He is running as the Republican challenger against Tammy Baldwin, in the Wisconsin Senate race. I ended up having a good long conversation with the gentleman next to me who was up from Madison to visit a friend. We ended up exchanging information and we will probably get together at some point as he’s considering Boston University for graduate work in sociology.

Near the end of the ride, there was about 25 miles of nice bike trail, and there were a lot of people out using it. On the road, there are more and more tiny little sharp hills now with grades up to 10 and 11%. I can’t imagine going up some of these with 50 pound load out it seems a lot of people are carrying.

OK, I think I’m gonna go out for a swim. I hope the mosquitoes don’t find me.

Northern Wisconsin is lovely! It’s a lot like the Lakes Area in New Hampshire, but without the mountains and the roads are in much better shape. There’s actually quite a few people up here and there are a lot of towns. Wherever you see lakes, you see lake homes, and there are lakes everywhere. It’s a bit of a culture shock from the vast emptiness in western Oregon in Washington, Montana, Idaho, and North Dakota. Most of the vehicles are cars not trucks now if that provides any indication. It looks like a great place to raise a family and the people are super kind. If I grow up here, I’d probably have never left.

Tonight, I’m sleeping in Marion Park in Glidden Wisconsin. They let people camp here for free. The rest rooms are open all night and I’m the only one in the park. No fireworks and the ATV people have all gone to supper. It should be a good night for sleeping.

I was afraid to get out of the tent this morning. Last night, the mosquito hordes had found every spot that I had not applied my small stash of 100% DEET. So… I got a bit of a late start. I stopped in Taylor’s Falls because I saw there was a cafe there.

This was a real cafe where I was able to get a chai latte with soy and some peppermint tea. They were playing the Ingrid Michealson songs we listened to at our wedding and folks were asking me about my hometown and what made life there and in New England so special. There is nothing like traveling across the country in slow motion to give you perspective. Wow, I got so homesick missing Vanessa and home, I could hardly talk and I carried this feeling the rest of the day.

Anyhow, crossed out of Minnesota across the St Croix River and into Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is lovely, picturesque and becoming quite bumpy. Good training for New England. Anyhow, a couple more days in Wisconsin, across Michigan, and then I’m almost home.

Back to the busy roads again. A lot of people seem to be on the road because of the holiday. The shoulders have largely disappeared from the roads but still, the roads are plenty wide and cars give you lots of space.

I called around for a hotel room this afternoon on Osceola, WI and the cheapest place was $130 plus they wanted to charge me another $15 to keep my bicycle in the garage. Seriously? I decided to just pull over to the side of the road in a pine forest and camp there for free. If it weren’t for the mosquitoes and biting flies…… I set up my tent, quick as a bunny, then hid in it the rest of the evening.

95 miles exclusively on bike trail! There is an extensive real trail system on the western border of Minnesota and there are a lot of people using it.

It was also interesting to see how many older folks were on e-bikes pedaling with their families on human powered bikes. such a relaxing great day out of traffic and meeting friendly people who love biking.

Folks were super friendly. I met one 73 year old gentleman named Roger and chatted about biking with him for about 20 miles.

I ended up camping in the City Park in Bowlus, MN. They had set the park up for their 4th of July weekend celebration which involved a lot of fried foods and polka. On the plus side there were probably 20 completely fresh porta potties to choose from in addition to the normal rest room. A good day on the road!

Hey! Finally made it across North Dakota and to Minnesota. The states are starting to get smaller. Minnesota has lakes everywhere and it’s just beautiful. Unfortunately, that also means there are mosquitoes everywhere so now my layer of sunscreen has an extra coating of DEET. My skin now looks very shiny and I’m afraid to was my chemical coat of armor off. One big positive, is that the water is good to drink now and tastes good. The Fergus Falls city park campground, where I planned to stay, is now closed for the season which left me in a bit of a bind. I called a local campground and they were asking $50 for a little patch of grass behind the office. Last night I stayed in a hotel room for $80 that came with a shower, clean linens, towels, and breakfast. $50 seems a lot for a patch of grass. So… I pedaled another 10 miles down the road and am staying in the Dalton town Park for free! Hopefully the locals have run out of fireworks.

