Day 90: Connecting Route, Adams County
Day 90: Saturday, August 7th, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 10.3
Location: The Western Bifurcation Connecting Route from the railroad tracks southwest of Adams-Friendship to the intersection of Cypress Avenue and 7th Drive
10.3 miles of trail covered, plus 1.1 miles extra biking
When you go to sleep before the sun goes down, you will almost certainly wake up before the sun rises, even up here near the 44th parallel in summertime. And we did wake up before the sun was properly out of bed, somewhere around 5:00 am. It started to get pretty light out by 6:00, so it was definitely time to crawl out of our sleeping bags and get moving.
Dawn was met by a low mat of fog hanging just a few feet off the ground, and it made for some pretty awesome viewing across the meadow, looking at the namesake for Roche-a-Cri State Park. And while I didn't get an awe-inspiring photo of the bluff (first photo), I took a few shots of the meadow that I was pleased with.
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| "Screaming Rock" (Roche-a-Cri) |
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| Sunrise, Roche-a-Cri State Park |
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| Sunrise, Roche-a-Cri State Park |
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| Sunrise, Roche-a-Cri State Park |
Theresa was also up and moving early, too. With only 18.4 miles to cover, and a start at dawn, we were very hopeful of actually finishing the Western Bifurcation today.
There are those who would suggest that the low haze we saw was actually smoke from the massive wildfires blazing out of control out in Oregon and up in Canada. While we certainly did experience plenty of smoke haze, this stuff felt a lot more like plain-old fog, especially since all the grass was dripping wet with dew.
At any rate, we were completely done with our preparations and had driven to the railroad tracks before 7:00 am. Except for the times we camped out in the Chequamegon Forest to hike in Taylor County, this was easily our earliest start ever. I had visions of finishing by noon.
The railroad tracks, unexpectedly, did not have a train sitting on them. At some point the evening before, or possibly in the middle of the night, that train that sat on the tracks blocking the road for the entire afternoon yesterday and early evening was moved to another location. We literally scampered across the tracks to the other side and made sure we physically connected with the spot we left off yesterday, but we weren't going to risk going over there with a car.
Back safely on the north side, we left one vehicle behind and drove back up to Roche-a-Cri so we could actually start covering ground. First, though, was an important side-trip. We went to the park office again to ask if it would be possible to plug in Theresa's battery pack. They did, and we dropped off a number of books for their Little Free Library, which was looking quite sparse. Then we went back to the parking lot and got biking.
I'm happy we had driven the route a few times, because it made the ride much easier. It didn't seem like all that far when we looked at it on the maps, but in the end it was about 4.6 miles, and by the time we drove down, dropped off a car, drove back, ran our errands, biked down to the railroad tracks, loaded our bikes, and drove back up to Roche-a-Cri, nearly two hours had elapsed.
And here, ahead of schedule, came the rain.
It wasn't a hard rain. It wasn't really much of a rain at all. But it did rain hard for a short time. We found ourselves huddled in our car in a church parking lot on 11th Avenue trying to get phone reception long enough to view the weather forecast. It wasn't good.
After about 45 minutes, things started to lighten up a little. The lightning that made a brief appearance was gone, and even though it was still raining lightly, we decided we'd take a chance and ride the one mile to the car. We made it, too. And then it started up with the lightning and thunder again. {sigh}
So while we waited out the rain, we went a little further, all the way to 9th Ave, hoping to cover two miles during the next break in the rain. And we waited. And we waited some more. Every time we thought the lightning had been gone enough to allow us to ride down the road in the rain, we'd no more than get out of the car and we'd hear some more thunder.
Eventually we ate lunch, right there in the car. We had gotten up before dawn, and had managed only 5.6 miles of biking by noon.
Then - an almost-but-not-quite break in the weather enabled us to go for another ride. Two miles later and we were resetting for the next piece of roadway, and the lightning came back. Again. So we drove down the road, thinking we'd just keep heading down Czech Ave, got exactly six more tenths of a mile and saw that the road turned to sand. Really. Loose. Sand.
I got out of the car long enough to walk down this road a little. It's the last 2.4 miles of Czech Ave, or the first 2.4 miles if you're coming the other way. It's terrible. I refused to drive on it. I wouldn't want to walk on it, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to ride a bike on it. Time for Plan B.
Looking ahead to map 53f-W, we could see that the route went south onto County J. We decided we would go there now, cutting south on 8th Drive, and ride J the rest of the way. But since our time was so slim, I dropped Theresa off at 9th Ave so she could start biking while I drove down, parked the car and rode back.
