Day 91: Connecting Route (x2), Adams and Waushara Counties
Day 91: Sunday, August 8th, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 12.4 plus 1.4 miles extra biking
Location 1: The Western Bifurcation Connecting Route between the intersection of Cypress Avenue and 7th Drive in the west and the Adams/Waushara County Line on Czech Ave in the east.
8.1 miles of trail covered
We woke up this morning in our own beds, having escaped last night's torrential rainfall by driving north an hour away from the heart of the storm. Our tent was still in Oxford, along with a small amount of gear, but we weren't going to be camping in it any more during this vacation. In fact, we had no idea what condition we would find it in when we got there, assuming it didn't blow away.
Today was day nine of our nine-day Ice Age Adventure, and we had just struggled through two ridiculous days of rain-dodging, trying to cover a few measly miles on our bicycles. We had no solid plans other than to take a look at the weather and drive down to pick up whatever was left of our tent and equipment.
And yet - the weather forecast for today showed a long-ish gap before yet more rain and thunderstorms would be moving through the state. So after unloading most of the gear from the car, including sleeping bags, clothing, and a surprising amount of gear that we had with us and not in the tent, we filled both cars' gas tanks and headed back south, hoping against hope that we could actually finish the western bifurcation today.
Despite the extra time it would take us to do it, the first thing we did was drive down to Oxford and pack up the campsite. We were very relieved when we drove up and everything was exactly as we had left it. No damage, nothing missing. Not even any tree limbs down that we noticed. Everything was soaking wet, of course, but with two empty vehicles we had no problem just piling everything in a heap and tossing it in wet. I figured we could dry it out later.
After that, we drove back up to Cypress Ave, a few miles west of Roche-a-Cri State Park, approaching it from the east. We got as far as the place where Cumberland Lane turns back into Cypress Avenue (why did this piece of road need a different name?) and a little bit further when our path was blocked by a fallen tree. It didn't fall right on top of where we were parked the night before, trying to wait out the rain, but it was darn close.
And, the part of the tree that actually blocked the road was small enough for me to pull out my saw and start cutting. Theresa, though, didn't want to wait, and I couldn't blame her. While I sawed the road open, she took off on her bike to cover the distance between where we were blocked and where we were trying to get to. That distance turned out to be 1.4 miles.
I'm not positive why I chose to follow her on bicycle at that point, because I could have driven down the road and met her at the other end, but I also hopped on my bike when I was done cutting up the tree and rode fast to catch up with her. Along the way we saw another large, dead branch that had come down on the road. That was when I looked up and realized this entire road was covered in overhanging dead oak branches just waiting to fall during storms. We were fortunate to have gotten out of there unscathed last night.
I met Theresa coming back the other way, because she had already reached the end and turned back. I finished the loop and caught up to her before we reached the vehicles, and from there we started leapfrogging our way east.
One thing was for sure. We were both kind of worn out from all the driving and the stress of trying to cover as much ground as possible, as fast as we could. I remember that for the last leg of the trip, we ended up riding in opposite directions. She, riding east, came down 1st Drive and finished up on CC. I started at CC and rode back up to Cypress to get the waiting car. I was just barely able to pull past her with the car, park, and get our to welcome her with open arms, using a gesture that had become familiar during the week.
I didn't take a photo, so here is a repeat of one of yesterday's shots. It pretty much sums up the whole week.
So this was the end of the western bifurcation. We completed maps 53f-W and 54f-W, we finished Adams County and over the last few days Juneau County as well.
8.1 miles was all we had left. It took us about an hour. If we had been given but one real hour of riding time yesterday without perpetual lightning, we would have finished.
I don't know why, but I didn't feel like celebrating. I felt more like we were in an episode of The Amazing Race, and we got to the finish line a day behind our competitors and Phil Keoghan was standing there to clap his hands and give us our participation trophy.
Nevertheless, we achieved more this week than we thought we would, having covered 6.4 miles of trail and 86.1 miles of biking, under a constant barrage of heat, humidity and thunderstorms. I lost count of how many maps we had finished. It was time for a celebration. There was another restaurant we spotted in Friendship, and we decided to go back and give it a try. In hindsight, I wish we hadn't. it was dirty and noisy, and the food wasn't very good. It shall remain nameless here.
But - sitting there consuming bad pie and worse coffee, we had an opportunity to look at more radar forecasts, and more maps. After all - we were here to fill in maps, right? It was still reasonably early in the day, and there was plenty of connecting route to cover between us and home.
