Day 69 Port Wing to Bayfield, Wisconsin

July 8, 2011

From Port Wing the road gave up any pretence of having to go down into creeks and up and just ran rolling hills and rolling hills for the hell of it. We began to ask ourselves what exactly was supposed to be so great about this road. Clearly one of the reasons would be to pass by quaint lakeside villages.

Is this hilly road around the Bayfield Peninsula cool or not cool?

So the first one up was Herbster. You can see by the photos that the town part was not quaint. Down by the Lake, though there was a very nice beach. At this point Dodie headed off up a side road by the water. Now the highway 13 is already a side road detour off highway 2. So now, in a further quest for something quaint we were heading up a side road off the side road. I thought this was throwing good energy after bad and turned us around. This produced some grumbling by Dodie, who eas now thrown back into the broiling sun on the open main (side) road. It wasn't long before heat exhaustion also became a possibility, and we began to stop wherever some shade could be found.

But the beach and Lake at Herbster are great

In this way we made it to Cornucopia, which actually is quaint. There is a highly cute general store, a restaurant, and a coffee shop, plus more marine type stuff down by the Lake. We visited the general store, finding a hat for me (in case we run into any more zoos or suchlike), and then set ourselves up at the coffee shop. The coffee shop featured wifi, cappuccino, muffins - all the basic requirements for hours of perching. Perching is what we did, for 3 ½ hours, waiting for the sun to lose some zip.

We headed off, armed with people's warning that there were further hills ahead. These hills turned out to be hills and hills. We really liked Cornucopia, but really this was not a reason for this long detour. It opens the question of what is a great biking road. Most people we talked to (starting with Willie) adored this road. No shoulder (after Cornucopia) and rolling hills does not fizz on them. No doubt Adventure Cycling would love this one too. We could have joined the club had the main feature not been just trees and hills. We have already seen quite a few trees and hills!

No shoulder after Cornucopia, so Dodie follows Jim's advice and rides 3 feet out. Most drivers responded by crossing the double yellow and zooming off. Some properly slowed down and edged past while Dodie pulled over to the white line.

We climb yet another hill. It started down there in the blue haze!

These are the Chippewa in the Gordon Lightfoot song about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Completing the detour, at Bayfield, we rolled in to Dalrymple city campsite. We found all the sites taken, but arranged to share with Allison and Simon, a couple from Alaska. This was fine, but we were miffed to see that many sites that had been marked taken were only being held down for people obviously planning to occupy them on the weekend. This ploy was to get around the 'no reservations' policy of the place.

In any event, our half of the $20 fee seemed more reasonable for a place with pit toilets only and very dense site layout. We are planning to hang around for a day to go to the farmers' market in town. That means tomorrow we will be nailed for the full $20. Drat.

Oh p.s. a large male black bear crossed the road behind us today, and here at the campsite there is a bear warning but no food storage solutions offered. For tonight at least we can use Allison and Simon's trunk.

Our shared campsite at Dalrymple City Park in Bayfield

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 4,048 km (2,514 miles)

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