Right now, the trail follows the Central Lakes Trail bike path. It’s a beautiful quiet rail trail. Tree lined on both sides, peaceful ponds and lakes, no traffic, and flat and mellow as a rail trail can be.

Oh how I miss a good nights sleep. I thought I was all set last night since I had the campground all to myself. It turned out the dirt road next to the campground was a main thoroughfare for off-road vehicles and they would gun their engines to get up the hill. There was a constant stream of traffic until it got dark and those folks went home. That’s when the fireworks started from people’s backyards and it continued until at least midnight. Then at 3 o’clock in the morning, I was woken by the patter of rain on the tent so I had to run outside and collect the clothes I had drying out on the line. All told, not much sleep last night.

Today, the road ran almost straight east without the hoped for Western tailwind. A light rain accompanied me all day, which kept things cool and enabled me to make decent progress.

The landscape is getting even prettier with more and more lakes, and with so many waterfowl that we don’t see out East. Today, I stopped early at 74 miles and am staying at the Enderlin Inn. This has given me time to do a bunch of bike maintenance, dry out me and my great, clean up the bike and myself, and try to get a good nights sleep (if the backyard fireworks ever stop) . Crossing my fingers.

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don’t know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels. -Jackson Browne Running on Empty

So I didn’t get much sleep last night and was paying for it in the morning. Someone noticed my Z-Packs backpacking tent and, for a lot of folks, this marks you as a thru hiker and prompts a conversation. We stayed up late talking about the Alps and Patagonia and the Himalaya and I didn’t get to sleep until midnight. You can’t do that and ride 100 miles a day.

The countryside has transitioned to corn and hay and rangeland and yellow canola fields to the horizon over gently rolling hills. There are little ponds everywhere as you get closer to Minnesota.

I was invited to a pig roast. I declined, offering a thin excuse. I don’t think vegetarianism is a thing out here.

So tonight, I find myself in a little private campground that someone sat up in their side yard as a side hustle. I’m the only one here. It’s actually kind of nice.

I was told that as I get closer to Minnesota, t’s going to get flatter and flatter. It was true. Today was slow, easy, rolling hills with tailwinds most of the way through green grassy meadowlands. It’s unusual for this area to get this much rain this time of year.

I spent the day trying to outrun thunderstorms, and fortunately they all past either north or south of me. I did not want to be caught in a hailstorm. There just aren’t that many places to hide. I made it to Bismarck and was able to find a bicycle computer after calling every shop in town so now I’m back in business. Using my phone for navigation throughout the day, nearly drained it and that’s just not sustainable when you’re staying in campgrounds and power is uncertain.

Stopping at the zoo made me profoundly sad. i’ve seen most of the North American animals in the wild and somehow confining them to little confined spaces felt totally cruel. If you’ve ever seen a pack of wolves or coyotes in the wild yipping and playing with each other at sunset, watched a grizzly bear ripping apart a log for grubs, or even see just a porcupine high in a tree top contentedly gnawing on bark, you’ll know what I mean. Watching many of these animals repetitively pacing their little prisons made me tear up as it does now just thinking about it. I’m not sure I can ever go to another zoo.

The city of Bismarck, runs a nice campground here and that’s where I’m staying. Mint Klondike bars were only $1.50.

Yay, made it to North Dakota! I didn’t realize that Montana was almost as big as California, but now that I’ve peddled across it, I definitely do. Today was beautiful rolling countryside with about 20 miles of that on interstate 94. Travel on the interstate is actually much safer than riding on the side roads. The shoulders are a full lane wide and there’s a rumble strip separating you from the traffic. Although the speed limit is 80 miles an hour, the speed limit on the side roads is typically 70 in Montana and frequently there’s almost no shoulder.

So far North Dakota has been good roads and easy paddling, but it did rain the entire afternoon and I think it finally killed my Garmin bike computer. If I can’t get it going, I’ll see if I can replace it in Bismarck, which is 107 miles away.

Overall, despite the rain, it was a good day and another 106 miles closer to home.