Circling the U.S. Chapter 24: Wisconsin's Northwoods - Part 1

July 28, Sunday evening, we'd left Door County and were on our way to a Warm Showers host in New Franken, just north of Green Bay. We'd ridden over 70 miles; I was hoping to hit 80, keeping an eye on those clouds. Carl, our Warm Showers host, was expecting us any minute. We had just a few miles to go. It started raining, my phone rang, I ignored it, wanting to keep up our steady pace. I figured it might be Carl. At 78 miles, a car came toward us, and stopped. It was Carl, come to rescue us from the pending storm. I didn't get in my 80 miles, but how could we refuse such a kind offer?

Monday, July 29 - Saturday, August 3, 2019

Take a look at a map of Wisconsin and the number of roads crisscrossing the state can leave anyone from away baffled as to the best way to get across it on a bicycle. We decided to trust the wisdom of the folks at Adventure Cycling and chose part of their North Lakes route for the next part of our journey. But first we had to get through Green Bay to connect with that route. 

Carl, our Warm Showers host, helped us meet that challenge. Monday morning he led us on a tour of Green Bay and showed us the way out of the city along a paved bike path. He knew the best roads to avoid traffic, taking us through the industrial area of Green Bay, past a small local amusement park, and along the Fox River, with sculptures, gardens, and condos. While riding, Carl told us that Green Bay produces cheese and toilet paper. He said, “We have you covered at both ends.” We also learned that the original Green Bay Packers worked at the meat packing plants and played football during their time off.

Rob and I had decided that we wouldn't spend time in Green Bay so this impromptu tour was a bonus, another example how fortunate we are to be a part of the Warm Showers bicycling community.

Past Green Bay we were once again in farm country.

This picture and the following two are all of this modest property. I was struck by the frequency of the message of the countless signs in front. When I stopped to take pictures, it did occur to me that maybe the owner would come out with a shotgun, but he or she did not.

A little bit of patriotism thrown in for good measure. And why not? There's a little-known verse of Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land, that goes like this.

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me.
The sign was painted, said 'Private Property.'
But on the backside, it didn't say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.

After 69 miles and a hot afternoon fighting a headwind, we arrived at  Rivers Edge Camping Resort, in Leeman. It looked deserted. The bar at the entrance was closed and the office locked. But the bathroom was open and eventually we saw a few RVers here and there. While Rob set up our tent and I went to get a shower, but it needed two quarters which we didn't have. I found a woman who gave us change so we got showers and eventually the owner did come by and collected his fee. We were the only tenters that night and we never did find the river that gave the campground its name.

The private campgrounds in this part of the country are not like ones we've visited elsewhere. Where most private campgrounds have seasonal sites with the owners addiing decks, sheds, outdoor patios and firepits, giving an overall tidy feel, the seasonal sites here have a much scruffier feel to them, with outdoor furniture and other camping accoutrements scattered about in a haphazard fashion and no effort made for "curb appeal." 

They also have a bar and grill on their premises. We had dinner at one of them - burgers, fries, and beer for $24. Not particularly healthy but delicious and affordable. However, we didn't feel like we belonged. I saw a sign that said, "Guys, no shirt - no service; Gals, no shirt - free beer." Rob said that he saw a number of interesting T-shirts. An example: "If you can read this, the bitch fell off the bike." While we were eating an old guy came up to us and asked, "Why would you want to ride a bicycle around the country?"

I couldn't understand the ambience of the taverns at the campgrounds. Here they were in the middle of the great outdoors, sometimes right on a lake, and they had no outdoor seating; the inside was dark and dreary. In the middle of the afternoon about half a dozen people would be sitting at the bar watching one of the televisions. We'd walk in, several people would turn and look at us, then go back to staring at the TV.

We passed lots of bars during our journey through the Northwoods. We also passed many tidy farms. Check out the flower garden below.

I noticed signs along the road that referenced barn quilts and assumed they refered to the quilt square on the side of the barn. We saw a number of them. Here's what I found on the internet: A barn quilt is a large, hand-painted wooden block typically displayed on the front or side of a barn. They usually measure 8' x 8'. Created in Ohio by Donna Sue Groves as a way to honor her mother, the barn quilt movement has now spread to over forty states (as well as Canada!).

On Tuesday morning, July 30, Rob and I stopped for a second breakfast at the Home Plate Cafe in Shawano, Wisconsin. We sat at a table under a television with the sound turned off, Fox News with two young adults on the screen holding mugs that said, “Kelly Ryan.” At the neighboring table six old men were talking. My ears perked up when I heard, “San Francisco…” “homeless people…” “People in San Francisco getting what they deserve…” I wanted to listen more closely but couldn’t make out much. As we were finishing our breakfast, Rob said, “They’re still going on about San Francisco,” when we heard them again mention that fine city’s name.

