Day 33 - Long, Longer, Longest!

What can we say about today?  What can we say about this week?  The title pretty much says it all, with our group covering at least 397 miles in 4 days.  That's pretty much four "century" rides in 4 days.  The mileage total was planned to be a bit less, but road closures, detours, and motel difficulties added miles to a week that already contained a lot of miles. Long!

Now for the good part.  Wisconsin is very bicycle friendly, with kind folks and wonderful bicycle paths to make our journey safe.  We had a late start this morning (8 am) due to heavy thunderstorms which passed through our area in the early morning hours.  We made our way to Sparta, WI, the self-proclaimed Bicycling Capital of America!

Even the convenience store had a bicyclist for our photo opportunity.

It also had a dairy case that included Wisconsin cheese shaped (from 2nd from left to right) like a Green Bay Packer, a cow, and the state itself.

Rolling along to the start of a 34-mile bicycle path, part of the rails-to-trails system, we came upon the Sparta Trailhead.  A $4 pass is required for all cyclists, and we wired our passes to our bikes before starting along the packed dirt and gravel trail.

 We also took another photo opportunity at the large metal bicycle sculpture at the trailhead.  Some folks just love to climb!

The path was often shaded in a tunnel of trees, which made the ever-rising temperatures not quite as obvious.

Another feature of the bike path was a series of three tunnels which had been used by the railroads before the tracks were traded in for bicycle use.  The tunnels--built in 1873-- had an interior that sloped down on both sides, had no lighting, and in some cases, was wet from dripping groundwater seeping through the ceiling to the sloped floor.  Because of this, we had to stop before each tunnel to turn on our lights and to dismount our bikes.  Walking was the only way to pass through.

The last photo of today was one taken with no flash in the tunnel of Holly & Gardner walking their bikes in the light of a bicycle light.  It gives you an idea of how totally dark it was inside.

At about 61 miles into the trip, after walking the three tunnels and leaving the bicycle path, we found ourselves re-routed due to road construction.  This added some miles and some headwinds that were not on our route sheets.  Longer!  Much of the 97 miles we rode today were graced with tailwinds, however, that helped make the longer day a little shorter.

So a long day, yes?   After Greg caught up with us while changing a flat tire (thanks for the moral support, Greg.  Sorry we forgot to get out the camera to record your kind smile!), we found that there was some sort of problem with our hotel for the evening. 

It turned out our hotel had recently (as in the last day or so), been sold, and they had no record of our reservation of rooms for 50 people.  The hotel appeared to be in total disarray, with a drained outdoor pool and an indoor pool filled with murky water, among other things.  We were re-distributed to four hotels, which also included a re-distribution of all the luggage from the luggage van (remove luggage, sort by hotel, replace luggage, deliver to four hotels).  Those left at the hotel in disarray had the total sympathy of the group until we heard about those redistributed to one certain hotel about 5 additional miles farther down the road.  This included Greg and Drew.  They were given rooms and keys, then told the rooms weren't available, then taken to yet another hotel.   Dinner and bedtimes were indeed delayed quite a bit.  Longest!

Tomorrow - Wisconsin Dells to Fond du Lac.  Keep those positive thoughts coming our way!