There and back again (we had to do it)

For the past few days we’ve been puttering around on and around the rail trails of northern WI. The first reaction when getting on the trail is a sense of relief — no more worrying about what’s coming up behind. That relief quickly fades as we realize that our pace has dropped somewhere around 10mph. After the first ten miles on the trail, which feels like twenty, our legs and bikes are covered in grit and we’ve been ever-so-slightly agitated/shaken by irregularities such as bridge crossings and hidden potholes that we’re just a bit drained of enthusiasm about the miracle of the rail trail.

Yesterday was our U-turn day in two respects. First, we did a there-and-back-again route up to Trempealeau county/city/historic hotel for some fantastic food and drink. Second, it was literally our U-turn point for the entire trip; after lunch we began our trek back towards Madison.

In the morning we had stopped by a friendly coffee shop for some WiFi and chosen a hotel (first hotel since Spring Green, five days earlier) so we knew we only had 16 miles of return on the rail trail. So why not have a beer (New Glarus Moon Man for me, Apricot spritzer thing for Liz although she says I pressured her into it and really wanted a beer)?  The answer came about 100 ft into our return when my legs declined all requests to function. That 16 miles of flat rail-trail felt like a marathon. We even tried going off-trail on parallel road, but it was equally uncomfortable and maddeningly slow. It felt like we were in riding in slow-motion with the rest of the world running at normal pace. So if there ever was a doubt, save the beer for after the ride from now on.

We arrived at our Comfort Inn in Onalaska, WI (just north of La Crosse) and were happy to have planned for the presence of a Festival Foods and a Rocky Rococo within very close proximity. Much pizza, snack and beer was had while we caught up on the good american way of life that we’d been avoiding. We watched Michael Phelps come in 4th place, and saw some well-edited human interest stories about people we’ll never hear about again. Good job NBC.

Panorama shot, trail to trail:

This morning we had our continental breakfast and are really wondering how best to head home. Thunderstorms are in the forecast all day today and we’ve got about 50 miles to cover to get to a decent campground that we’re willing to stay at. There are two potential routes — one is 80% rail trail and is mostly trail we’ve done already but in reverse. The other is an untested route through the driftless zone. If the weather were good, we’d choose the latter. But with thunderstorms and rain and distracted drivers, our penalty day will be a retread down the gravel road.

Hey, at least we get to go through the tunnel again!