Days 23 – 25, Homeward Bound

Well, my plans have changed again – it’s nice to be flexible at least. I was looking at my relatively full calendar for the next couple months, and ultimately decided that it made more sense to just bike back home rather than down to Champaign for the wedding. I could then get a ride down with people that are already driving, and give myself four extra days around home. Biking down to Champaign and then home would have put me over 2000 miles for the trip, but I’m satisfied with the amount of biking I’ve done and my legs are definitely ready for a serious break.

Tuesday I left Van Buren State Park in Michigan and set out for Valparaiso Indiana where I’d stay with Melissa’s brother Austin for the night. It was a cool morning as I got an early start toward the next town. The morning ride into Benton Harbor was pleasant, on relatively smooth and traffic-free roads. I found the obligatory mom and pop café, and stopped for some additional nourishment. By the time I left it was quite warm out, and I had to find a deserted parking lot to pull into and strip off some layers.

I’d made pretty good time, and was soon in New Buffalo where I stopped again for a late lunch. After a tasty sandwich and some time online, I headed back out into the sunny afternoon and continued on the Red Arrow Highway which would take me out of Michigan and into Indiana. As I reached the state line, it seemed odd to finally be leaving Michigan. I had been there for 17 days, which was by far the majority of my trip.

My thoughts exactly

Finally another state

After crossing into Indiana, I arrived shortly in Michigan City – makes perfect sense. The industrial city starkly contrasted the quaint vacation towns I’d mostly been in up till this point, but I did manage to find a decent beach. I realized I hadn’t yet been in Lake Michigan, mostly due to less than ideal swimming weather, and this seemed like the perfect afternoon to get in the water. I was also expecting it to be my last stop along the lake before heading inland for the remainder of the trip. The water was still surprisingly clear, although definitely not as clean as it had been to the North. I enjoyed a nice refreshing dip, then lay on the beach soaking up the warm sun. On the way out I did recruit a passerby to snap a photo, as you don’t get many pictures of yourself when you’re biking solo!

Shortly after a dip in Lake Michigan

The late afternoon ride from there down to Austin’s was pleasant, and I arrived in good spirits and happy I didn’t have to make camp for the night. He showed me around the house, then we went into town and had dinner. I took the chance to do some laundry, then spent the rest of the evening on the couch watching mindless television – a rare occasion even when I’m not traveling!

The next morning I was planning to spend some time at his house, then take a short day heading South. I started looking at my schedule for the next month and doing a little planning for another trip that I have coming up, and realized I’ll have very little free time in the near future. I considered changing my plans and heading home instead. It was only a two day ride, and as great as this trip has been, the idea of getting back home finishing it was pretty good. I’ve only had a single day completely off the bike, and my legs were more than ready for some proper rest and recovery. I debated, but ultimately decided that heading North through Chicago then back to Waukesha on Thursday was my best bet. Unfortunately that meant a lot of mileage that day though, and it was already late morning.

My company for the morning at Austin’s

I hastily packed up, now anxious to get on the road. By the time I left it was after 10, and already pretty warm and windy out. The first part of the route was on the busy US Hwy 6, with plenty of stoplights and traffic. Eventually the traffic thinned out as I got into more residential neighborhoods, but the stoplights and signs only got more numerous as the morning went on. I thought I hated hills, stoplights might be worse. They can be a nice opportunity for a quick rest when you encounter them periodically, but when they go on and on and you have to continually accelerate a hundred-plus pound bike from a standstill to a fast enough pace to not be a traffic hazard, they are quite exhausting.

As I zigzagged my way through southern Chicago through some less than pristine neighborhoods, I yearned for the open roads and small towns of Northern Wisconsin and the UP. Eventually I made it to the lakeshore, where a good path leads to the heart of Chicago then into the suburbs to the North. It was a windy day again, and as seems to be the case so often, its direction was not in my favor.

Downtown Chicago

I was more than ready for a stop and something substantial to eat by the time I made it downtown.  It was mid-afternoon and I was only halfway through my mileage. I made my way into the city and settled on Potbelly for lunch – I wasn’t exactly feeling picky at that point. I found a suitable spot to lock my bike where I was sure I’d be able to keep an eye on it, and sat down for a much needed sandwich and rest. After that I strolled around a bit and drank an afternoon coffee which I hoped would help make the 50ish miles I still had to go more enjoyable.

Eventually I got back on the bike to the all too familiar protest of my legs. The wind was still blowing, but I felt better and at least there were plenty of other cyclists and runners to help keep me motivated as I biked along the scenic shoreline. Eventually the path pointed me into the suburbs, and I returned to my morning’s routine of stoplights and looking at my phone every few minutes to see what turns I was supposed to be taking. Navigating on a bike with a phone is really not an efficient method when you’re in a large town and making frequent turns, and I was quite sick of it by the end of the day. After a few too many unplanned route deviations, I arrived at the next trail which would take me out of town to the North and to my destination for the night at Illinois Beach State Park.

