6-28-10 Day 24: Iron Mountain, Michigan to Watersmeet, Michigan: 76 miles in 6:25 minutes. Rt 2 west the whole day.
Pretty whipped today with only 76 miles in the day. Had a lot to do with a northwesterly headwind that gusted at 20 mph and all the hills between Iron Mountain and Rapid River, and there were some pretty long ones!
Slept leisurely today and woke at 7 AM instead of my normal 6 AM. Awesome accommodations in Jim’s fifth wheel, where I slept in this king sized bed that took up three fourths of the room with a cable TV up in the corner. Damn, felt like I was in a honeymoon suite - without my honey! Slept well. I put all my gear together and Jim followed my down to his hangout, the Citgo Station where his daughter Nikky works. We got some coffee and I jammed on 2 nice big gooey cherry Danish slices. Figured that I’d just have coffee and 2 Danish for the day and not stop at all during my ride.
Now the morning had begun just spectacularly, with clear blue skies and a moderate wind out of the northwest. BUT….by the time I rode down to the station, clouds had raced in and it looked as if it was going to storm – pretty ominous looking to say the least. Downed my Danish and pounded the coffee pretty fast so I could get a jump on the weather – yet again. It’s freaking Groundhog day with this weather up here. You know, and I’ve talked about this before, but when you’re on the road like this weather is EVERYTHING! It can crush you. It can make you ecstatic. It can totally bum you out. Well, I’m getting more and more of a lean to the latter. This just cannot go on forever.
Nikky and Jim wanted to do some pics of me, and then of Jim and I, so we did that for several min. Then I gave Jim a big hug, and with my eyes kind of tearing up, I departed, giving them a hearty wave as I rolled on down the road. Will I ever meet this guy again? Don’t know but I sure hope we stay in contact. Funny how close you can get to a person when you’re doing something like this. What he did for me was just so heartwarming. So if I never do see this kind soul again, he’ll always be in my memory of this trip. Thanks again Jim!!
Got going with a slight spritzing of drizzle in the air and a gnarly headwind working me from the front. Then I hit berm where they had just repainted the white line on the far right hand side of the lane, and mysteriously the big wide berm from heaven ended and I was squeezed into a 3 foot berm between the gravel and this freshly painted line with cones atop of it every 100 yards. It sucked! So as I’m riding along there, squeezed in, I hit a hill, and out of nowhere I heard this horrible sound, kind of like my bottom bracket was ready to implode. Sent shivers down my spine what with all the work we went through yesterday trying to get it fixed. So I rode it for another couple of miles and it just kept getting worse. I mean it sounded like the bearing were just mashing, grinding, wearing away to nothing. So I slowed down, shifted into the little cookie and then stopped. Got off and pulled the chain off and set it atop the bike’s bottom bracket so I could spin the cranks freely. And they felt great. I could give it a push and the cranks would spin around on their own for a good 4-5 revolutions, so the young buck from Marquette did not tighten those things up too much as I had begun to think could be the case. OK you mystery people, can you guess what the problem was?
Put the chain back on and the sound was just getting worse and worse, a gnarly grinding, cruching sound. Figure it out yet? And then it hit me, I’d been riding on this thin strip of berm next to a freshly painted line. And do you know what those lines are made out of? Paint….and a gazillion of these little micro glass beads that help to reflect headlights that are shining on the lines. Yup, I was ready to bet the farm that all those micro glass beads had stuck to my freshly lubed chain and were just causing a total mess to build up. Got off the bike again and found pieces of paper on the side of the road that I wiped down the chain with. God, it was just choked full of gunk, and I could for the life of me get all the crap from between links, on the cogs, and on the chainrings. “Had to be the glass beads” I kept telling myself outload. Figured I would go to a gas station and settle the mystery once and for all by finding a hose and washing the shit off of my drivetrain.
