I'm Pretty Sure I Could Climb a Staircase Right Now If I Really Really Had To

This photo is a symbolic representation of our
bike ride today. 

Today's journey was from Mackinaw City to Petoskey, and as the weather forecast rightly said last night, things were off to a rocky start.  Although we were up by 6 and ready to go quickly, our trip was delayed for three hours as we waited for a storm to pass.  The high winds did not pass, however, so as we waited, David worked on rerouting our ride to shorten it (54 miles became 42 miles) and avoid an uphill battle against high winds through the tunnel of trees.  I decided to preserve my energy and went back to sleep.

It seemed promising when we headed out around 10.  Windy, yes, but not too cold, and the bike trail we had to travel was beautiful.  Unfortunately it was only paved for about two miles.  Close to the end of the good trail was a downed tree, and then we hit a "rails to trails" path composed of crushed limestone.  Well, and then we had to backtrack because my bike computer had somehow popped off, and I'm very fond of it.

Crushed limestone trails are not ideal for road bikes, so the going was very slow.  The disadvantage to riding on this surface is that there is no coasting. You have to move your legs constantly, or you won't be moving for very long. I quietly had a bad attitude for awhile.  On the bright side, trees blocked much of the wind for us, and we didn't have to deal with any traffic. We expected to be on this trail for a large portion of the trip, but we rode this for about 12 miles. Eventually we would change our minds again and find a main road, where we would deal with a strong headwind for the rest of the ride.

Riding a rough trail makes it impossible to speak to a riding partner, so you have plenty of time to think, and for me, bears came to mind. I wondered how a bear would respond to my pepper spray.  I only had one granola bar on me.  I wondered if I could throw it far enough to get a bear away from me so I could race away at a painfully slow speed while it was distracted.  As it turned out, we only came across a couple of turtles and a deer.  I didn't tell David about the imaginary bears I had worried about.

This photo is also a symbolic representation of
our bike ride today.

The Wind

The wind stood up and gave a shout.
He whistled on his fingers and
Kicked the withered leaves about
And thumped the branches with his hand
And said that he'd kill and kill,
And so he will and so he will. 

James Stephens

I thought about this poem a lot today. 

Even back on the main road with a mostly smooth surface to travel, the wind made this a very slow, exhausting day (our bodies are complaining loudly tonight), but we made it safely to a lodging in Petosky (up a very, very long hill), and we successfully stayed dry for the entire trip. Mostly. A strong thunderstorm just passed through about a hour ago.  Hopefully the kids have a dry campsite tonight.  And no bears.

Tomorrow should be a better traveling day from Petoskey to Traverse City with 10 mph winds.  Much better.  

It's just turtles all the way down...