T1 Day 40 (Keelin)

 Day 40: 7/16/2023


Conover, WI to Crystal Falls, MI


Today we left Wisconsin!!! We woke up in the morning and were very pleased with ourselves leaving EXACTLY at 8 am (our scheduled departure… usually we are a few minutes late at least). We got on the road and found today to be very scenic. Honestly was a pretty uneventful day except for the fact that we stopped at a coffee shop and when we emerged the sky was all of a sudden dark and stormy. No bueno. Potentially one of my least favorite things about biking across the country has been the rain. 


We then ended up on some janky bike paths with some broken down bridges and lots of roots causing bumps. It’s the type of thing where you enter the bike path in the woods and pray that you’re actually going to emerge somewhere helpful. Good thing Kayla’s garmin can guarantee that for us because the path was not instilling confidence. Thankfully the next one we got one was much better. Then a man stopped us and told us about a third bike path!!!! This third bike path dumped us out right by a grocery store… which we entered while we were ravenous (never a good idea). After waiting in the bottle return area for the worst of the rain to pass and consuming our bags of chips and dancing to the todays hits pop radio that was playing, we forged onward 6 more miles to camp. A beautiful waterfront site awaited us. Which is where i took the time to gather the following Wisconsin review: 


Wisconsin Review:


Favorite lodging:

Kayla: Torch Lake (secluded camp site with beach)

Liz: Torch Lake (nice sunset with man playing the guitar) 

Keelin: Hayward Airbnb (because there was a bed… duhhh)


Least favorite campground:

Balsam Lake collective wins the prize for this one… cheapest (free) but least favorite 


Favorite meal:

Kayla: Salad at Angry Minnow Brewery in Hayward Wisconsin

Liz: Blueberry Lavender scone/muffin top from Roots coffee shop in Cumberland

Keelin: Ham egg and cheese biscuit from Roots coffee shop in Cumberland


Favorite snack:

Kayla: Cheese curds

Liz: Cheese cracker sandwiches

Keelin: Noka smoothie in a bag 


Favorite town:

Kayla: Boulder Junction (lovely bike path and good benches for people watching)

Liz: Hayward (there is a very giant fish there… and for the other amenities- mostly the big fish though) 

Keelin: Butternut (this woman flagged us down and chased us on the street. she then proceeded to tell us her whole life story while laughing at our accents and the whole thing was a scene from a movie. I laughed the whole time) 


One thing you learned about your bicycle:

Kayla: Learned her shifting cable was shredded (poor thing) and that’s why the bike wouldn’t shift

Liz: Learned she should lube her chain more than she is currently

Keelin: My aero bar pads velcro down…. get very soggy in the rain so I should move them inside when it rains at night 


Favorite new addition to the bike:

Kayla: rain pants to replace her old disintegrating pair

Liz: bike lizard strapped to the front 

Keelin: bike parrot strapped to the front 

(Liz and I are so excited to have bike pets)


Scenery:

Kayla: 7.5/10

Liz: 7/10

Keelin: 7.75/10


Weather:

Kayla: 7/10

Liz: 6/10 (humidity and smoke)

Keelin: 4/10 (I hate rain and it rained everyday and it was smoky)


Bike-ability:

Kayla: 6/10 (very stupidly steep hills immediately upon entering the state.. but bike path was pretty) 

Liz: 7/10 (similar reasoning as kayla but she doesn’t hate the hills quite as much) 

Keelin: 7.5/10 (I hate hill slightly less, and loved the bike path a little bit more… was like a racetrack!)

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