76 miles ridden – 1955 feet climbed

Despite a number of points at which today could have flipped from pleasant to awful I am pleased to say that it was a very nice day.

A very big thunderstorm blew through the area last night and although it certainly felt fresher it was quite overcast with some menacing clouds when we left at 6:30 this morning. The first thing I should report is that it now seems certain that it is La Crosse drivers and roads that are awful rather than the state of Wisconsin. We were hassled by two car drivers and a truck within 200m of the hotel but once we left the city limits both the drivers attitudes and the roads improved. The effects of the storm were still evident:

Today’s ride was supposed to be decidedly flat and it would have been flatter were it not for the storm. Our planned route involved us travelling 34 miles on the Elroy Sparta trail which is an old railway bed that was turned into a biking/hiking trail under a US Federal program called ‘rails to trails’. This appealed a lot to us as railway beds are pretty much flat and there are no cars to worry about however after we had clambered over 5 trees which had come down in the storm we had to exit the trail and cycle over the hill we were supposed to go through via the trail tunnel. However by the time we had completed the diversion around the first segment the rest of the trail was open and we continued along it going through two long tunnels and a couple of nice little towns. The difference in temperature between the tunnel and the outside air creates clouds at the entrances:

In the town of Wilton we found an ice cream parlour where we chatted with some locals and found shade and a breeze to escape from the 90F/32C heat. I have developed a grading system to differentiate between levels of sweatiness. Yesterday I was saturated (need to be wrung out as if soaked in a bucket of water) whereas today I was just sodden (dripping but only left small patch on chair) but the locals seemed happy to talk to us as long as we stayed downwind.

The second SAG stop was at the end of the trail in Elroy Commons from which point we only had 14 miles to the hotel. Spirits were high until we felt rain – we couldn’t get any wetter it’s just the spray off the road is annoying and we have to clean ourselves and the bikes off before we come into the hotel. Can’t think why anyone would worry about a dirty, dripping bike being wheeled through a hotel and kept in a room overnight. My bike and I have shared a room for the last 39 nights which has worked very well and seems better than it being in the garage – I shall discuss with Sue.

Anyway, we got into the hotel at a sensible time which means time to sit and chill before tomorrow’s briefing and dinner which we haven’t been able to do for the last 3 days. I am no longer sweaty and have been able to address my recent SIFI in an un-hassled way. 

Today has been good.