Wednesday, July 31, we rode 60 miles with no town, no convenience store, nothing. We didn't bring extra water for those miles but fortunately it was not a hot day. Our stops had to be at a church, on the steps of a closed bar, and in the field of a storage facility. But the riding was terrific, on quiet back roads, with scenery changing from cornfields to forests. We had hills to climb followed by long downhills.

While we were taking a break, sitting on the steps of a closed tavern, a car pulled up and came to a stop. The driver, a local man, told us that the scenery around there wasn't as nice as it had been before the tornado blew through the week before. You can see the damage in the above picture and piles of debris below. We felt lucky to have missed them.

We passed many scenes like this one throughout the Northwoods.

After riding for 60 miles with no civilization, we came to the town of Crandon and this lovely, affordable motel. We explored the town and picked up dinner from the grocery store - rotisserie chicken, macaroni salad, and green salad - and watched a Democratic presidential debate, a rare contact with current events.

The next day, Thursday, August 1, after a lazy morning going out for breakfast and to the library, we rode 33 miles of hills.

We camped that night at Anvil Lake Campground, a national forest campground in the middle of nowhere. No showers, no problem. All we needed was a swim in this beautiful lake.

This shelter on the beach was built during the Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It is a designated historic landmark, built to last forever. Throughout the country we see examples of the great work accomplished by this program and I wonder, as our infrastructure keeps falling apart and we have people needing jobs in dying towns, why don't we do something like this again?

I had to take a picture of the stone chimney.

On Friday, August 2, we rode 56 miles. Along the way we encountered a supported bicycle group who invited us to share their lunch - brats, chips, lemonade, raw veggies and fruit. Then we came to the picturesque town of Boulder Junction, filled with art galleries but without an ice cream shop. 

Past Boulder Junction we came to this beautiful bike path going exactly where we needed to go.

The next morning, Saturday, August 3, as we continued riding along the Vilas bike trail we stopped at Rest Lake near the town of Manitowish Waters.

The lake was pretty nice but what struck us was the pavilion in the public park.

It was so inconguous, we felt like we'd stumbled into Brigadoon or some other fairy tale place. We decided to spend a little time relaxing and snacking while we enjoyed the view and the comfortable chairs.

While we were sitting there a young man wandered into the park. I hoped he could help us clarify the puzzle of this opulent shelter and the bike path. He did. Although not from these parts, he'd been spendiing his summer interning at the Discovery Center nearby. He told us that a woman named Uline had donated a ton of money to northern Wisconsin that included the development of the bike path and shelter.

I can be cynical at times. Oftentimes the very wealthy will donate  money to some cause as a smoke screen for their otherwise nefarious activities. Andrew Carnegie founded many public libraries while busting unions and refusing to pay his workers a living wage. I decided to do a little research on this Uline woman. 

From a June 7, 2018, NY Times article:

"Few political donors are as influential, yet little known, as Liz and Dick Uihlein.

The Midwestern couple has joined the upper pantheon of Republican donors alongside names like Koch, Mercer and Adelson. They have spent roughly $26 million on the current election cycle, supporting more than 60 congressional candidates, working outside the party establishment to advance a combative, hard-right conservatism, from Washington to the smallest town.

Mr. Uihlein (pronounced YOU-line), a scion of one of the founders of Schlitz beer, underwrites firebrand anti-establishment candidates who typically defend broad access to assault weapons and assail transgender rights. He has also bankrolled partisan newspapers and backed Roy Moore in Alabama even after he was accused of sexual misconduct with underage girls.

...
Perhaps nothing illustrates the couple’s determination to set the agenda more than their efforts in the Wisconsin town of Manitowish Waters. They have spent millions remaking the small community and buying up much of its downtown. In 2016, shortly before Mrs. Uihlein joined the Trump campaign as a major fund-raiser, she threatened to divert $300,000 in planned donations if the town didn’t move a boat ramp that was near a pavilion she had built."

But I was curious about other things besides the origin of the pavilion. What is the appeal of the Northwoods? Why do people come to this place that teems with mosquitoes and has hills but no mountains? Wisconsin was lovely, but it had not escaped my notice that almost everyone we met at campgrounds was from Wisconsin. No one came to Wisconsin from another state. Well, maybe another midwestern or neighboring state, but not from far away. Wisconsin did not seem to be a vacation destination for people from New England or the western states or Europe.

