Grid Runner Adventures

Inventory of my first bicycle tour:

1 murphy spectra bike
1 flyrod
1 box of flies
1 spool of tippet
1 crank led flash light
1 cloth sleeping bag
1 sheet for sleep cloth liner
1 hammoc tent
some rope to suspend tent and such
1 pair blue jeans
1 pair fake water proof pants
1 pair socks
1 pair shoes
1 leatherman multi-tool
1 pocket knife
1 pair finger nail clippers
4 packages of top ramen (chicken flavor)
2 packages oatmeal
1 popcan stove
1 pot stand
1 heiny pot and lid
1 partial bottle of heet (stove fuel)
1 zippo lighter
1 zippo lighter fluid bottle
1 tee shirt
1 brimed hat
1 pair polarized glasses
1 disposable camera
1 cell phone
2 cell batteries
1 primer pan for stove
1 bag trailmix
2 cracker snack packs
1 roll toilet paper
1 hobo fork/knife set
1 notepad
1 pencil
1 package poptarts
1 french press travel mug
1 bag preground starbucks
1 long arm & length poncho
1 aluminum frying pan
1 small aluminum pot

oh i almost forgot to mention. the homemade panniers , wired onto the bike made from old backpacks and such.

Day 1

I believe that is all I have brought for this 2 day excursion. The trip is from home 24.8 miles away to Paradise Springs WI, to spend the night, fish & ride back some time the following day. As I peddled and peddled I rode by a taxidermy shop the place seemed abandoned and had a closed sign in the window I did not investigate anymore as it was raining and I just wanted to get to my destination and dry out. About 23 miles from my house I came across a sign for the State Forest HQ building and it said there was a museum so I pulled off the road and headed for shelter. I leaned my bike full of gear up against the building and I reached in for the bag of trail-mix and my frenchpress travel mug full of coffee that was cold by then and headed inside.

Inside I found a great museum on Southern Wisconsin there were fossils of mammoth tusks and taxidermy animals of all kinds to observe. Murals on the walls depicting pioneer life. A neat honeycomb hanging off a branch that was as big as my torso. There were arrow heads and axe heads and Indian artifacts. A lot of great information on the Kettle Moraine which was created by the glaciers of the ice age. They explained how a kettle pond is formed ( a kettle pond is formed by a block of ice left by the glacier and debris and rocks and such left around it as it melts it creates a small pond that is very deep. ) – many of these kettle ponds even have fish in them! Fish commonly find there way to new ponds by way of birds.

On my way through this museum I found a back room that was a theater, a sign on the door said please ask us at the desk to watch this movie. I being soaked to the bone walked to the desk and asked if they could start the movie for me and I went and sat down by myself in the theater. I striped my outer layers off and watched and soaked up the information in the movie as well as the water that permeated my clothing. The video was about the Kettle Moraine and a more audible version of the museum I had just walked through.

After the video was finished I went back to the desk (after replacing my soaked clothing) and inquired about a hiking shelter I had noticed on a map. They said I could use it but I would have to walk my bicycle to it 1.5 miles away through trails because it was a hiking trail. And I said “no prob” and then they said as I walked away… “that will be 12 dollars per night” so I replied ok. Is it ok if I take a look at it before I decide? And the park ranger said “yea ok”. I went out got situated on my bicycle and rode off back down the road (not to the shelter though, forget paying to camp).

1.3 miles later I arrived at Paradise Springs. I rode up to the lake and down one of the trails to the side of the lake. I pushed my bicycle up a game trail just to the other side of a small hill and thats where I setup camp out of sight and out of mind. That evening I went fishing, I caught a trout and released it (the sign said catch and release only). I sampled the spring water and found it refreshing and mineral rich, very tasty. Later on after exploring around I retired to my hammock tent and set down to write this journal by my crank led torch.

Day 2

I made it! Despite waking up multiple times through the night, the aching of my legs became all too apparent in the night. It seems I was on this side from damp the whole night. I fell asleep around 8pm and started waking up at 11:43 the foot of my sleeping bag had gotten wet from the ride the other day and it felt to cold to stretch out all night. But this morning I woke up fully stretched out in a nice warm sleeping bag. Thanks to my subconsciousness for stretching me out while I slept.

Yesterday was a cloudy & hapless day for one to start the first bicycle trip. It started raining the second the bike was finished being packed. All through the night I’ve listened to the rain only to wake up to the blue skies & beams of light penetrating the canopy. The forest still sounds of rain drops hitting the leaves, now that I am awake to see. I have found it to not actually to be raining, but the rain drops are just working their way down to the forest floor like the marbles in a game of Ker-plunk. It is now time to go fetch some water from the spring for coffee and oatmeal.

