North Bay, ON

Sunny start but northwest wind brings in clouds and a brief shower after 25 miles. Breeze pushes me along for a while, but it shifts to just from the north as sky turns clear again and sun heats things up. Not as hot as yesterday, much lower humidity too. Fewer big trucks on this Saturday, but more huge RV's and cars and pickups hauling trailers with boats, ATV's,  trash, whatever. Same narrow paved shoulder most of the time. Make the 75 miles into North Bay by 2pm, and check into my downtown motel-- Howard Johnson's alive and well in Canada, first I've seen in years, lacks the orange roof though does have a red stripe.

And like many of the less expensive motels I frequent it is owned by an Indian couple. But this is the first time I've found a Bhagavad Gita alongside the Gideon Bible!

Walk around the town, to public library and very nice used bookstore, pass up brewpub as dinner option since I had already bought beer on the way in. Ontario controls alcohol sales severely, only available at official LCBO stores, just a few even in a big place like North Bay -- most inconvenient.

Also inconvenient is the fact that the direct highway south from here toward Algonguin Provincial Park is a limited access highway, and the bicycling alternative would mean staying on miserable 17 and approaching the park from way to the east. My friend Chris has kindly agreed to drive out tomorrow and collect me here in North Bay while she does some shopping.

So ends this Midwest part of my cycling, 880 miles from Chicago in 12 riding days. I need some lake side relaxation, disconnection (no electricity/cell access at the lake), and off the bike time (no more truck routes!) before I fly to London on August 8. 

Sudbury, ON

Started at 7:20, probably 70 degrees but already humid, some clouds which quickly burned off. Traffic gets thicker but Rt. 17 not too bad at first, then deteriorates with broken up and narrow shoulder. Then two miles of construction, roughed up bumpy road for repaving. Hot. Then mostly just two lane, not even an occasional passing lane as it gets hillier. Grumble as I rumble. Eventually it becomes divided highway and I can get off on old Rt.17, cracked two lane into Sudbury, fewer trucks. Takes forever to navigate through, passing "Copper Cliff" -- name of this plant with immense smoke stack.

Mid way through industrial strip I stop at a Tim Horton's (big fast-food chain) for ice tea and bagel and shot of air conditioning,  and meet Yvan from Quebec, age 67, retired, heading west doing his 4th cross Canada, my twin on this side of the border. We agree about how dangerous 17 is, even though it's the trans-Canada bicycle route. So why does he keep doing it?

70 miles, very tedious and sweaty, even with the tail wind that developed midday. This trip has already persuaded me not to try a cross Canada ride. Somehow being stuck on a major truck route day after day has lost its charm.

Massey, ON

Very hot and humid, feels more like NC than ON. Start biking and sweating early, stopping at the few opportunities for ice tea and water, but barely keeping hydrated. Add the truck traffic and skimpy paved shoulder, no fun. Clouds fill in, and looks like rain at 12:30 after 60 miles. 1/2 hour after checking into motel a quick downpour, then a thunderstorm an hour later. Air conditioning and a book put me to sleep for bit; sun and heat returned while I napped. Walked around this odd and funky little town, where something called "broomball" was invented and which a local artist has decorated idiosyncratically, ordered a veggie pizza (quite good) and got my beer.
Good day to chill out, but it's going to be warmer tomorrow, so hope to repeat an early arrival in Sudbury.

"Players hit a small ball around the ice with a stick called a "broom." The broom may have a wooden or aluminum shaft and has a rubber-molded triangular head similar in shape to that of a regular broom (or, originally, an actual corn broom with the bristles either cut off or covered with tape). Players wear special rubber-soled shoes instead of skates, and the ice is prepared in such a way that it is smooth and dry to improve traction."

Iron Bridge, Ontario

Crossed over the very long and narrow International Bridge to Sault Ste. Marie this morning, fortunately without much traffic at 9:30 am.

