Day 37 - Superior, WI to Ashland, WI - 65 miles - 1421 feet of elevation gain

We left the lake, only to end at the lake. As we left Superior we found a bike path for a few miles before it turned into gravel. We jumped on a road with not much of a shoulder and headed parallel to the bike path. Then we turned onto a back road, it was lovely. We had the road to ourselves. If we’ve learned anything on this trip it’s that roads change. I just commented on how lovely the road was, when ba-bump! We were back on a bumpy, terrible road. And just when you think “this can’t get worse!” it does 😱. The road turned to gravel on a descent! It was short-lived, but at least two thought they were going to meet the stones more intimately. Thankfully everyone stayed upright and rolling.

We left the backroads and rejoined the highway. It wasn’t terrible, but there were some bumps and debris to contend with at times. Before our second SAG stop we encounter road work. I’m told this was our sixth road construction passing. I guess that’s not bad considering we are over 2100 miles. This project allowed us to jump on a section of the road that was based-coated but barricaded from cars. Then we hit the active road work section and we were stopped. They were paving ahead so it was down to one lane. Once the traffic was allowed through going east, they let us go last and held the traffic until we cleared. This was the nicest road we’ve been on, possibly for the entire trip to-date. I mean a fleshly paved road is a dream to ride on. So smooth your tires can’t help themselves but want to roll faster and faster. No bumps to jar your body or debris to alter your course! It didn’t last forever, but it sure did charge our legs. From that point on we were cruising.

Our lunch stop was at a “beach” area along Lake Superior about a mile from the hotel. When we left the construction area the guy said “Soon you’ll see the lake!” Everyone has a different definition of soon, cause I think it was 15 miles until the lake came into view. We lunched, boys jumped into the lake, and then we biked to the hotel. It was free time until dinner at 6pm. Then we went into town for dinner. After dinner we walked around town looking at a few murals, then we found ourselves down by the lake. You’ll never guess what happened next… they started throwing rocks into the lake (skipping them actually).

We have a rest day tomorrow so no early morning! Yay!