Wisconsin Bicycle Trip-Day 24

Wisconsin Bicycle Trip-Day24, Tuesday, August 6,2013

Boulder Junction to Park Falls  91.95 km in 4 hr 49 min.

I woke up at 4 am and tried to go back to sleep. I woke up again at 5 and then got up at 5:30. I didn’t have breakfast. While packing Silver in the garage, I  saw 2 little ears out of the garage window. A young deer was grazing in the yard. By the time I got my camera and went outside ,it was gone. It was 6:30 and a little drizzly as I left and turned Hwy H which was quiet and nice. I stopped at the junction of H and 51 for my first break but the mosquitoes were bad so I just took off the arm and leg warmers and put on my rain gear but rolled up the pants to the knees and considered that enough stretching and took off. The trouble with Hwy 51 besides the big trucks was that they had graded the side and the edge for bicycles was full of gravel  I took a break at Manitowish Waters and had my breakfast oatmeal bars. I like these places that have a nice picnic table to lean Silver against. I had the wind on my back and debated taking 51 all the way north to Ironwood and then follow Hwy 2 back to Ashland but I decided against this because of the truck traffic. So I decided to turn left on Hwy 47, 128 and take it across to Park Falls on Hwy 13. The land along here is swampy. I took 2 more breaks on this road which was over 60 km for me. There were periodic bumps and no edge but all along I saw only about 10 vehicles. I had the whole lane to pick and choose the smoothest line. I passed 2 big groups of ruffled grouse. When they heard me coming , they scurried  for cover underneath  the nearest evergreen trees. A young bear crossed right in front of me just as a car was coming up behind me. The bear stopped and looked towards me. I was thankful that the car waited to see what the bear would do to me but the bear decided to head for the bush. At a little stream , a little deer was drinking and just stayed there while I took several photos and talked to it. There was nothing but lakes and swamps along most of this road until near the end where there were a few farms. I had 39 km already done when I started this road and it was 34 miles or over 5o km so I knew that Park Falls would be the end of the day. AT Park Falls, I passed the Flambeau Paper mill and then asked at a gas station about campgrounds and motels. There were no campgrounds but she mentioned 1 motel going north on Hwy 13. The Edge of Town Motel had no one there and the sign said you had to pay in cash and I only had 20 dollars. I called the number and got no answer so I backtracked to a wonderful fishing store and the young man found out there was 1 more motel a half mile farther. He called and got an answer that there was a vacancy. That made me feel real good and I cycled there. At the Park Falls Motel , I got a room for 52 dollars, had my lunch, had a nap and worked on blog 16 and 17. Al Smith had said there might be rain later today and THANK YOU, LORD for bringing me to a motel because there was a bad thunder storm in the evening and it rained most of the night and I was dry and warm.