The young man said that the area hosts many winter activities - snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, ice fishing, and snow mobiling. A lot of people retire here and it's the place to be in the summer with its moderate temperature and great fishing. 

"Boulder Junction is the muskie capital of the world," he said. We had already figured out that muskies are a type of fish.

"Are they good eating?" I asked. I don't see the point in catching anything if you're not going to eat it.

"No, you don't eat them. You fish them for the sport. I've been muskie fishing once. It's great fun," he said, and added, "They are four to five feet long. The state record is 62 inches."

I said, "I see lots of lakes on the map, but we only get glimpses of them from the road."

He said, "The saying here is 'Every third step squishes.' A third of the county is either wetland or lake."

All that wetland breeds mosquitoes, our constant camping companion. 

Later that day we came to the town of Butternut, charming but deserted.

Sadly for us, the cafe was closed. 

I took this picture for Alan, Sylvia, and Anne, my accordion-playing friends. Maybe they've heard of these musicians from Butternut, Wisconsin.

A view of Butternut as we left town.

We rode 62 miles on Saturday, keeping up a pretty good pace of 50-60 miles a day. We were on track to arrive in St. Paul by August 9, when a friend was expecting us. But Rob and I hadn't really talked about our trajectory for getting to the west coast. I was beginning to fret that we were running out of time. We had another day of solid riding before Rob told me about a problem he had that we couldn't ignore.

 

From the Travel Log:

Day 53: Monday, July 29, 2019    69 miles to Leeman, WI

Rivers Edge Camping Resort

The morning was great. Carl, our Warm Showers host, led us on a tour of Green Bay and showed us the way out of town along a paved bike path. He knew the best roads to avoid traffic, taking us through the industrial area, past a small local amusement park, and along the Fox River, with sculptures, gardens, and condos. While riding, Carl told us that Green Bay produces cheese and toilet paper. “We have you covered at both ends,” he said. We also learned that the original Green Bay Packers worked at the meat packing plants and played football during their time off. Other than cycling through it, we didn’t spend any time in Green Bay. Both Carl and the young man we camped next to a few nights ago said that, unless you are into the Packers, there’s not much to see in Green Bay. Even so, I was grateful for the bicycle tour Carl gave us. We could never have done that on our own.

Carl gave us directions for finding our way to pick up the Adventure Cycling route in Wrightstown. But one of the roads was closed with major construction going on. We walked our bikes through it for about half a mile before coming to a detour that the construction workers described for us and that got us to where we needed to be and a stop for lunch. But we still had forty miles to ride in the afternoon. It was hot, and the wind slowed us down to eight or nine miles an hour. Every mile felt like a struggle. I’ve seen enough cornfields and barns and silos. I kept thinking, now the hard work begins.

When we finally arrived at our campground, we didn’t even shower or put up the tent before eating dinner - fried chicken, cucumber salad, and potato salad I’d picked up 15 miles earlier

Day 54: Tuesday, July 30, 2019   49 miles to Bowler, WI

Star Campsite Bar and Grill

As we look forward to days of more mileage and longer distances between towns, we've been making a commitment to get an earlier start to our days.This morning we started riding at 6:55 a.m. We still had wind slowing us down, but the temperature never got unbearably high. We kept our stops reasonably short and made it to a campground by 2:15.

Our campground had a bar and grill on site where we ate dinner - burgers, fries, and beer for $24. Inside the bar I saw a sign that said, "Guys, no shirt - no service; Gals, no shirt - free beer." Rob said that he saw a number of interesting T-shirts. An example: "If you can read this, the bitch fell off the bike."

 

Day 55: Wednesday, July 31, 2019    58 miles to Crandon, WI

Main Street Inn

Sixty miles with no town, no convenience store, nothing. We didn't plan  to bring extra water for those miles but fortunately it was not a hot day.  Our stops had to be at a church, on the steps of a closed bar, and in the field of a storage facility. But the riding was terrific, on quiet back roads, with scenery changing from cornfields to forests. We had hills to climb followed by long downhills. We didn't ride fast, but with short stops we were able to finish our day by 2:15, arriving at a motel in Crandon. We're spending the evening plugging back into current events by watching the Democratic Presidential debate, after a dinner of rotisserie chicken, macaroni, salad, and a green salad. For dessert we had dark chocolate Oreos. I didn't even know they existed but Rob picked them out. I highly recommend them.

