June 24, 2022
Lake Michigan Tour Day 6: Green Bay - Marinette, WI
Something happened with my GPS, which made the video above weird - right after my lunch stop, it just looks like I went airborne in a straight line over swamps and woods - not sure what went wrong.
I don’t have a lot of pictures today – my route didn’t give me many lake views, and the terrain was flat and marshy – not much to look at.
It was already 80 when I started at 9am, so I knew the day would be a warm one. I had to work my way out of Green Bay and suburbs, which took me through a lot of industrial, truck-filled areas. It eventually got quiet on the side roads.
I did have a light tailwind all day – this made it easy to pedal, but very hot. If I’m moving the same speed as the breeze, I’m not being cooled by it – so as the temperature climbed up to the low 90s it just felt hot and humid. If I stopped, I got a breeze, but not much while moving.
I stopped in Oconto for lunch. The town was inland a mile, but I found a seafood place out on the shore, and had a sandwich. This view is looking back toward Door County – the part I had cycled two days ago.
I came close to photographing a bird I’ve only ever seen once – a pileated woodpecker. This bird is 17″ long, which makes it the largest woodpecker in the US. Look it up on Wikipedia or something. I heard it, then saw it flying to a nearby tree. But every time I got near enough to take a picture, it hopped around the other side of the trunk. It finally got tired of me trying to spot it, and flew off deeper into the woods where I couldn’t see it. Clearly, it wanted nothing to do with humans.
The other thing that made the day hot was fewer trees. More marshland and less woods. I did get occasional glimpses of the lake like this where a small stream made its way out to the lake, but even this close, I didn’t feel any of the coolness of previous days.
A few miles from my goal, I spotted a pelican circling overhead and got a decent shot.
When I eventually got to Marinette, I found a local bike shop and had the owner fix a persistent squeak that my back brake had developed. It’s now silent, and he wouldn’t take any money, so I’m in his debt.
Stats: 58.2 Miles, 992 vertical feet, 14mph average speed (tailwind).
Best song was Turn the Page by The Streets. Just hit the right mood…
Tomorrow I cross over into Michigan and end up in Escanaba. Should be a similar ride to today, but may be stormy.
Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 406 miles (653 km)
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