Moving On

Moving on.

I’ve moved on. I’m no longer in the Elkhart Lake area. After Ripon I went to Oshkosh for the farmers market loaded up with fresh blueberries and other fresh goodies. Got myself a good ride in and decided to drive for a while. I almost made it to Hayward. Found a nice place to park just off the road a bit, very quiet and peaceful. 

In the morning I realized I was at a XC ski trailhead. So I went for a hike to check it out. It had not been mowed all summer. At first I thought I was going to just look around because it was so overgrown but it was so pretty out I just kept going imagining how it must be skiing nicely groomed XC ski trails. The trails were very wide and marked green, blue and black for experience levels. The hills felt hard, thinking about the steepness of the climbing and fearful of what the descents most have been like. It has been many years since I had seen nice XC ski trails. I had picked the wrong pants for the hike as they became caked in brambles and all kinds of sticky clingy grabby seed transferring weed. So much so that 3 days later I’m still trying to figure out how to clean them. The last pair of pants I had this happen to I had to throw them out. 

I finished my 30 minute drive to Hayward, walked around town for a while and stopped into a couple shops. I found a good bike/ ski shop that I was able to get XC ski poles. I also picked up local maps for riding and hiking. And got great information on what is best for roller skiing. Since it was going to be my first time roller skiing in many years I decided to just try a few minutes because I’m sure it was going to tax my shoulders. I went for less than a mile and yup the shoulders are crazy sore. Again that was 3 days ago and just now are they feeling better. Maybe tomorrow I will go again, very short and easy. 

Since the roller session was so short, I went for a bike ride to explore where I had parked. It was right at the start gate for the American Birkebeiner Ski Race in Cable Wisconsin. It has been a dream of mine for years to someday do that race. Some people want to someday complete a marathon or an Ironman but since I can’t run not one foot, my marathon will be a 50 kilometer skate ski. I believe this is going to be the year. It is pretty much what brought me to Hayward area. The race goes from Cable to Hayward Wisconsin.  

So the ride was supposed to be short, just around the start area and down the trail some to check out the lay of the land. There are many different types of trails to follow, skate trails, classic trails and some used for a World Cup race. On top of that there are mountain bike single track trails and snowshoe trails. The World Cup trails are crazy hard with very steep up and down hills. I had to push my bike up and the down was just nuts. I can’t imagine how anyone could ski that. I’m sure I would be in the woods with a broken something. 

Well following all of these wonderful trails got me turned around and of course I just used my go back to start button on my Garmin. Bad move once again. It lead me everywhere but back to where I had started. I’m riding and riding looking for something familiar but of course my eye sight is crappy. The Garmin sends me onto single track and of course I follow it. I will say some of the most fun trails I’ve ever been on. But the thought of getting stuck on single track when the sun goes down was very scary. First chance I got , I got back on the gravel roads. Long story short I made it back to my van just as the sun was going down. My hot shower at my van never felt so good. 

It was a very productive day. A hike, shopping, a short roller ski and a longer than expected bike ride. Some dinner and I went to bed early.