Rob has been complaining that he is always hungry so he's eating as much as he can. I'm a social eater, so I'm keeping up with Rob. Since I don't have his hummingbird metabolism I don't expect I'll be losing any weight on this trip.

 

Day 56: Thursday, August 1, 2019    34 miles to Anvil Lake Campground, WI (a National Forest campground somewhere in the middle of nowhere)

Rob wanted to sleep in this morning. We've had four days with lots of miles so I was fine with that. We'd planned a 60-mile day but changed it to 30. When Rob finally got up around seven o'clock, we walked next door to our hotel and got breakfast, Denver omelettes with toast and hot tea for $17. It was a nice switch from oatmeal. We spent a couple hours at the library before getting on the road around one o'clock.

We only had 33 miles to go but they were challenging. Lots of hills. Even so, I enjoyed the afternoon. We camped at a national forest campground, meaning pit toilets and no showers. But it was on a lake so a swim worked fine, and it was fairly quiet.

Day 57:  Friday, August 2, 2019    56 miles to Big Sky Campground, a state park 10 miles past Boulder Junction, WI

Except for a seven-mile stretch on a busy state highway the riding today was terrific, albeit a bit challenging with a steady diet of hills. Lots of trees with glimpses of lakes here and there and an occasional farm thrown in for good measure. We've only occasionally come across a town of any notable size. Today we spent time in Boulder Junction with its attractive main street hosting several art galleries. We searched for an ice cream shop to no avail and the single grocery store was more of a convenience store pretending to be a grown-up grocery store with a selection of fresh produce. The best I could do for dinner was a can of Campbell's Chunky Clam Chowder. It wasn't bad but Rob and I both agreed that next time it'll have to be two cans.

After the state highway we were on a county road when a cyclist coming from the opposite direction stopped, presumably to get some water. When he saw me he said, "I don't envy you."

"Why?"

"Carrying that heavy load up these hills."

"Well, they haven't been too bad, yet."

Then another bicyclist came along and said, "You've got a load."

I began to wonder what the obsession was with my load.

Then three more cyclists came along, and the first asked, "How much are you carrying?"

I called back, "Don't you want to know where I'm from or where I'm going?"

The cyclists kept coming, in ones and twos, threes and groups. I thought, they must be with a tour group. I became very curious and finally got a group of three women to stop. They said they were part of Pedal Across Wisconsin (PAW), out for a week doing mostly day rides of differing lengths around the area. They encouraged us to stop in at their lunch stop down the road.

At the next town, Star Lake, hardly a town at all just a convenience store and small cafe, we stopped to fill water bottles. Inside I got talking to a woman about my age who was also with the cycling group, but taking the day off. She also urged us to head over to the lunch stop to get fed.

My motto is, "Never turn down free food." The PAW folks were very generous and only one person asked how much I was carrying. We enjoyed lemonade, chips, fruit, and brats, and sat for a bit on a dock by a lake. Not only did they give us lunch, but Jerry, the head organizer, gave us great advice on a back road into Boulder Junction. So much good riding comes thanks to local cyclists' advice.

Past Boulder Junction we rode on a fabulous paved bike trail to our campground. Who would have expected something like this in the far north of Wisconsin? Bridges over streams and wetlands and plenty of curves with slight hills. It's always fun ending a day with easy riding.

 

Day 58: Saturday, August 3, 2019   62 miles to Glidden, WI

Northern Lure Resort

As I follow along on the map I see lots of lakes, but we only get glimpses as they are hidden by trees and houses. At a morning rest stop we talked to a college student up here for a summer internship. His impression is that people come up here for winter activities - snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, ice fishing, and snowmobiling. In the summer it's the place to be for the cooler temperatures and great fishing. Boulder Junction is known as the muskie capital of the world. You don't eat them; with lengths of four to five feet it's just great sport to catch them. I, personally, don't see the sport in catching an animal just to throw it back into the wild. How would you like it if someone did that to you? But that's just me.

Mosquitoes. We camped at the Northern Lure Resort and Campground. It did not live up to its fancy name. The mosquitoes at our campsite on the edge of the woods were awful, but fortunately by the lakeshore they weren't bad so we were able to cook and eat dinner and relax there for a time. Just getting stuff together to go into the tent for the night they swarmed around my head. .

We've now camped at three private campgrounds that also have a bar and grill serving burgers and pizza. In the middle of the afternoon half a dozen people will be sitting at the bar, with one or two televisions on but no sound. Not a lot of sunlight hits the interior and there's no outdoor seating. It's not a place to hangout if you like the outdoors.