Day 53 – Aug 4, 2015 Lake City MN to La Crosse WI – 85 mils

Day 53 – Aug 4, 2015 – Lake City MN to La Crosse WI – 85.19 miles

You know that you have been in the Midwest for some time when you start not hearing the accents. The language started changing in eastern Montana. Now here we are in Wisconsin and the people talk normal. Maybe.

What a day. We did 85 miles. Finally a real traveling day. We stuck to the HW 61 out of Lake City and it was our good friend. We made record time. We did about 50 miles in under 5 hrs. Good stuff.

Unfortunately, about 11 miles in, my bike started giving me that pulling problem again. Weird stuff. It was especially noticeable when going up hills. The larger the torque on the pedals and wheel, the harder it was. I powered through, most of the rolling hills. I looked at the odometer today and we had a 2700 ft day. Up and down, but all on highway grade with some tail winds.

At about 70 miles I saw a sign on the highway that said that at the i90 highway is off limits to bikes. I didn’t know how far that was, and Gregg said it was at La Crosse, so we continued on. But sure enough the DOT of Minnesota kicked us off the road. The MRT or the Mississippi River Trail suddenly ended about 2 miles up the road. So, after consulting Google and a young kid on a bike, the only alternative was to take a country road up over the ridge and down to the river crossing at Le Crescent MN. We started up the hill. My wheel issue intensified and then both of us had to get off the bikes as the grade went to 12% grade (or more?). Then the road ended and we were on gravel. My bike felt like and elephant, I could hardly push it up the hill. Gregg and I decided to change bikes, his weighed a significant amount more, so it wasn’t any easier. It was the one of the toughest things I have done on this tour, the gravel, the grade, the heat. Both of us were losing water by our massive amounts of sweat and we had little water left on our bikes. It was hell. A woman in a car told us that it was only about 2 blocks up and then we would reach the ridge. No way, it was 1 mile straight up. We finally made it to the top and it was as if we reached heaven, a paved level road and no traffic.

We had a mission which was to get to La Crosse to make it to the the bike shop in time for a bike mechanic to inspect my bike. At the top of the ridge my Google maps said we had about 30 mins to make it. Shop closed at 5:30pm and it was 4:39pm. So we powered down. We stopped to take pictures of our crossing into Wisconsin and the sign “Mississippi River”, which was the first one we saw, but that was it and I had to get a shot.

So we made it with 15 min to spare. The owner of Bikes Limited in La Crosse, Ben, inspected the bike and said that the hub was moving, or whatever. The decision was made to get a new one that could arrive by mid day tomorrow. They would tune up the bikes tomorrow morning and he would rebuild the wheel with new hub in the afternoon. We decided on the fancy more expensive one. I don’t know what it is called, but Gregg might know. (it is the DT Swiss hub — look it up — the same as I have on my bike) Anyway, it is peace of mind, and this guy is good, really good. So that is the decision that was made. We have made it this far, I think this guy will do a good job and send us on our way with real good work. He stopped whatever he was doing to help us. He said that bicycle travelers like us were worth doing whatever it takes to help. As Gregg said this evening “we are like bicycle royalty”! That made me tear up a bit. Another Trail Angel on our journey.

Not much else to report except that Gregg spotted a pair of bald eagles today! Great stuff. They were about twice the size of “steve” the eagle we saw in Idaho. The Mississippi must provide.

We had a beautiful journey today along this great river. I have only experienced it down south where it is wide and full of commerce. Here it is absolute spectacular. Beautiful as it is wide and meandering, with islands and lakes, and the occasional lock or dam. It seemed like there was a hidden hand regulating its flow but really hidden, because the wildness was so raw and present. I was really impressed as we sped along at 15 mph.

Tomorrow we cross our fingers that the hub arrives and we can be on our way across Wisconsin. Nothing against Wisconsin, but we would like to cross it asap.