I had always wanted to go bike camping. That is to say be car- free for a weekend.
We spent a lot of of weekends with my brother Dale who was an avid biker. He actually self mapped a lot of south-eastern Wisconsin road by road as to "bike ability"- terrain etc... on geographic maps that he had hoped to put into book form at some time( but never actually was able to as he died in 1979....i miss him so!!). He did this bike mapping by himself in endless hours of biking but he must have enjoyed doing it. We also did alot of cross country skiing with Dale in the winter, our alternate to summer biking. Anyway back to bike camping.... we planned a weekend trip with Dale one summer weekend in the mid 70's , to bike in uppermost lower Michigan and get there by taking the car ferry across Lake Michigan.
We drove up to Kewaunee ,Wisconsin where one of the Lake Michigan car ferries docked. The other point of docking was Milwaukee. We lived in Milwaukee at the time so the ferry time or day must have been better for us in Kewaunee, hence the drive up to that point to start our journey. I had always wanted to take that big car ferry we so often saw docked in Kewaunee on our trips up to Washington Island, so finally we were going to actually ride it over to Michigan.The trip would take 6 hours from Kewaunee ,Wisconsin to Frankfort Michigan.
When we arrived and bought our tickets ,we were told to put our bikes on the bottom level. When we walked over to that level we couldn't believe our eyes?! On the bottom level of the boat were train tracks (in the form of a "U") and actual train cars on those tracks!! There was a track leading to the boat and they apparently just drove the train right in and detached the cargo freight cars to be taken to Michigan. I remember how small I felt standing next to that boat, looking at the train neatly packed into that bottom level. The boat had three levels I believe: the bottom level was freight train cars, level two was passenger cars, and level three was for passengers ( with outside deck area and nice inside cabin with seating and refreshments to buy).When we passed this boat docked so many time as we drove through Kewaunee to Washington Island and it did looked large but, boy oh boy, when standing next to it , well it looked enormous!!
So we leaned our bikes against a wall on that bottom level of the boat and went up the stairs to the passenger level. It was a bit cool but we decided to sit on the outside deck for part of the trip. What we didn't realize is that the combination of the wind and reflection of the sun off the lake gave us a nasty sunburn on our faces and forearms. You know that cool type of day you forget about sunburn..... but i will never forget the power of the sun reflecting off the Lake that day( that left a searing surface burn on our skin). Oh well , lesson learned but a bit too late....we just lathered up with sunscreen when we arrived, as now all our time would be spent outside away from the sun protection of the car.
I remember that the park campground we planned to camp at that first night was not far from the boat dock in Frankfort, as Dale planned a short ride that first day as most of our daylight was boat travel and he didn't want us biking new roads after dark. I think our goal was to bike about 50-75 miles a day.Our camping gear fit pretty neatly on our bikes. We took a two tents- Dale's tiny backpacking nylon tent and his smaller two man light canvas canoe tent( we had a three man canoe tent but it was too heavy to take on our bikes), 3 sleeping bags, a cook stove, a plastic 2 gallon water carrier, a pot, 3 bowls and cups and silverware, flashlights,minimum food and clothes ,and of course sunscreen!! This was all packed into the back carrier racks and panier's we attached to them, plus front bags of course for daily needs( snacks, maps etc...) and our water bottles.
Panier's are really neat and we had bought them just for this first bike camping trip( Dale already had them). They connect to the back carrier bike racks and hang on both sides of the back wheel of your bike, with metal supports that keep them from hitting the tire. They give great balance to the bike and that left the top of the back carrier racks for our tents, sleeping bags, stove etc...The worst for balance and heat is to bike in hot weather with a backpack on your actual back- we opted not to do this and the Panier's made this possible. It is great to live on just essentials for a weekend- it makes you feel carefree and unencumbered by material things- unlike when you fill up a car with all the stuff you take camping. I think we even had tiny camp stools that folded up into tiny triangles for sitting around the evening campfire- (if we weren't able to find a campsite with a picnic table but we usually did).
I remember one of the days we biked along the coast of Lake Michigan and how the road would sweep away the lake now and then and then back to the coast. I still remember it as the temperature difference was so extreme ,as a much colder breeze off the lake than the much warmer inland parts of the road ,so much so, that we actually had to deal with nasty leg cramps from the extreme difference in temperatures. I remember developing a technique of rubbing my aching leg with my left hand as my left leg pumped up and down on the pedals of my bike while holding onto the handlebars with my right hand and then switching them to do the same for my right leg. This worked pretty well but now and then we all had to stop a bit to really warm up our legs and at some point decided to change to higher socks and long pants vs the shorts we had on, even though the daytime temps were in the 80's and felt quite hot when pedaling along the inland parts of the road. I have never felt this leg cramping while biking since then but i am sure if you biked a stretch of road on the lake and then away and depending on which way the wind was blowing on the lake- well you would surely feel what I am describing.
The wind direction makes a huge difference when biking especially with weight on the bike like we had. We could not predict the winds for our trip beforehand and it would certainly determine how many miles we could ride each day. Dale was an expert at mapping and Dave too, so i am sure they planned alternatives for distances we would actually bike each day on our trip ,as to where to camp for the night ,although we did want views of the Lake so they mapped our main route accordingly.The views along the Lake were beautiful and well worth the trip!!
One of our stops was the historic town of Empire- a logging town from the turn of the century. Dave remembered this , i can't recall much about it but if there was a point of interest we certainly stopped to explore a bit. We stopped to eat lunch out and cooked our breakfast and dinners at camp. I remember Dale was our main cook for supper and how he would make spaghetti and pudding in the same one pot without washing it out in between the two-Yuck!! I guess we weren't too choosy back then, after a long day of biking- just hungry for anything --so no complaints to the cook( whoever it was). I think we ate instant oatmeal for breakfast as it is so light to pack and take with us. Lunch was obviously the high pint of the day with a stop at a hamburger stand on our way- Yummy!!
We did get a fright in one town that had a beautiful pond with swans swimming on it. Swans can be very nasty and they proceeded to come out of the water and chase us- i am sure if they caught us they would have snapped at our legs we really had to run!! Swans are kind of like roadside farm dogs with biking- in that you don't want to mess with them as they are almost always aggressive toward a moving leg on a bicycle going by. You actually have to choose one of three techniques especially with the farm dogs- stop pedaling and coast by( as you could never out run them), yell at them so taking dominance in the situation ,or if worst came to worst defending yourself with your bike pump (which was attached to the bike). Dale did get bitten once on one of his bike mapping rides. He went to the farmhouse for help with his bleeding leg and they actually yelled at him for "making their dog angry". I think they were afraid of Dale reporting the incident to the police, who would surely take the dog in for Rabies testing( but he never did.... just limped away trying to clean up and bandage his leg the best he could). Can you believe that?! So much for charity toward a stranger in distress!! Now i understand the fears of the mailman.
Well this trip was so fun and a real "First" for us. Years later we tried winter camping in the Kickapoo area of Wisconsin with Dale ,which i will get to in another blog- that was fun too.
We also took a backpacking camping trip with Dale on the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee at Smokey Mountain National Park ,during the Spring break of our Sophomore year in college- that was another "First" for Dave and I. All our trips with Dale were memorable- he was a great companion anytime anywhere and as Dale rests in heaven he must surely know how much I miss him. Hi Dale!!
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