Door County Weekend

Alex and I drove up to Brooke and Anders' (Alex's sister and her husband) house north of Chicago and drove up to Door County Friday night. Saturday was very windy and chilly, so we rode the trails in Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek. I forgot to bring the camera along on that ride, so I have no photographic record of that event.

Sunday, however, was different. We woke up to pure blue skies and much less wind. So, we decided to take the ferry over to Washington Island, an island north of Door County. Door County separates the bay of Green Bay from Lake Michigan.

The main road running north-south on the island is nicely paved with very wide shoulders, which were nice for biking.


Ambling up the road, we came across scenes such as this:


And this. Far in the background is the limestone bluff at the end of the Door Peninsula.


We rode 6 miles north and 5 miles east to the northeast corner of the island, and the location of tiny Jackson Harbor.


There was a concession trailer at the harbor, but since they were out of fish guts, we decided to not buy anything:)


Actually, there are several commercial fishing vessels stationed at the island, like these two fine specimens. These are the tools locals use to gather net-fulls of yellow perch, which is almost a delicacy. Just ask anyone from the midwest about yellow perch and watch the drool begin to flow.


There is a very small fishing museum here, and this old VW caught my eye. I couldn't figure out whether this was a part of the fishing museum or not. Perhaps this was the vehicle of choice for yellow perch captains. This beetle had the large round tail lights of the '72 and later, but I don't know exactly which year it is. Does anyone out there want to guess?


The 5 Scandinavian flags honor the legacy of the settlers of this island.


Anders was born in Denmark, so naturally, he had to check out the Danish Mill.


Waiting for the ferry back to Door.


Here it comes...


Since it was sunny, we opted for seats on the roof. You can see the bikers leaving the dock. The Island Clipper is a bike-friendly ferry, and the crew carefully loaded and unloaded our bikes for us.


Departing from the island.


Looking back to Washington Island. We are smack dab in the middle of the Porte Des Morts. Glad this is a calm day.


Looking ahead to the Door Peninsula.


We were fortunate to stay in the same place we stayed last Labor Day. This is the view off of the deck out our back door.


Near sundown, we walked down to the shore to watch the sunset. The land you see across Eagle Harbor is Peninsula State Park. It's a great place to ride a bike, hike, and camp.


Shortly after I took this photo, the sun went behind clouds and we didn't get any other sky colors.


Land (water) of the gulls. I think these were mostly ring-billed, although there are herring gulls in the area too.


We walked down the main drag, past this restaurant, which hosts a daily fish boil. We bought steaks to grill tonight. No fish for us.


We saw a building near the water with graffiti all over it. The community actually promotes it if you use a 1/2" brush or less, and are tasteful.


It was too dark to get a better photo, but it was a fun building to look at and read.


This is the location of the world's best chocolate malt. These modest people who run this store would never make that claim - I am bestowing that title upon them. Ever since Rosie's Diner closed on Calhoun Street in Fort Wayne, it's been my mission to find a chocolate malt to match Rosie's. This is that place. Located in the center of Ephraim, WI, next to the water.


I hope the sun shone on you folks this weekend.

Happy riding!

Great Black Swamp Ride

Saturday I rode east into the Great Black Swamp. We live on the glacial end moraine just north and east of Ft. Wayne.

Below is a photo of the Great Black Swamp, as it appears today.


Probably 99% of the swamp is gone today. The soil is ditched and tiled, very few trees remain. Those woods that do remain are on ground that was too wet to drain years ago. The drained ground, however, makes excellent farm ground. Graineries like this abound in every small town with a rail line in the Great Black Swamp.


In the afternoon, Alex and I drove to a nearby nature preserve to walk in the woods. Here's a photo of Big Oak and Big Oak (Big Bur Oak, actually). Bur oaks like this were common (and still are) in the Great Black Swamp on the bluffs along the Maumee River.


Here's the route I took. A 50 miler with no hills (I'm not counting the US 24 overpass as a hill, although it was the biggest I encountered the entire way).

View Great Black Swamp Ride in a larger map

Happy riding!

