Trip Log 19: GRABAAWR 2019: Day 1

GRABAAWR 2019: Day 1
2019/06/09

Today, I think I overdid it a bit. I chose to ride the Century option that goes up to the Upper Peninsula and unofficially to the headwaters of the Wisconsin River. It probably wasn’t a good idea to ride so far on a bike I had never ridden before. I should have taken the 40 mile option. The main problem is that the suspension on the bike is set too loose. Every time I stood up on the pedals or put the bike into the granny gear the bicycle would bounce around like a rabbit or one of those clown bikes you see in a parade or a circus where the hub in the rear wheel is set off center. Every time I turned the cranks the vast majority of my power was bled away by the bounce.

I was nearly the last person to leave the lodging area at Eagle River High School. Perhaps another reason I should have taken the shorter route. The Century route had four rest stops set up about every 20 to 30 miles apart. The base route and the century route diverge about 5 miles after leaving the high school. I decided I would go to the first rest area on the Century route and decide from there whether to continue. I made it to the rest stop in Phelps just at the cut off time. I was the last person to arrive. That should have been a clue to turn back but the run to the border was just another 10 miles there and 10 miles back to the rest stop. I checked my stats so far and saw that I was averaging about 20 km per hour (about 12 mph). The second rest stop was the same location in Phelps. The guy manning the rest stop said he was closing at 11:30. By the time I had rested a bit, refilled my water bottle and fueled up on bananas and grapes, that gave me just barely enough to get back to Phelps.

I set out for the border and the end of the Century route. I had a real sense of being late as I saw all of the other century riders passed by me in the opposite direction as they were returning to Phelps for their second rest stop. I forged on nonetheless.

I was disappointed when I reached the end of the route marked on the map and on the pavement. I didn’t see anything that looked like the headwaters of the Wisconsin River. I was expecting a sign and maybe a little trickle of water coming out of rocky slope or something. I bought a Mellow Yellow at the gas station. My second disappointment. No root beer. What’s this world coming to? I noticed the “Welcome to Michigan” sign North of the route deeper into the U.P. I assumed the headwaters must be somewhere up ahead but I didn’t have time to search for them. So I took some video of the sign and headed back. Oh well. I made to the end of the northern terminus of the route and the U.P.

As I returned to Phelps I was surprised when I spotted two groups of riders ahead of me. A group of 3 that seemed to be going fast and a couple. I felt like I could catch the couple. I would gain on them on the downhill and lose ground at the climbs ultimately never really closing the gap. They were still at the Phelps rest stop when I rolled up.

At the rest stop we figured out how to tighten the suspension on the front fork but there was nothing we could do without tools to tackle the frame suspension. I left the rest stop before the couple did but I was sure that they would catch up to me eventually. And, indeed, they did catch up to me while I stopped to take some video of these cool bigfoot prints that someone had painted crossing the road from the swamp on one side of the road to the swamp on the other side of the road. I thought it was amusing. To be honest, by then I was beginning to feel tire. That section of the road has the steepest hills. On a few occasions I decided I didn’t want to fight the bike and the incline at the same time so walked the bike the last few meters to the crest of a few of the nastier hills. As I always say, there is no shame in walking. To make matters more interesting it began to rain. Not enough to worry about the gear getting wet but enough to remember that I had left my rain gear in the truck.

I caught up to the couple and we rode most of the rest of the trip together. The gentlemen offered me a lot of advice on how to make the ride easier. Much of it were conclusions that I had to come to on my own. But the advice was still appreciated. It was nice of them to babysit me most of the way. We were too slow to make it to the third rest stop at Chain O’ Lakes by the cutoff time. Instead, we stopped at a market in the little community of Three Lakes after about 5 or 6 miles of gravel and chip seal road. The only place where my hefty mountain bike with it’s wide knobby tires and suspension had the advantage over my light weight, skinny tire companions. I didn’t think it was that bad. Most of the time I was thinking my Surly Blue Beast could handle this with no problems. Mad Max is a more versatile bike that the standard road bike or mountain bike. Oh well, you have to ride what you brung.

Nature’s Beauty
There were many beautiful sites along the route. One of the standouts was all of the deer I saw. The first deer allowed me to get very close before it ran away. Up ahead on the road, there was a woman walking her dog. It wasn’t clear at first what she was taking a picture of. At first I thought it might be of myself and several other riders around me. But then, as I approached it became clear she was taking a photo of something across the street. As I approached her I noticed the doe standing in the edge of the woods next to the road. It didn’t seem to be startled at all by our presence.

The other stand out was all of the cotton wood seeds blowing around. It is a lot of fun to ride through a cloud of cottonwood seeds.

The Route
I have to say the route selection was excellent. It was almost entirely back roads with very little traffic. The terrain consisted mostly of rollers. A lot of little ups and downs. The variation made the ride interesting. There was just one stretch of the route after Three Lakes that was on a busier road with long, straight, flat sections. This was some 65 or 70 miles into the route. I have to say, despite being very tired and little sore by then we made excellent time. However, the straightness and the openness was a bit monotonous. Overall, I really enjoyed the rollers. In my head I was calling them roly polys.

All along the route the organizers had marked the pavement with circles with a hash mark indicating direction with paint. For the most part it was very easy to follow. I was wondering if it is legal to paint your own marks on the road. Do you have to get permission to do that?

I finally straggled into the main lodging area at Rhinelander High School at 6 p.m. I left at 7:30 a.m. Minus time for breaks and stopping to take pictures I was in the saddle for 8 hours and 30 minutes. I am not sure that this is the longest time I have spent in the saddle. The trip back from Chiba may have been longer but I think this is perhaps the longest distance I have ridden. I only rode 100 miles. When I consider that endurance racers and brubet riders travel 250 or more kilometers at a crack I am impressed and humbled by their efforts.

I rested a bit then set up my tent. Just as I was getting my gear sorted out the rain came down in buckets. I got most of my gear under cover in time but some of it got wet. The most problematic is my cue sheets for the rest of the week. I sure they will dry but I most handle them carefully until they do. I missed the shuttles into town for dinner because I didn’t feel like leaving the tent in the rain. Surprisingly, I wasn’t really too hungry but I knew I should eat something. I snacked on a granola bare and some beef jerky. I really wanted a Ceasar’s Salad.