Biking Our First Century - Hayward, WI to Dalbo, MN

To Cumberland, Erin's Home Away From Home?

We had a bit of a later start heading out of Hayward, due to having to mess with the bike a little bit more and quite a chatty neighbor. It was a very hot and humid day, and we got moving with the intention of going as far as we could given the heat. We stopped in Everton for lunch (already dripping with sweat - the air has been very thick around here), and the local convenience store owner told us it's been uncharacteristically hot these few days. Hah! That'd be our luck, wouldn't it? 

Another couple riding from West to East stopped for lunch and chatted with us here - they were originally planning to hit Maine, but have had to cut their trip shorter (guess it's taking them longer than they hoped). We talked about what was to come on either side, trading tales of the road. We took off we before too long, since it was only getting hotter - the other bikers had said something about it being hilly, and we didn't want to let too much time pass if we had to cross that.

(Wisconsin farmland)

Pretty soon we were seeing less and less forest and increasingly large fields of crops, which seemed like a good sign in terms of the terrain leveling out. Wisconsin's interesting in that half of what we saw was lush, beautiful forest and the other half was straight farmland.

We reached a tiny town called Haugen and already needed to refill our water. I hopped around to almost every building looking for a faucet, but they were either closed or unwilling to give me a fill up (one guy tried to sell me a gallon jug, though). Eventually, the bar at the end of town let me use a faucet (phew!), and we were back on our way after getting stuck in more than one conversation about our trip. People really want to talk, which is great, except when you're standing out in the sun and have many more miles to bike :(

(Haugen)

(The search is on!)

As we rode on, the terrain became these tall, really vast hills. We wouldn't exactly call them "rolling" as peak to peak it was about a mile's worth of distance, with over 200 ft in elevation change. This was hard riding, folks. We decided that rather than push for the 80 mile day, we'd settle for 60 and once more rework our schedule - the sun was going to set, and we'd prefer to play it safe.

(Hills, dude. Also, now Erin can take action shots as we ride! Woo fanny pack!)

We stopped in Cumberland, which is the same name as Erin's hometown in Maryland!

It was a cute town, and the city campground had showers (YES!), which was soooo nice after such a humid and gross day. Of course, we each found that after drying off, we immediately felt like we needed another shower - it was so humid and sticky, there's just not much you can do when you're living outside. The campsite was beautiful, though. It rained torrentially for about half an hour (all that humidity was leading up to something!), but it wasn't enough to break the humidity, so we spent the night with the rainfly open for some ventilation.

(Our campsite)

We wanted to get plenty of rest, because the next day we had an ambitious plan: Ride over 100 miles to get across the state line into Minnesota and reach the free cyclist bunkhouse in Dalbo.

The Big Day

Morning came and we left from camp at around 8 AM, which would give us just enough time to reach Dalbo if the terrain didn't give us any nasty surprises (that's a big "if" and we knew it). We stopped to pick up a gatorade and caffeine for midday, and were on our way. Of course, we got a little turned around leaving town, then had to struggle up a really steep hill, then got chased by three dogs at once. OFF TO A GREAT START! But seriously, it was a little worrying, and the sun wasn't even fully up and we were, again, already drenched thanks to the humidity. But, we were on a mission, so we pushed on.

(Overlooking a river in Amery)

(Lunch!)

By midday we had made it 30 miles or so to Amery, where we stopped for lunch. It was a quick break, and we looked up an off-route bike trail that would take us to the next town of Dresser (and knock off 4 miles of road riding). We took off on the trail from Amery, and it was a nice path that went along seven different lakes. It was just compacted dirt for 14 miles, so we got a nice grimy film attached to our bodies as the wheels tossed up dust and sand.

(Trail!)

(Lake!)

(Us!)

We made it to Dresser at around 2:00 in the afternoon, with only about 6 more miles to the state line. We filled water again and pedaled out through more fields to get to the border town of Osceola.

Somehow we lost an hour or more there, switching our maps and getting a second gatorade to replenish everything we'd lost. It was getting to be as hot as it was going to be, and we had made it about halfway in mileage. This is also the point where we finished the North Lakes route, and are finally reconnected with the Northern Tier (which we had departed from back in Niagara).

After almost getting hit by a driver who was not paying attention as we went through a crosswalk, we blitzed our way downhill only to come screeching back to a halt as we crossed the state line. At last, we were in Minnesota.

(Another state down!)

Then we climbed slowly out of that trough through some meandering highways that had thankfully large shoulders. Honestly, this part of the day becomes kind of a blur - it was hot, we were tired, and Minnesota was not immediately stimulating (big fields...biig fields). One road was in really bad shape, but we don't have pictures of this part of the day.

Basically we road for 50 more miles, racing against against the clock and the sun. We stopped every 10 miles or so to pep talk each other, chug water, and get back on the bike. The terrain was flat until the last 12 miles or so, and we split a Gu packet (crucial care package delivery) to get us through - our speed jumped from a lagging 8 mph back up to 16 mph. Finally, sun just slipping below the horizon, our energy sapped, we rolled into Dalbo. Dripping sweat and panting, we had made it.