It is now about 11 oclock (based on holding my hand up to the sun and counting how many hand lengths it takes from the horizon to the sun) I am loving this feeling of freedom. I believe that if I have the right gear that I could make it across the states to Washington. I cannot wait for my sailing trip to Alaska. That feels like the sole reason for my being at this time.

I need to get some new gear that will keep me dry… wool socks and gortex sounds about right. I have not really talked about where I am staying right now. It is called Paradise Springs. Formerly a fish hatchery from the 1850’s and a local hot-spot. The original name was Minihaha Springs. There was once even a hotel built to allow people to come and marvel at the springs. All that remains is a stone foundation with a set of stone steps cutting into them.

All through the lake there are squarish bits of what they call structure made out of wooden logs and branches stacked like Lincoln logs, submerged under the icy cold spring water forever to be preserved. Now the thing I find odd of this is that trout do not use structure, that is left more for the bass in this world, but not in this lake because there is only the trout. Boy there sure are some big one’s in there…

I have been observing the fish in this lake for some time now. Watching what they are eating. It appears the favorite food is a small black fly stuck on the water’s surface. There are water striders accessible by the trout but I have not been witness to a strike yet. Wow! One just swam by as I am writing this with a fly stuck in its side, probably by a careless fly fisherman.

This place was a great location for a hatchery. There is the spring house emptying into the lake also a grow out small pond for fingerlings until they can be released into the lake. There is a water wheel on the far end of the lake from the spring house. It had utilized the output of the lake to spin the water wheel at one time. All that is left is the shaft with the wooden wheel lost to time.

The people I met

I met some great people on this trip, my first bicycle tour. On the second day I met two guys at the lake. One of them was a computer science teacher who had just returned from the Congo and the other his friend. He had just sold his pottery business in order to move as he was persuaded by his friend to come back to the Congo with him to teach pottery in the village. Wow these guys were really neato to talk too. We talked about how to setup a wifi network in the village, and setup a squid proxy to help with the bandwidth problem with the villages Internet connection. As well as a multitude of other things. I talked pottery shop with the other for a while too as I have built my own treadle pottery wheel to throw my own pots. I believe that there is not a single person I can come across and not have something to talk to with them on some level.

They parted ways with me as they had just broke camp nearby at a campground and I found that I had seen them the day before at the Forest Service HQ museum where they were inquiring about maps of the area when I had walked in. They were surprised to meet up with me the next day. After they had left I fished for a bit longer caught 3 more trout all of which I had released. I went back to camp to cooked lunch then broke camp and peddled off.

About 9 or 10 miles yet from home I came across the taxidermy shop but now it had an open sign on! I was surprised and even though the sun was setting. I had to stop in to investigate the possibility of getting some hackle feathers for fly tying from this taxidermist. Inside I met a fellow by the name of Jim. Jim is a taxidermist as well as a paleontologist. We talked for a while, I found him to be an avid fly fisherman that has fished the world over. He told me of his ventures in Iceland while fly-fishing and many other places. I told him I’d be right back and that I had something to show him from my bike. I returned with my popcan stove and Heiny pot. He was quite impressed and asked for information on how to craft one himself. I showed him www.minibulldesigns.com and told him that was all he’d need to get started with one himself.

We talked about this and talked about that. Then he revealed to me that he was a paleontologist. And asked me to come for a tour of his workshop. He showed me around the counter and took me to the back-room and there before me where work benches and table tops full to the brim with fossils and bones of all sorts. There was one such table that had a huge plaster cast still intact from a dig he had recently returned from. All of this not 10 miles from where I have lived the past 3 years. And even yet in the middle of nowhere in the farmland at a crossroads! I had to bid my farewell because I needed to finish my trip before it was dark out. He understood and off I peddled the rest of my trip. This Jim was a neat guy and I will have to take some time to visit him again before I leave Wisconsin.

50 miles I decided to do for my first bicycle. I wanted to know if I could do it. My reasons… well you know how if you watch the movie “Fast and the Furious” and then you have to go and work on your car? Even if its just to pop the hood and fiddle around inside? I had recently stumbled across a site called www.crazyguyonabike.com and that did it for me. I had to go on a bicycle tour and see if I could do it myself.

So this is the conclusion of this adventure the first of many.