Skirted the city. Then onto the business route alternative to the divided highway for a while, until dumped onto it. Narrow shoulder, high speed truck traffic, no fun. Also hot with a headwind. Nerve wracking, after the quiet roads I've been on since Chicago. Met these 3 cyclists from NC who just got dropped of at Sault Ste. Marie last night. They were heavily loaded with camping gear, out for just one week before being picked up again, and stopping at the next town.

I kept on, 92 miles to get to this nice and cheap motel in this tiny town, just in time to shop before the store and LCBO (beer) closed at 6pm. Next door restaurant offered Wed. pasta night special, not great but filling.

Brimley MI

Only 15 miles to Canada from here, at the bottom of Whitefish Bay. Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald has been in my head all day, lyric includes "the searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd  put 15 more miles behind them." I did 102 miles to get here, pleasant flat riding until I turned I north to cross up to the center of the peninsula, gentle rolling swells of farmland, and then hillier heading east in the afternoon.  Sun all day, but not too hot, a cooling breeze at times. Humidity returns tomorrow.
Saw these two elegant herons crossing the road, with very bright red eye patches.

Manistigue MI

Another short mileage day, 62 miles to the last real town before Sault Ste. Marie, over 120 miles away. I have to choose tomorrow whether to go short again, 55 or so miles, else 105, due to the limited motel options. Sparsely populated, the UP has only 3% of the people, yet 30% of Michigan's area.

Slightly cooler today with breeze from south over the lake. Will be warmer the next few days.

Escanaba MI

Rain in the morning, so I read a book (Curious incident of the dog in the night time) I'd been carrying several days for just this situation. Heavy rain tapered off as I finished it, conveniently before checkout time, so I left in drizzle which quickly became windblown rain again as I crossed river into Menomonee, MI. Stopped to get out of rain at town park next to lake, big waves oceanic as they hit shore. Ponder, wait for it to be just drizzle again, then ride for two hours to first convenience store for hot tea and my cheese sandwich. Rest, wait, rain stops. Back on bike and soon cross county line and back into the Eastern time zone.
Some weak drizzle again, but just ride for town and motel and store, 59 miles, seems longer. Good practice for England? Perhaps, but the last 3 books I've read on this trip all take place there (Julian Barnes, Sense of an ending, a few days ago, and on the train the massive 1000 page Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
The Upper Peninsula seems to be a state of mind, self-identifying as "Yoopers". Escanaba is the home of Upper Hand Brewery, and I'm trying their beer: their Upper Peninsula Ale or "UPA." 
And the Great Lakes generate great cloudscapes.

Marinette WI

Nice, easy day, just 63 miles, cooler and less humid, breeze from SE off Lake Michigan when I hit the bay. After lunch I walked out jetty at Oconto county park and could see threatening clouds off to south, so back on bike and fast to next town. Entering Peshtigo just as first drops fell I saw a bunch of bikes at a bar and a cyclist waving me over. A motley group of 13 Iowans were having late lunch and they were well in their cups. Some guys in their early 60s, the others younger, including 3 women, all having a rousing good time. They had been driven up from Iowa City last night, stayed in motel just over the state line in MI, and had only managed 7 miles so far for the day. They still expected to ride and camp tonight in Green Bay. The rain cleared, and they did all leave eventually, asking me to come run away with them and join their circus. They explained that they like to  start biking a week before doing RAGBRAI, the annual Iowa group ride, and liked to brag they started 2 states away. In past years they had even started in far eastern Montana. Note the amount of gear, including folding lawn chairs. Fun group.

Green Bay WI

Drizzle or spitting rain off and on, north headwind, as I push out 84 miles.  Pick up the Wild Goose trail again as it heads 15 miles NE to Fond du Lac. Wet enough to get bike filthy from grit, grass, leaves. 2nd breakfast girds me for going north along east side of very large Lake Winnebago. Leaden sky and lake, wind and waves. Eventually leave lake and work toward NE, and the Fox River trail, another gravel trail, paralleling road closely. It becomes paved after 15 dreary miles, approaching Green Bay. Where the weather finally breaks and the sun comes out.
A few orchards near the lake, but definitely cow country today, with "Land of Lakes member-owner" signs appearing at farms.

