Well hello! I sit here in the Southern most section of Chequamegon National forest staring at the really neat looking campfire in front of me. What is it about fire that makes us people so mesmerized by its dance. It seems that you can stare at a fire for hours upon hours without getting bored. It always has a new dance, or maneuver to display to its viewer. Its kinda like bicycle touring I guess, you never get bored, the landscape has a way of keeping your attention and making you question what is just around the next turn.I'm sitting here 300 miles into the ride and my legs feel tired, but will still certainly be able to handle the roads ahead. Today, the winds came strongly out of the west which made this the first day of riding into a constant headwind. Yuck! Its amazing how on a loaded touring bike the speeds that you lose because of the winds! Instead of traveling down the road at 16-17 mph, I was struggling to hold 12 mph which I was thinking was the pace of a 5 minute miler! So yep I was going pretty slowwwww....
Got a little turned around today despite having my super fancy GPS system to aid me along the way. In the end it was only about 10 miles in the wrong direction, but never the less, it was irriating. I guess its really dumb to be irriated about it. Afterall, the journey was never about the destination at the end but the ride that got me there.
The Snake (my worthy bicycle) had alot of complaining to day today between breaking a spoke in the rear wheel and the hub starting to make a weird creeeeky noise. I think that she probably finds the riding around the city more to suit her style than these all day meanderings through the woods. Hopefully, I should be arriving to Duluth in a couple of days where I think that I can probably find a bicycle shop with some needed parts.
Ms. Reutsch made me pancakes this morning before I set off. People like Ms. Reutsch have a way of restoring a faith that people are natrually good. To think that a complete stranger would be let into someone's house, allowed to sleep and be fed says alot about our compassion to treat others with dignity and respect.
Unfortunatly, didn't get a chance to chat with many people along the way today. As I travel north, the population density seems to dwindle. For as beautiful as this land is up here, there is not very many people enjoying it. I assume that this is probably a good thing, because it seems like when some of the most prestine bits of nature are completely opened up for the world to see, society feels the need to bring all its extra crap with it to make the area domesticated. We bring our campers, then come the restraunts, comedy bars and minature golf stands. All of the sudden, capitalism has a new opening a place to make profit, and the very reasons that everyone came to that original place in the first place suddenly disappear.
I did stop in Marshfield for French Fries and a frosty for lunch at a Wendy's. Now that is a funny sight right there. An all lyricaed up superfit touring cyclist stepping into probably one of the most unhealthy places one could possiably eat. I mean, I was probably the only person less than 250 lbs in that joint! Oh well, the mosquetos are biting like crazy so I think that its about time to coucoun myself up in this sleeping bag and get some much needed rest.
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