A Cool Day

The weather is finally turning cooler after a hot July and August. While the temps were not nearly as hot as in other parts of the country, it's been humid almost every day since May.

Not tonight. Cool, clear air from the north!



The abundance of heat has matured the corn early this year.



I hope it is cool wherever you folks are out there biking!

Happy riding!

St. Joe Century

I took a day of vacation yesterday (Friday) and spent the whole day riding. I hadn't been on the bike for almost a week, and after dropping our daughter off at college last Sunday, I hadn't felt like doing much after work.

So, I headed out down the road yesterday morning, with a vague plan - to follow the St. Joseph River to the northeast as far as I wanted.



A mile down the road from my house, is Schwartz Road, which has buggy lanes on each side for the large Amish population here. Just a couple weeks ago, the highway dept. chipped and sealed the road surface, but did nothing with the buggy lanes, which are pretty well chewed up from the horse traffic.


A few miles later, I crossed the Cedarville Reservoir, a dammed up portion of the St. Joe River. Looking across the reservoir is the small burg of Leo.


The main drag of Leo.


State Road 1 heads north out of Leo and follows the St. Joe River. The highway avoids the floodplains, but is located on bluffs where it comes close to the river. This is a pretty drive in the fall and the winter.


Spencerville is the next town up the road, and is the oldest settlement in DeKalb County. It was established sometime around 1830.


Two miles up State Road 1 is the town of St. Joe, even smaller than tiny Spencerville. Sechler's Pickle Factory is located just outside St. Joe, and every year St. Joe hosts the Pickle Fest.


Just outside of St. Joe, I took a right turn onto County Road 60 to get closer to the river.


On the right you can see a center pivot irrigation system - this field is a sandy field and the farmer uses river water to irrigate his field. While the spring and early summer have been excessively wet, it's been hot and dry since the end of June.


I turned onto State Road 101, crossed over the St. Joe river here.


I turned right onto County Road 79, with the sun over my right shoulder. The old Trek paint was sparkling in the sun, so I snapped this shot. It doesn't really capture the way the paint actually sparkled. Those sparkles caught my eye in the winter of 1985-86 when I bought this bike.


I crossed the state line into Ohio, and immediately I am shocked at how the scenery changes :)


All along the St. Joe River are gravel pits like this one. The old gravel pits make pretty nice ponds.


This is Edgerton, Ohio. These train tracks are really busy, and have been getting busier. I hope it's a sign the economy is picking up. Two towns west of here, I usually drop my wife off every fall at the train station to take the Amtrak train to Albany, NY, where she rents a car to drive to Vermont where her parents live. This year, her sister from the Chicago area is going to pick her up and they're going to drive.


The next town north is Blakeslee, OH. Sams Place is the gathering point for the community and for folks from miles around. They have the best food here. Every once in a while, I sneak over here for lunch. Nobody leaves hungry, and the food costs next to nothing. I don't know how they do it. In the evening, they have the best steaks for maybe hundreds of miles around.


A ways down the road I came into the town of Montpelier.


Like many towns in Ohio, the houses are all well-kept. And the municipal buildings are kept in excellent condition.


I headed up Ohio 576. I thought about riding a little farther to the Michigan line. But when I got to US 20, I thought I'd better turn around and head back. As soon as I turned around, I realized why I was making good progress. There was a moderate, but steady wind from the south.


Due to the heat, I thought I'd better stop and get some food and water on my way back through Montpelier. I found a picnic table and the Williams County Fair Grounds, where I drank my water and Gatorade and ate my fig bars.


This was a good place to stop.


South of Montpelier, I rode past this house(?). Unique.


This is a new bridge across the St. Joe that replaced the iron trestle bridge. That old bridge had so much more character than this thing.


Further south, and along the east side of the St. Joe is a road that follows close by the river for quite a way.


I'll have to head over this way in the fall.


After the photo above, I began feeling miserable - tired and hot. I was able to make it back, but was very glad when I got home. I ended up with 103 miles for the day.

I hope it's cool where ever you ride.

Happy riding!

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