July 26, 2018 Baraboo to Beaver Dam WI

All day a couple of lines from an early Beach Boys tune “Summer Means Fun” kept going through my head as that was the day. However before I get on to that and today’s adventure let me rewind the clock.

Last night I thought I would phone this friend of mine who lives in this northern Alberta mining town to see how he was doing.  His advice was time is ticking we can’t waste it we need to get out there and do stuff.   So here I am phoning from my tent in the middle of a corn field in Wisconsin and I realize he is right I am going to have to get out there and do some fun and exciting stuff.

This morning we depart Baraboo University campus where we are staying and head down to The Barn which is about 4 miles down the road for breakfast.  It is an old dairy barn which has been converted to a restaurant.  I could not believe how many turns it took to get through town and how many steep hills there were.  I think the routers were just playing with us.  After breakfast Auzzie Bob and I rolled out together. 

There was one really steep climb right off the bat up to Devils Lake State Park.  About half way up the hill the van went by and there was a second where I thought I should flag it down and save myself the agony of the climb. 

After that second passed it wasn’t long and we were at Devils Lake.  It was really pretty.  The sun was up and the sky totally blue with very nice riding temperatures of high 60’s – low 70’s.   A couple of pictures and we were off.  There was a ton of hills today and they were all too long and steep to power down the decent and then sail over, you had to gear down and grind up them.

After Devils lake we rolled on to Merrimac Lake where we took a short ferry ride across one arm of the lake. No bike ride is complete without a ferry ride so that checks that box.  There had been a May fly hatch and the ferry was just covered in thousands of May flies. As it was only a 5 minute ride we didn’t have to worry about riding into a lot of May flies. 

I caught up to Irish Mike and gave him the big dog bark which scared him.  I had a good laugh.

By picnic it was starting to cloud over and it looked like a thunder storm was brewing so Bob and I hurried on. The temperatures had remained in the low 70’s but by now we have a 15-20 mph tail wind. It never did rain and as we only had 24 miles to go we were in pretty early.   

We stopped at Chippies, a local ice cream parlour and I had a big double chocolate cone. It was perfect.

I stop and get some cash n a bank and they have this huge walk in vault right in the lobby.  I was right out of the movies.

Tonight we are in the Wayland Academy which is a local college.  The corner stone of the dorm says built in July 1855. It is a gorgeous campus. Huge columns guard the front entrance.  Inside totally modern.  Greg has organized the swimming pool so off to have a swim.  

Today the ride of 66 miles with 2800 feet of climb was through some stunning scenery and the tail wind just made it a blast.  A huge ice cream, great accommodations, an afternoon swim.  I just doesn’t get any better.  Getting out there and doing is what it is all about.    We also had a couple of beers at Stooges Bar. 

Terry hot biker