Today was the day for traveling about 55 miles from Shawano to Weston. I got up early (what's new!) and was on the trail by 5:45. The trail wound around Shawano a bit and it wasn't marked the best once I got out of town. The Mountain Bay trail is just on county roads until you get farther west. As I made it farther west of Shawano, the trail got very rustic. It looked like an old gravel country road with two ruts for tires. In fact, I had two vehicles driving toward me. One was a county sheriff and the other was a maintenance worker. Other than that, I only saw two people using the trail in 50 miles!
I saw a variety of wildlife, mostly deer and small mammals. There were a few cranes in my path at one point.
And this was a long stretch, here is the view looking back.
One nice thing about trail riding is that it smooths out the hills. There are some low, slow climbs. The downside is that there is no down side. By that I mean you do not get to rest by gliding downhill. At a few places, when the trail parralleled the road, I went on the road just to break the scenery. Anyone know what town this picture is from?
Bowler. It took me a moment when I saw it.
At mile 12 on this leg, oops, another pun, my knee started hurting some more. It got increasingly more tender and I stopped more often and even walked a bit. By the time I approached Weston, I was in pain. It was quite excruciating every time I bent my knee and if you know anything about bike riding, one bends the knee a lot! My intention was to stay in downtown Wausau but I remember I stayed at an AmericInn in Weston a few years back. Since it was not too far from the trail, I went there. I think it was only about 1 and fortunately I was able to get cleaned up and collapse in an air conditioned room. And I thought I would be camping. Ha!
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