Well, I entered Wisconsin for a short stint, and in the town of Florence I went by a car wash. Did a U turn and pulled my rig into a bay. The owner just charged me a buck rather than the usual 2.50 to use the high pressure hose. Let me tell you, I washed out just a ton of gunk from chain, cogs and chainrings. Finished up, took a deep breath and got going again….and YES!!! No sounds at all. It was all the glass beads clogging up the drivetrain. By Florence there was just another quarter mile of fresh paint left, and I rode out to the left of that freaking paint the rest of the way. I had ridden nearly 12 miles along that fresh paint, and it just built up so much that my chain looked like it was filled with mud. Later, I looked at my yak cover, and even that was coated with those glass beads!
The drizzle continued on and off all the way thru noon, and so to did a long series of climbs going through Crystal Fall and into Rapid River. It least my berm from heaven was back, so I could ride in my little safety zone and feel unthreatened. As far as the climbs went, none were of the little cookie variety, but they were long and had me down to 6-7 mph and out of the saddle in the middle ring. Jim had told me of those climbs and he was right, they were enough to convince me that trying to make Ironwood for the day, a 126-mile day from Iron Mountain, would be nearly impossible unless I wanted to ride until dark. What with the hills and the headwind, and the ominous weather, I just knew going for Ironwood was like trying to hit the green with your second shot on a par 5. I decided to lay up, and not go for it. Once through Rapid River I had a slight reprieve from the bigger climbs, and got more of the long gradual variety. And that’s about the time when the sun began to peek through the heavy cloud cover. Then, a half hour later the cover broke up and it was beautiful sunshine. Finally!
Outside of Rapid River I had seen a sign saying that Watersmeet was 29 miles. Yup, that was my destination, and would give me 70+ miles for the day, and leave me with 55 to get to Ironwood and another 30 or so to reach Ashland, Wisconsin. Done. But I’ll tell you, that was a HARD 29 miles what with the freaking headwind. Now don’t feel sorry for me what with all the headwind. I asked for it when I signed up for the east to west crossing. I knew it would be a big player in my ride, and it’s been that way most of the time thus far. That’s a big part of the challenge of doing the crossing from east to west. My mph is much lower than on the Canada trip, and I have to ride longer to get some of the same mileage amounts that I did up in Canada when going west to east. It’s tough!! And I can’t imagine what I’ll encounter in North Dakota and Montana.
The last stretch, between Rapid River and Watersmeet, is just 29 miles of wilderness. No amenities. Very little traffic. There were times where it was just me out there with the headwind kind of whizzing past my ears and this big beautiful blue sky above me….and then nothing but forest and a long ribbon of highway. Made me really feel aware of my surroundings, of me, of the trip. Felt good for a change to savor the weather and the surroundings instead of kind of dealing with them or surviving them.
These are the times when doing a solo feels really good. I can smile, talk to myself and just soak in the day, live, revile in life. I made Watersmeet by about 2:30 PM. Any thoughts of going further were tossed out when you look at a map and see that there just isn’t anything out there between Watersmeet and Ironwood. Like I said, I had to lay up in Watersmeet rather than push for another 55 miles at 11 mph into a headwind. Nope, not in me today to do a death march. I found some camping in the Ottowa National Forest, set up and then rode into town to buy sandwiches for my post ride eats. The BP is pretty well stocked, and I just don’t feel like cooking – too much work. I can get wifi with my aircard, so that’s pretty good to. Seems that coverage is pretty good out here as I have three bars to work with.
Next to the BP is a casino, just a freaking goofy place for a casino way out here in the middle of nowhere. Saw an ad in the BP for a buffet in the casino restaurant, and went over and found that they have a buffet that goes to 8 PM, so I’ll go back to munch down later on. They said I could park my bike inside the lobby when I go eat. Might even take my computer and do some work and skype in the lobby after dinner. Well, good day for sure and my legs are pretty tired from taking on the hills and headwind. Tomorrow I’ll be looking to make Ashland, Wisconsin, which is right on Lake Superior. By Wed I should be able to get to Duluth, Minnesota.
Well, that’s it for the day…….Pete
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