I think we actually made it that whole 1.1 miles without any lightning, but it was definitely still raining. Unfortunately, when we took a better look at WI-J, we determined that going that way, in the rain, was out. It was just too dangerous. No shoulder, and the white line was mere inches from the edge.
So now it was time for Plan C, and some creative thinking and route planning. We spent the next lightning-filled hour driving all over the area, looking for the best possible route. The problem was, if it wasn't County J, it was going to be out of the way, and it would involve gravel or sand. Take your pick.
In the end, we decided that our route would be best if we went one mile north to Cypress Avenue, then went east all the way to 1st Drive then south to CC, thus avoiding County Road J entirely. But we had to sit out the lightning.
So we drove up to the intersection at 8th and Cypress, parked a vehicle, and drove down Cypess a while to set up and wait for the next break. And we waited. And we waited.
Until we finally just couldn't wait any more.
"I have an idea", I said. "Let's go back to Roche-a-Cri and pick up your battery pack. We'll be able to get back here just about the time it's supposed to stop raining."
Which we did, except that we took both cars, because there was no way we were leaving one behind. We had learned by now that being flexible was the only way to go.
Once back at the State Park, we decided we'd drive around a bit and evaluate the campsites. Really nice. If you're looking for a place to camp with an actual tent, I highly recommend this park. There is almost no such thing as a bad campsite.
There was still a glimmer of hope that the rain would be ending somewhere around 6:00 pm. So we drove back out to 8th and Cypress, but this time we left a car back at 9th and Czech, because we needed to connect the dots somewhere. When the rain let up a little, and when the thunder sounded like it was a long ways off (it never really stopped), we decided to chance a run down the hill to bring the line up to Cypress Ave. We were successful in not getting killed, and we then drove back up to 7th Drive, about a half-mile further. This time we were able to immediately cover the half-mile, and we loaded up and drove back to our spot on the gravel on Cypress Ave.
And we waited. 6:00 came and went. Then 6:30.
"When is the next break?" Theresa asked.
"According to the radar forecast, this is all supposed to clear up completely by 7:00, or maybe 7:15 at the latest,", I replied. "That will give us a good hour or so of rain-free biking to end the day. We can get a lot done in an hour."
So we waited. And we waited. Every once in a while we would think there was no more lightning, then another roar of thunder would prove us wrong.
6:55 pm. Still raining.
"How does the radar look?"
"Still showing we should get a break, about 7:15," I said.
7:10 pm. Still raining. Harder.
"How long are we going to wait?"
If it's not obvious by now, I was the idiot who wanted to keep going at all costs, right down to the last minute of daylight. We were a half-mile from being off the edge of map 54f-W, and I wanted to get that done. Theresa, on the other hand, had been up since before dawn, had more than once been riding down the road on a bicycle with lightning strikes all too close, and was now more than ready to call it quits for the day.
"Let's give it another 15 minutes."
So we waited. And the promised break in the weather not only didn't manifest itself, but the Mighty Thor himself started casting angry bolts out of the heavens, and he teamed up with Njǫrd, the God of Wind and Sea, to lash out at the puny mortals who had been foolish enough to ignore their warnings for the last nine straight hours.
We did NOT get in any more biking. After a day that literally started at dawn, and during which we took every conceivable opportunity to make progress, we had managed to claw out only 10 miles of biking. On a good day, that usually only takes us about an hour and 15 minutes.
Theresa drove me back to the waiting van, and I had to dash to my car in a downpour, and by the time we made it one mile to the north, on Hwy 21, the rain was so heavy we couldn't see more than a quarter mile down the road. Vengeance was unleashed upon the earth. Windshield wipers could do little more than splash puddles of water across the glass. We drove right past Ship Rock, and couldn't see it.
For a short while we pulled over and talked on cell phones. We had completed so many miles over the last few days that we were now well north of Oxford and our campsite. But home was to the north. The campsite was forecast to be in the bullseye of another several rounds of thunderstorms, and the last thing we wanted was to have both vehicles damaged by hail, or destroyed by falling trees. We chose to drive home to the relative comfort and safety of our own beds. We left the tent to its own devices and headed north through the rain, which didn't let up until we were five miles form home.
It was one of the worst storms I have ever driven through. It would be bested by an even worse punishment the very next day.
Running Total: 668.6 miles of trail covered; 69.1 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 90.
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