Wonderful Wisconsin

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Post for May 24, 2021

When I entered Hastings with my cycling group, on May 22, I had a tough time keeping up at the end of the ride, even when others carried most of my gear. My legs were wore out.

I try cycling 300 miles a week, about 50 miles a day. I’m strong enough now that cycling 50 miles in a day feels alright, but waking up the next day and cycling 50 again, and again the next day, and again for 5 or 6 days wears down my legs, especially since my bike 90 pounds (41 kg). All that weight comes from with gear, groceries, and water.

After taking a day off in Hastings, my legs felt refreshed, on May 24. The scenery made them and the rest of me feel even better. For friends and family in Minnesota, I highly recommend spending a weekend near Lake Pepin in Wisconsin. It’s close, full of towering bluffs, wonderful water, and other beautiful bits that are surprisingly different than Minnesota. For friends further away, I hope you can see Wisconsin too. It’ll just take you longer to get here.

My friend Luke has a cabin near Lake Pepin, which is between Minnesota and Wisconsin. He let me spend the night in his cabin, which made a wonderful day even better. Luke, thanks so much.

Today’s song is Life is Sweet. The song starts sombre, which could relate to living in a pandemic, but the song picks up later. And for anyone in Minnesota, I’ll add that life can be sweet in new ways if you take a little trip to Wisconsin.

In Hastings, I found some lovely bike trails to get through town.
The architecture in Hastings was also fun.
Downtown Hastings, from the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River.
After crossing the bridge, another bike trail showed up. The Mississippi River is barely visible on the right.
Looking over the St. Croix River into Prescot Wisconsin
Eventually, the St. Croix River, shown here, adds its might to the Mississippi River.
I always enjoy cycling through towns like Prescott, WI.
Love the winding roads
The rock on the right is part of a bluf.
The rock on the right here is a bigger bluff, covered with trees and other plants.
Lake Pepin.
Relaxing in Luke’s cabin, more on that in my next post.

4 thoughts on “Wonderful Wisconsin”

  1. I’m glad you’re on the Wisconsin side! I was going to suggest that you could camp at “Mattson’s Point”, but by the time you’re reading this I imagine you’re well past Stockholm since you stayed in Maiden Rock….. I’m not sure if you remember, but my first year in college was at Winona State. That’s a great town. I hope you’re able to spend some R&R time there as well when you arrive in that area.

    Karl

    • I’ve been loving the Wisconsin side, and I’d forgotten that your first year of college was at Winona. The town definitely had a good vibe. When i was there, I had a shorter cycling day after I woke up, so I had a great time relaxing and writing in a coffee shop.

  2. Lucky! Luke has the best cabin. Hope you didn’t have to ride up that hill on the way out though.
    I am glad we got to ride together briefly on Saturday, I hope it is not the last 🙁 I am putting my house on the market on the second week in June, its official! We definitely have to plan a bike adventure after I get to FL and when I buy my beach/travel van.
    I’ll be watching your progress. My work email won’t let me in to your blog (security), so I will have a reason to log in to my personal one to see what you are up to.

    • Thanks for stopping by!
      I suspected that you’d put your house on the market soon. For months, you sounded very ready to live and explore a new place, which is something else we have in common. I hope we can ride together soon as well, but if not, I know that we’ll figure something out. I’ve always wanted to cycle to Alaska. Starting in Florida could be fun.

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