Trans-WI: Epiloge

I went to bed Friday night feeling great.  I was sure I was going to continue riding on across the UP of Michigan.  As I started riding Saturday morning my attitude changed.  My butt felt like there was sand in my bike shorts, and I was tired and sluggish.  The UP route was about 80% state and US highways, and 485 miles long.  Doing that in 4 days sounded like a pretty miserable long, painful grind at that point.

I continued to ride on towards Ashland, thought the remarkably small but obnoxiously touristy town of Bayfield.

Obligatory photo of Bayfield with boats and water and rustic (rusting) things.

I rode on further and storms started firing up.  I was able to find my way to a large porch before the rain started coming down too hard, and waited it out for over 30 minutes.  Looking at the radar, it seemed it could rain more that day, and the forecast was calling for a wet week.

My thumb was still bothering me due to constant use, I was worried that my Random Fatigue Syndrome would return (indeed it was bothering me slightly at that time) and well there were half-a-dozen other little niggles.  The ride ahead of me just didn't seem like it would be as much fun as the ride I had just done. Carol was driving up to meet me in Ashland to resupply me with some gear, and I knew she really wanted me to join her and drive to Traverse City with her.

So I relented.  I gave her a call and told her to pick me up a few miles north of Ashland. I had ridden about 30 miles that day. We did a little auto-tour of the UP, checking out the Porcupine mountains, driving first along the Lake Superior coast, then through the interior of the peninsula, and finally along the Lake Michigan coast.  By the following afternoon we were able to meet up with Valerie, her boyfriend Tony and his sister+cousin+cousin's boyfriend, and my father-in-law Jim gave everyone a tour of Chateau Chantal winery.  So it worked out pretty well.

So here I sit on Old Mission Peninsula relaxing this week.  I got my MTB working (I had removed the rear brake cable after a wet race 2 weeks ago and never reinstalled it) and did a short ride yesterday at the VASA Singletrack, but my thumb still bothered me so I cut it short.  I have some more rides and hikes planned for the rest of the week so I should keep myself busy.

Trip total of 639 miles in 8.5 days.  A lot of neat places and a lot of fun had.  Definitely the most enjoyable ride I've had in quite a while.