Round Lake Michigan - Day Eight

Escanaba, Michigan to Green Bay, Wisconsin

The original online journal entry:

Actual Date: 2005-07-19
Uploaded: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 22:49:00 -040
Distance: 187.81 km

When you plan a tour specifically around long riding days it can almost be expected that the whole issue of copleting the daily required distance will become an overriding one.

If you've read through my Round Lake Erie and Round Lake Huron journals then you've likely noticied that this tour is much more concerned with distance numbers then either of those tours.

I always give my lake tours two names. In this case the second name will be Tour de distance to reflect this overwhelming theme.

During the last day of my Round Lake Erie tour I set a Personal best longest touring distance when I covered 178.44 km.

Two years later I finally beat that record by covering 187.81 km today. One major difference is that tomorrow I get back on the bike and pedal another 100+ km. It should be an interesting experience.

Today I moved from Eastern to Central time one county before the Michigan border. I also crossed the state border into Wisconsin putting me back in the state where this tour originally started.

Although the distance covered today was high I still found time to chat with three bicycle tourists who are wisely riding with the wind in a clockwise direction around the top half of the lake.

Speaking of wind my hoped for tailwind never really happened today. I did have a very weak tail wind for the first hour today, followed by two hours of calm, an hour of a mild headwind and then the rest of the day featured a moderate crosswind.

I also found time to take lots of pictures, eat snacks and listen to music. I even found time to enjoy several construction zones including one where I needed to actually carry my bike for about 30 feet. In other words just another day in the touring life.

With the new personal best distance record behind me today was a special day. As such I dedicate it to John Green. John is a co-worker and friend who is either about to attempt his first ironman or who has already done so while I've been away. Although the total distance covered today doesn't equal the distance you travel when you swim, cycle and run I did think of you when the odometer went past 184.3 km! (Grin) Thanks for the inspiration, I hope that your Ironman goes/went well!

Time to go to sleep and rest these muscles in preparation for the advance on Waukesha where it all began.

~Jamie

Post tour comments about this day:

My friend John Green did indeed complete his first Ironman competition which was ultimately his goal. He also turned in an incredible performance finishing in the top 600 out of a field of 2000. His total time to complete 4 km of swimming, 180 km of riding and 42 kilometers of running was about 11 hours. I hope you join me in being impressed with his personal achievement. Of course now he's anxious to get out there and do another one! (grin).

When I woke up on this day I knew from looking at my maps that I would cross into Wisconsin on this day and since the coastline heads east again I would likely leave the lake behind to go hill climbing once I reached Green Bay. I didn't start the day thinking of reaching Green Bay but as the day progressed and my spirits continued to be high then I decided to make that the goal for the day.

Along the way I stopped at various small towns, boat launches and even a few historical sites to look around a bit and not make the mistake of completely rushing through the area.

Near a town called Peshtigo I rode for three or four kilometres with two young men who were out for a ride in the country. We had an enjoyable conversation with them pointing out things of interest along the way. Once I reached Peshtigo I checked out the information about the fire that completely destroyed this town in 1871. The fire happened on the same night as the Big fire in Chicago so even through the damage was apparently much worse the event was overshadowed by what happened in the much more well known city.

After the first few hours of highway 35 the rest of today was largely spent riding on quiet backroads and exploring some small towns along the way. I managed to take a wrong turn at one point giving myself to see the scenic wonders of a quiet swamp area before heading back to my desired route.

Although I've mentioned interesting roadside finds on previous days today was somewhat unique for me because I found computer memory alongside one road and then roughly 70 kilometers later I came across a cpu. I really didn't think that I would encounter the parts to build a computer while on tour!

Once again I went through a construction zone but this one was much longer then any other one of the tour. Of course this translated to several kilometers of rough gravelly road complete with big pot holes followed by fifteen plus kilometers of newly paved and almost empty road. It was a fair trade.

The second construction area was even better because the actual construction work only covered about 50 feet although the road was closed to traffic for at least ten kilometers on both sides. A railroad crossing was being torn out and replaced with new track. The only downside was the need to actually lift my fully loaded bike over the construction area carefully. Once again it was a good trade.

About 20 kilometers from Green Bay my spirits were raised by two young women and their children in a van. Since the road was devoid of other traffic they drove alongside me for a couple of kilometers and asked about my tour, complemented me on my achievements so far and wished me well for the rest of my journey. The kids waved and made a lot of positive noise making me feel even better as I went along.

I didn't realize until later how much those moments really raised my spirits. As is usually the case for me my energy level was low because I hadn't eaten much for the previous five or six hours. The morale boost I received was plenty to get me past this spot and reach a Subway sandwich shop to have a small club sub and a giant cup of ice cold peach juice.

After refueling I continued on to Green Bay reaching a motel in the southern part of town just as sunset feel. The beautiful thing was a day that ended with me feeling quite capable of going a much further distance then the quite respectable one that I had already achieved. With this accomplishment I could easily take the time in the next few days to climb some hills and enjoy some beautiful roads a little bit more off the beaten path.

Someday I will go past this distance marker too. It doesn't really matter when and it will certainly not be the entire motivation behind a tour but after riding 187.81 km there is no doubt that I can do more. The real question is how far?

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