Aug 31--Day 80--Out of the Woods, and the Last Night

Yes, I definitely think I have left the Northwoods of Wisconsin behind. It was back to farm land today, including the occasional dairy farm. At least the roads continued to be rolling, giving me one of my higher average speeds of the trip at 10.7 mph.

 

Fall really seems to be in the air. While it is sunny with no clouds, it's not terribly warm. In fact, it's downright cold in the morning. It was in the low 50s this morning--brrrr!

 

I finished riding along Chetac Lake.

Chetac Lake

It seems most of these lakes, even if they are pretty big, are mostly for fishing. I have not seen any waterskiing, nor jet skis either. Maybe they have a rule about speed and noise??? A guy yesterday told me this area is mostly about tourism. I could see that by the number of lodges and boat rental places I've ridden by.

 

The biggest town I went through today was Cumberland. I stopped at a cafe and had breakfast for lunch. Generally, I'm more a fan of link sausage than sausage patties, but the guy convinced me the sausage patty was much better than the link sausage. It was made by a local place called Louis' Meats. Since I didn't have both, I can't say whether the patty was indeed better than the links, but the patty was pretty tasty.

 

I went to the library to upload the last two day's posts. As you will have already discovered, the photos didn't upload on the Fur and Feathers post. I tried various things, but nothing seemed to work. The photos were there on the app I use, but didn't upload on the blog itself. It's a mystery...

 

After Cumberland, I had about 25 miles to go. It was a bunch of straight, either west or south heading roads.

Really straight road

When I was going west, I had a nice tailwind. I hammered out the miles pretty quickly. I found another error in the map narrative and map itself, but only for the direction I was going. The narrative said to turn onto 185th. The problem was that, although the other end of the road had a sign that said 185th/Bunyan Rd., the end I was coming onto only said Bunyan Rd. I figured it out after continuing down the road I was on, and coming to 180th, then 174th. I thought I could just go down 174th, but that was a dead end road. I went back to Bunyan Rd (180th only went the other way). 

 

I made it to DN Campground. I was curious as to what the DN stood for. Turns out is stands for "Do Nothing".

Sign at the campground

As usual, the place is filled with seasonal RVs. Some places are more permanent looking than others. This is another place with a bar. I think this is now the third Campground that has had a bar. I guess there's not much else for the seasonal "campers" to do than sit in the bar all day. Sounds like fun to me...not!

 

Tonight is my last night! I think I have around 65-70 miles tomorrow. There is one potential issue that has to do with a trail called the Gandy Dancer Trail. It is another Wisconsin trail that requires a trail pass. The problem is, the end I am starting at apparently doesn't have a self-pay station, and the place where I'm supposed to get the pass doesn't open until 10:00. So, what I'm going to do is try to get to it as early as possible, ride the 4 1/2 miles...and not get caught. If I do get stopped, I'll just tell them I couldn't wait until 10:00. Fingers are crossed!

 

 

I've decided 3 is the magic number today. Harper is 3 months old today. In 3 days, it will be Grayson's 3rd Birthday, and I'm on tent site #3 for my last night!