Waupun WI

Bright sun, not as humid as yesterday, and a stiff west wind blowing me around as I go north 78 miles. Terrain changed, now rolling moraines, more wooded, plus wheat and pasture, cattle and horses added to the predominant  corn and soybean fields. 

Ended the day on the flat, compacted gravel Wild Goose State Trail, a very mixed use trail, equestrian and ATV/snow mobile friendly, bicycles an afterthought. But it beat being buffeted by the wind and truck wakes on the highway, and it offered frequent shady glens. Instead of the expected nature or historical markers, someone had put up signs featuring the planets at representative orbital distances. A little strange to see in such a green world, and I regretted stopping for photo since I was swarmed by mosquitos.

Elkhorn WI

Very hot and humid, threat of pm storms, but a nice SW wind pushes me 71 miles north through the corn and soybeans. Leave Norden and Ben's before 8am and make great time, Google navigating the back roads. Even a short 3 mile stint on another bike path, the Long Prairie trail, paved but badly cracked in places.

This cemetery marked an early settlement, and these gravestones show how tough it was for women in the 1850s. Note the stones for Harriet Pramer on the left and Rebecca N.,  both of them the unfortunate wives of B.R.Hall, each dying in childbirth at 19; Harriet's son died two months after her. Evelina in the middle, daughter of another Hall?, might have been B.R.'s niece, dead at 16. No sign of B.R., perhaps he moved on after these tragedies.

On a lighter note, the small town of Delavan just west of Elkhorn was the big 19th century circus capital.

Tourist in Chicago

Norden and Ben's wedding was lovely and perfect; never expected to hear Justice Kennedy's opinion from Obergefell v. Hodges as a reading.
Yesterday we continued our informal college reunion with a day in Chicago: architectural river cruise, the Navy Pier Ferris wheel, and the very nice House Beautiful worthy condo they have.

The 1920's Chicago Tribune building is a gothic confection, and one of the oddest features are stones set in the walls at street level which were essentially vandalized from historic places from all over the world.

Sycamore IL

The delayed train meant arriving at 11:30pm in Chicago; by the time I got my bike assembled and packed it was a midnight ride for the mile to the hostel in downtown Chicago. Huge place, very nice, $50, but I only wanted to sleep, get up early for breakfast and get out of town, busy streets even early on a Saturday. Heading west eventually picked up bike lanes, and after 10 miles the Illinois Prairie Path, one of the oldest in the country. Some concrete, some asphalt, but mostly crushed compacted limestone, excellent riding surface.

I followed it to Geneva, about 40 miles west of Chicago, then a few roads to St. Charles for lunch and a long shady break. Then quickly picked up the Great Western Trail, which ends in Sycamore, my destination. Straight, flat, partly shaded path of limestone, through some restored prairie but mostly cornfields. 65 miles to motel, then a barbeque at Norden and Ben's in Dekalb. Their wedding is this afternoon in Sycamore, social event of the season for those of us who are Norden's old college friends.

Empire Builder

2 long days on the train, arriving 8 hours late into Chicago, delay caused by the Seattle part of the train running into a tractor trailer stupidly trying to turn around at a private road crossing. The Portland part of the train had to wait in Spokane overnight, but at least I actually slept the first night since we weren't moving. Plus it meant seeing more of Idaho and the approach to Glacier in daylight.
Mt. Hood at Hood River

Glacier from the east

One of the themes of this year's travels will be cannabis tourism, with recreational marijuana legally sold in WA and OR. And Amsterdam yet to come. I enjoyed the edible treat (sweet and gooey) the second day on the train. Very reasonable prices despite the 30% tax, due to all the storefront competition in Spokane and again in Portland.

Oregon scenes

Clare and Ethan are ensuring I have a great visit, touring the Nike campus and employee store, out the Columbia Gorge (and her favorite pizza place in Hood River), and the Case, Lang, Viers concert at the zoo.

 

I take Amtrak to Chicago tomorrow.