Location 2: The Connecting Route between the north end of the Deerfield Segment on map 50f and the intersection of 15th Road and County Road A on map 49f.
4.3 miles of trail covered
North of the Deerfield Segment and south of the Emmons Creek Segment there is a 14.6 mile connecting route that we had set our eyes on a couple days ago, thinking that if we finished the Western Bifurcation, we would go there next. So, despite the forecast of oncoming rain, we decided to go there on the way home and see if we could knock off a few miles.
I said 'we', but in my heart I know it was more 'I' than 'she'. I remember discussing it, and I remember there being agreement. But there is little doubt in my mind that the suggestion was mine, and Theresa, good egg that she is, went along with it.
I'm not sure what I was looking for. A real achievement, perhaps? Complete just one more map? Something 'extra' to toss onto the trip, like a third cherry on a banana split?
I don't know. whatever it was, we didn't find it.
Here we were on a busy highway again, with impending rain, doing a bike-and-follow and trying to get just a few more miles in. Theresa went first, but as she went up the road I realized I needed to step into the woods for a minute. Since she was walking up that first hill this wasn't really an issue. But then as I left to go catch up to her, I had forgotten some other thing that was back in the other car, so I turned back around to go get whatever it was. As a result, I was a good five minutes behind her.
You wouldn't think that would be terrible, but while I was busy doing whatever I was doing, she was out on this busy highway alone, and when she had crossed Hwy 73 and was headed towards 14th Ave, a woman intentionally drove her truck within inches of Theresa while she rode on the side of the highway, sneered at her as she drove past, then gunned the engine and belched diesel smoke at her as she drove by. It was deliberate and dangerous intimidation, just short of an attack, and I have no doubt that if Theresa had startled and veered a few inches to the left, this would have been just one more hit-and-run on the open highway.
My white-haired wife, riding her bike down the road on a Sunday afternoon, had been targeted and nearly struck by some person we had never met. Experiences like this are why we use a trailing safety vehicle on some roads. As Paul Harvey was fond of saying, it is not one world we live in.
So I picked her up on the road, down by Lake Wautoma and drove her up to the corner to take a break. She did end up riding back down the hill to connect the dots, but then it was definitely my turn.
I started the same place, back at the north end of the Deerfield Segment, and I rode hell-bent for leather to make it as far as she did before the rain started, and to get off this piece of highway with as little interference as possible. I stopped at the the intersection of 15th Road, and we could hear distant thunder, but it was still a few miles away. I knew I could go just a little further, and I ended up riding all the way to County A, another 1.6 miles.
When we got back to the 15th and O, the lightning was much closer. Too close for Theresa to ride safely on the last 1.6 miles I just did. But by this time she had caught the same insanity I was displaying earlier, and she decided to risk just one more ride.
There were no close lightning strikes. She did not get caught up in hail and wind. And she did manage to finish that last 1.6 miles of roadway to County Road A, but it was a very poor decision. In fact, the idea of trying to beat yet another rainstorm to get in a couple more miles of biking was a poor decision all around. We should have just beat feet for home after our terrible pie and coffee and called it a successful vacation.
Instead, we were still all the way down by Plainfield, WI, and well over an hour from home, and if yesterday's thunderstorm felt like Norse mythology come to life, today's storm looked like a typhoon over the Maelstrom. It was a scene where Scylla and Charybdis could have loomed up from rocky outcroppings on the sides of the road to swallow passing vehicles if they got too close.
Seriously, though, the ride home was absolutely hellacious. Interstate travelers in Wisconsin are a hearty lot, conquering the highway on their all-season, water-shedding radial tires, and almost nothing will prevent them from traveling at 75-80 miles an hour like it was a God-given right. Not this day.
We were traveling, along with every other car on the road, at a top speed of 25 miles an hour, and nearly every vehicle was driving with their emergency flashers going just to be seen. For nearly two hours we drove through over five inches of rain, barely able to see through the blackness. We were always able to see the side of the road, as demarked by the painted white line. We were always able to see the vehicles ahead of us and behind us. Beyond that, sight sometimes failed us.
We finally broke through the rain about 15 miles from home, and were shocked by the fact that it was still daytime. We actually got to see the sunset as we drove the final few miles.
When we got home, we came to find out that we had traveled north in the middle of the black eyeball of a monster storm that just happened to be sliding north on the highway at the same speed we were going. We got the absolute worst of it for more than two straight hours.
But on the plus side, we did get in another 4.3 miles of biking.
Running Total: 681 miles of trail covered; 70.5 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 91.
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