My girlfriend’s father, Warren, embarked on an epic biking adventure this summer. He’d been talking about it ever since I’ve him and the biking trip has been his first post-retirement adventure. So, when he finally retired this May, he decided it was time to make it happen. He was going to ride coast-to-coast, from Seattle to Maine, starting June 2nd 2021.
A long arduous trip, it seems? It indeed is. I was invited to join on the adventure for as long as I could. One week was how much time I realistically had and did planned on doing it. My first thoughts we to join him for some early summer rides to the west of rockies and through Montana. I always dreamt of riding long through the beautiful western mountains. This unfortunately did not fit with our vacation plans and I had to put off the trip until early July.
Warren was keeping time and this meant, in July, I’d have to bike through the midwest. I booked my tickets - I was going to bike from Minneapolis, MN to Green Bay, WI.
I lived in Minneapolis for two years during my graduate school and was familiar with most biking trails around the city. I seldom had the time to bike far from the city and certainly not over 100 miles from there. As easy as shipping bikes across the country might seem, there are severe logistical challenges to it. Especially when you want your bike to be in a reliable long-distance riding condition on arrival. Shipping with carriers is way too expensive and unreliable and frankly I’m very skeptical of my bike arriving in shape. The next best option if you’re not driving down is to carry the bike with you on your flight out. The airlines only make you pack your bike in a cardboard bike box. Thanks to Montlake bike shop, I easily acquired one. With some last minute struggles to fit the bike in, we finally managed to get the bike into the box.
I have to admire airline carriers for making bike shipping possible and cheap - as cheap as a checked in bag. In practice though, the airline agents tend to be unschooled to handle it. After a full hour of haggling and pointing out clear terms from the airlines website and annoying TSA inspections, the bike was loaded on to the airplane. After an overnight flight, the box was waiting for me in the oversized baggage claim area when I deboarded the plane. The next hour was spent reassembling the bike in the airport and carting my way through the light rail to the University campus where I met Warren.
I was taken aback, but I should have expected, by how desolate the campus was. Of course, it was the summer - everyone was away! Instead of going through my days biking, I’ll describe my horizontal experiences during the next week.
Minnesota, you rock! Exiting from Minneapolis and guiding us were the paved, shaded trails all the way to the neighbouring state. Warren described a similar experience biking all the way through eastern Minnesota. I think MN has done a phenomenal job investing and maintaining bike trail. We had such a great time riding from Minneapolis to Stillwater.
Cross the border over to Wisconsin, bike trails are practically non-existent. Paved trails exist for only a few miles in the whole state. All through biking in Wisconsin, we mostly perused county roads or gravel trails, both of which came with annoyances. County roads have 2 foot shoulders where large trucks zip past and create intense vacuum vortexes a few feet away from you. Not a peaceful way to ride. Gravel trails could be fun on a mountain bike but aren’t fun with 25Kg loaded panniers. Bikes inevitably fish tail on gravel trails.
Anyone who’s been out in trekking through country side knows what to expect for food. It was harder for me to the extent to which this was true. The small towns we stayed and passed through including larger cities like Osseo and Wisconsin Rapids, it was challenging to find filling veggie food to eat. We ate a lot of fries and burgers - most places only had these alongside pizza. Normally, food would involve a hearty breakfast, a lunch and an end of day big dinner. By the end of the second day I was done eating fries and burgers. I craved for anything different. We did swing through Eau Claire, but it happened to be the 4th of July and the only place that was open was Erbert & Gerberts sandwitches.
We both enjoyed a few beers every evening, after the long arduous day. In fact I looked forward to them - in my case to derive more nutrition as a side benefit!
It sucks. Midwest is quite muggy in the summers. How’d I forgotten this part? It hit me right after I landed in Minneapolis. The general heat of 38 C and over 90% humidity made biking during the summers so much harder. We went through 4-5 liters of water everyday. But what really saved us we the electrolytes we added to our water after the first few hours of biking. Profuse sweating in such heat makes you lose a lot of salts which you need to replenish quickly. Electrolytes also let us operate without cramps the next day - they are perhaps the only effective way of muscle recovery (apart from foam rolling everyday).
We encountered numerous people during our week long ride together, a vast majority of our aquaintances were extremely kind and fun. Mary, the bnb host who would do grocery runs for us. The fun waitress at the Perkin’s family restaurant whose name I forget!
Tired after 90 miles of riding without services, we ran out of water and ended up on Cody’s frontyard. He was working, splitting wood. Seeing us haggard, he let us rest under his oak trees and lawn and brought us plenty of cold water to replenish.
The folks at Pete’s garage in Green Bay who let me use the bike shop to disassemble and pack my bike in a box. I came in drenched and muddy after 70 miles of riding in rain. Yet, they made space for me, gave me tools and picked out a bike box! Sergio my Uber driver could not fit the huge bike box in his car and was jovial to ask me if we could drive with the trunk open. I was surprised for a second before I realized he wasn’t joking. YES! I said, and off we drove to the airport with the trunk open.
Recounting these days & thinking of the varied lives we live, these are slices of life that can be only be discovered through cross country trips. What fun it was! I am ready for my next one.