Written by Dave

Day 55 – July 22 – 64 Miles, 1,920 feet climbing (Glidden to Boulder Junction)

It was super quiet overnight in the Glidden hotel. Or maybe it was just normal and we were all still shell shocked from the night before in the Hayward KOA. Calm, quiet, normal, we’ll take that any night. After brekkie in the common room, we were on the road just about 7AM. Chris was happy as it was the second day in a row where he could have two coffees made from beans he received in Hayward. Chris’s “coffee mentor” roasted a special blend and sent it to the KOA in advance of us arriving.

The first sign of any kind of stop today came at mile 38 in Mercer. Until then, we had mile after mile of rolling Wisconsin forest roads to ride. It was lumpy early on but flattened out a little after we scooted north of Butternut.  Until Butternut we were on a semi-major county road. After that we were on semi-deserted forest roads. On the latter, there was almost no traffic at all. It was almost creepy, drunken forest like the Alcan, no traffic and lots of side roads that turned to dirt and had dead end signs. It seems like if you turned down a side road, it would be possible to never be heard from again.

We stopped short of Mercer for a snack, then again in Mercer for a coffee. Thirty-eight miles was too far to ride without eating something. In Mercer we had nice coffees at Looney Beans Coffee. The shop’s dog was a skitterish young German shepherd who didn’t like people. The shop attendee also seemed a bit like a skitterish woman who didn’t like people much more than her dog. Luckily they had tables out front and we were able to enjoy our coffees without upsetting anyone or anything inside the shop any further.

After Mercer we had about 10 miles more of back roads to ride. There was a bit more traffic now but it was still minimal. With 15 miles to go before Boulder Junction we came across Heart of Vilas County paved bike path. We had heard that the path was smooth and clearly we had heard correctly. We rode the bikes path all the way into Boulder Junction on baby-bum smooth asphalt. To be honest, the back roads we’d been riding were a little bumpy with frost heave cracks every 20 feet or so. The path was very smooth and had nicely moved grass on both sides. Had the homes on the path not been quiet so ordinary looking, we could have been in Sunriver, Oregon.

Our first stop in Boulder Junction was at a nice looking bakery, coffee shop called Aqualand. We arrived right at noon and found the shop owner just getting ready to close for the day. I think he could tell that we were a bit despondent and offered us each a free cookie to make it up to us. Sure, touring cyclist and free cookies, that’s the ticket. Nancy and Chris both got their favourites, snicker doodle and oatmeal raisin respectively, I got a chocolate espresso one, which was also pretty good. We moved on for drinks with smiles on our faces to the Boulder Junction Coffee Company where we found more espresso-based drinks and more tasty looking baked treats.

There’s a real bike culture in Boulder Junction. It doesn’t seem like a fancy outdoor town, more down to earth, but the Heart of Vilas trail system seems to bring the folks in. For a town of less than 1,000 people, to have at least two proper coffee shops means that it is more than just a local Wisconsin farm town.

Tonight we are spending the night in another hotel, the Acorn Lodge. It is sort of rustic but good value for money again. Its right in the middle of town so walking to dinner will be easy. And best of all, it’s right next door to Boulder Coffee which opens at 6AM tomorrow so we can treat ourselves to something other than our normal oatmeal brekkie. Right now, there’s a bit of thunder and some dark clouds around, so not being in the tent is just fine by me.

Tomorrow we head for Hiles where we have a cabin booked at a campground. Chris’s daughter Laura will be joining us at some point during the day. She will be travelling with us for a few days until after we cross Lake Michigan. She’ll be driving a car so we can ride bag free for a few days, plus we won’t have to worry about staying within walking distance to restaurants. We have two campgrounds booked for the days after Hiles. Chris and Laura will be sharing Chris’s tent (and his snoring) so it’s possible that Laura won’t even be with us for some nights – we’ll see how that works out.