The trail followed roughly the same route as the Madison to Chicago Ragnar Relay I ran earlier this year, and it was neat to see some familiar areas as I reminisced about the event and noticed how long some of the stretches we had run seemed. The sun was setting by the time I made it to the my destination for the night, and I had to remind myself that I was on Central Time again. It seems the Illinois parks are far less popular than Michigan, as there were only a handful of sites occupied. Despite the vast stretches of open sites, the laid back couple at the reception desk seemed to think it was a good idea to put me directly between two other occupied sites. At least they were big sites.

I got set up just as darkness fell, and my camp neighbor came over and offered me some chicken wings. I’m not one to turn down free home-cooked food, but the older somewhat awkward gentleman was on the odd end of the spectrum and I really wouldn’t have minded just being off by myself for the night. The wings were good though, and combined with my two-person backpacker meal, were enough to tide me over for the night. I had forgotten to reset my trip odometer that morning, so wasn’t sure what my total mileage for the day was. I pulled out my computer, did the math, and saw that it was just a hair under 100. Good thing I still needed to bike the half mile down to the bathrooms to shower!

The next morning I awoke to the early morning light, looked at my watch, and saw that it was 6:20 and time to get up and going. I started my morning routine then turned on my phone and noticed that it said 5:30 – I guess I never changed my watch back to Central Time. Oh well, nice to get an early start on my final day! I was on the road by 7:10, definitely my earliest start for a morning where I made breakfast. I opted to stay on the well-traveled road for the morning rather than head back inland to the packed gravel bike trail I had been on the night before. Throughout this trip I’ve found myself frequently preferring a smooth road over bike paths which are often bumpy asphalt or packed gravel, and can have many more stops and crossings than roads.

The home stretch

Before long, I was at the Wisconsin border – it felt weird to be so close to home, even though I knew it was my final day. I made a brief stop in Kenosha for a bagel and coffee. Not quite what I was in the mood for, but still a nice rest. I’ve found it’s been rare that I eat something and really feel satisfied with it. After that it was back to the frequent phone-checking to navigate through the country roads and many turns around Racine. The wind had really picked up again out of the West, and as my route started to take me that direction I realized that it wasn’t going to be a pleasant day. I pickup up the Oak Leaf Bike Trail just North of Racine, and ultimately followed it all the way into Milwaukee. For being on one route that whole way though, it was sure hard to follow. Most of it had pretty good signs, but there were numerous spots where the trail turned or deviated and there was no sign! Very frustrating to someone who doesn’t know the route.

By early afternoon I was feeling pretty famished and started looking for anywhere I could stop and pick up something. My food stash was pretty depleted, and there wasn’t really anything left to snack on. I ended up at a gas station, which was sufficient at that point. After some Gatorade and pound cake (I’d been craving that for a while, but unsurprisingly it didn’t turn out to be very good), I continued on. A few more missed turns and I made it to the New Berlin Trail – familiar territory at last.

The trail is straight and flat into Waukesha, but unfortunately it was heading due into the strong headwind. I was getting pretty frustrated and was not in a good mood, so I opted to stop on a bench for a while in hope that a break would improve my attitude. I thought about the trip and reflected on the fact that I was only a few miles away from home, and the place I had set out from 25 days ago. It hadn’t really seemed that significant to be doing a loop of one of the great lakes, but as I thought about leaving home on that busy Monday afternoon almost a month ago then biking North for days, and the fact that I was now coming home to the same point, but from the South, the significance really started to set in. It made me glad that I’m coming back to the place where I started my trip instead of ending in Northern Wisconsin.

I sat there for some time and was feeling better, when a group of older ladies casually biked by and the last one chided at me, “come on, get going”. Ok, I guess she’s right, time to get off my butt and finish this trip! I sucked it up and rode on the drop bars the last 5 miles into town in defiance of the stiff wind. As I pedaled through the downtown area, it seemed too soon for the trip to be over; like there was no way I could be back and finishing already, and I must have cheated or skipped something. It’s so much work just to go a few miles, have I really biked all the way around Lake Michigan and through four states?

Alas, all good things must come to an end and it was time to finish this trip. I grabbed my water bottles and dumped the remaining liquid onto the road – no need to carry that extra weight up the final hill to my house. I live at the top of a pretty significant hill, and there’s not really a good way to get around it. I figured it was a fitting end to a trip that has had its fair share of climbing. I arrived at the stoplight at the bottom and looked around at the familiar scenery and people going about their daily business. The light turned green, and I smiled as I started out and quickly downshifted to my easiest gear; happy to know, for once, that this really was the final hill.

Back home and finished!

Day 23 Route

Day 24 Route

Day 25 Route

Final Mileage and Stats