awake early as usual, despite lying in tent for awhile, up before 6:00. shake off the morning dew and on the road. wausau/weston and the start of the mountain bay state trail, rails to trails, are 40 miles down the road. unexpectedly, but quite welcome, i find the colby cafe sitting all by itself in a corner of the downtown. omelette, hashbrowns, a pancake, and a pot of tea. i sit in the corner so no one will smell me. i talk with the waitress and a woman across the room hears i'm headed to boston. she was originally from boston.
i follow route N into weston. the main county roads in wisconsin are by letters, not numbers. a pedestrian/bicycle bridge takes me over the wisconsin river where i eventually find the trail head for the mountain bay state trail. and, oops, unlike the paul bunyan, this trails not paved. a little test shows that it is rideable, though. compacted dirt with loose gravel fines and sand scattered on top. it will be a little slower, but pleasant being off the road. road surface affects one's speed. the smoother the surface, not only is it more comfortable, but it's faster.
the trail is 80+ miles all the way to green bay. once at green bay, i'll follow a different trail south to the east of appleton, where guido and julie live. i'll kisit with them on either side of a trip down to chicago.
there's no history noted anywhere, but i assume it was an old logging railroad, abandoned. anyway, there is no significant development along the ex-tracks. it crosses a bunch of roads and driveways, but most of the development has moved to the highway, i assume. the trail also serves as part of the snowmobile network in the winter. consequently, every now and then there is an arrow pointing to a tavern and even the occassional tavern on the trail. featuring pabst blue ribbon, of course. i've been to enough small towns, that a day removed into the surroundings would be a nice change.
50 or so miles later, i make it to shawano. the trail is interrupted for a bit, but i finally pick it back up. there's a bike store in an old railway depot at the head of the restart, and contrary to my normal behavior, i stop. it's around 7pm, 110 miles for the day, and i'm looking for a place to pitch my tent. it turns out there are three late 40's guys sitting there drinking bud light. they invite me, offer me a beer, they offer to let me sleep there on the side of the trail, and call the local constable to make sure it's okay. even though it's technically city property, the police say that they'll treat it like the bike shop owns it and it's alright if i sleep there. so i do.
i spend the next hour and two beers talking with the guys. they just bought the shop in march from the old codger who was retiring. they knew nothing about bikes, had no idea how to repair them. learning on the job. a couple of great guys, i wish them the best. they certainly have the right attitude. tim, the owner, has three girls who are grown and moved on. he ran a canoe and kayak rental place, when this came available. he had been searching for something, and thought "why not?" it's hard to run on the seasons here. summer is two months, july 4th to labor day. hard to sustain a business plan based on this. the winter does have smowmobiles, crosscountry sking, and snowshoeing.
then, as dusk falls, i sent up the tent right there. the trail runs right next to the shop, and it's right in the heart of the downtown. the trails lighted and there are still some late night, 9:00pm, folks out walking and kids playing. there's a little skate board area a couple of hundred yards away and far in the distance i can hear the little league baseball game still going. as i lie in the tent, an occassional person goes by. i'm ten feet away, but no one pays attention. and i fall asleep, apparently tired.
sometime in the middle of the night i wake up, a runner is going past. i wake several times, the last being at 5:00am when thee women head out for their morning walk. another woman is out with her dog, who picks up the scent and starts sniffing towards the tent. i speak gently to it, but it's startled to realize there is someone there. the dog backs up and barks once or twice. as she passes, the woman says "are you awake". "Yes." "Sorry." "No problem", i say with a laugh. guess it's time to get up.
No comments:
Post a Comment