Wisconsin - home of my heroes and forefathers

Biking across the country we will enter our sixth state, Wisconsin.


Rolling hills, dairy farms, great biking!
Second best in the nation!

My father's family settled in the charming village of New Glarus when they arrived from Switzerland.




Dad tells us stories of riding his pony, Buddy, from Madison to New Glarus.

I guess cross country travelling is in the genes.



We will be biking into my fatherland of Wisconsin once we leave Minnesota.

Beautiful countryside.

It must be inspiring countryside since this state also fathered two of my conservation heroes.

John Muir...

We will bike just south of the meadow that inspired John Muir to preserve land for future generations.

He tried to buy the meadow from his brother to save the beauty of the wildflowers.

John Muir went on to inspire the protection of Yosemite Park in California and actually the whole concept of a national park system


Yellowstone
The Smokies
The Everglades

This whole idea of parklands belonging to the nation may have been born in this meadow in central Wisconsin.

And Aldo Leopold - we will be biking just north of his "shack" - the small glen in central Wisonsin where he wrote Sand County Almanac - perhaps the most beautiful book I've ever read.

Aldo was the first to think in terms of an ecosystem - the mountain lives in fear of the deer; the deer lives in fear of the wolf.





There must be something inspiring in the very air of this rolling landscape.

Breathe it in.

On to Minnesota!

Time for my reading to leave South Dakota. And I still haven't finished Bury My Heart or Black Elk Speaks!

But now I move on to Minnesota, home of ...

Charles Schultz

Mary Tyler Moore 

and

Lake Wobegon.

The states will come quicker now that we've left the West.

Smaller states, less time.

How many days will we have in each state?

Oregon               8

Idaho                  7

Wyoming           6

South Dakota     8

Minnesota          3

Wisconsin          4

Michigan           4

Ontario              2

New York         6

Vermont            1

New Hampshire 2

 I'm especially excited about Minnesota after reading the Moon Handbook...

"...a dream destination for those who love nature and the outdoors. 

The boreal forests of the northeast fade into the tallgrass prairie of the southwest and in between are the lakes - far more than the sloganned 10,000."

Minnesota is famous as a destination for canoers.

But this state is also a leader in rail to trail development!

And for 7 years in a row Minnesota was chosen as Quitno's Most Livable State.

Until they were beaten by...

New Hampshire.

Our final goal state.

In fact, the states we are visiting have some high honors.

The latest Men's Journal lists The Best Places to Live in 2010.

Of the 10 states we are biking through, they name 4.

They specifically like Casper, Wyoming (one of our rest days) for hiking and mountain biking.

They tout Idaho Falls for the mountain playgrounds.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are recommended for the house of your dreams.

And Minnesota wins for bike trails and organic farms.

I'd say we are going to see some of the best America has to offer this summer.

Oregon Books

Oregon has certainly attracted a plethora of wonderful writers.

I find myself drawn to the books about the great rivers, the salmon, and the raw nature of this incredible state.

Crashing ocean surf, the mighty Columbia River, the snow-covered Cascades in the West. Desert and scrublands, bare rock and dinosaur diggings in the East. Oregon is  a study in diversity.

Here are the books I've enjoyed so far. Please let me know your favorite Oregon books

Salmon without Rivers - The signature animal of the Pacific Northwest. This is the incredible story of an amazing fish. The life story of a salmon is enough - winding it's early life from freshwater riffles out to the sea, growing to adulthood in the depths of the Pacific, following that alluring mating call to charge up the rivers and waterfalls - a pure mass of muscle, striving to exhaustion to their birthplace where they spawn, gasp and die.
This books also tells of the battle of the salmon to survive dams and habitat destruction. Thank goodness for the land trusts of Oregon and Idaho who are protecting precious salmon habitats. Read this book to know why it is so important.

A River Lost - Another point of view, this author meets with the bargers and farmers who live off of the dammed waters of the Columbia. Author Blaine Harden depicts the human struggles that surround this powerful body of water as well as the perspectives of the fishermen and salmon lovers.

A Good Rain - Timothy Egan is becoming one of my favorite authors of the Northwest. This book, eloquently written, follows the Columbia River from Astoria to it's source high in Canada. Egan writes insightful descriptions of the colorful people, wildlife and incredible scenery.

The River Why - Jim Duncan writes with an edgy sort of  humor about growing up along the streams of Oregon. This fisherman find his passion in the rivers of Oregon and a passion for their protection.

My Story as Told by Water - Also by Jim Duncan - 22 essays about the rivers - with his sharp humor and  piercing eye, Duncan tells us why the rivers matter to us all. He starts his story in childhood using the garden hose to flood Mom's lawn. He realizes even then that water is as important to life as..."food, sleep, parents, and air,"

Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie - OK this is a young reader's book - but I don't have time for a tome. And this delightful book gives a quick read, personal history of the trail west for families along the Oregon trail. They journey along much of the landscape we will cover on our bike ride including the dramatic pass south of Mt Hood.

Lonely Planet Washington and Oregon - My guidebook - intensely dog-eared on the pages of Portland and the Columbia River Gorge.

Rough Guides, Oregon and Washington - Another guidebook. I choose my guidebooks that are heavy on descriptions of the history and natural features of the area. Because our housing and meals will be largely determined by our bike group, I mostly want the fill-in info to enrich the countryside we will be pedaling over.

Extra points if the guidebook lists any donut shops in the towns we pass.

South Dakota and Squeaky

Today, Sunday, is rain and slush in Indiana.

Great day for Squeaky and South Dakota.

Squeaky is my little portable stair-stepper. When he doesn't get his proper dosage of WD-40 he lets you know. Luckily on Squeaky I have a view out my window to the melting pond below.

I love spending a day on Squeaky keeping the long distance muscles moving and reading vociferously about the Ride Across America .

As of today I've read to mile 1,763  - midway through South Dakota.

To my surprise South Dakota sounds beautiful - especially in the Black Hills in the SW corner of the state - home of Mt. Rushmore.

It's full of wildlife with prairie dogs and bison, mule deer and pronghorn antelopes.

And Al and I are fond of small towns. But here in South Dakota Mike, our guide, writes about stopping at a town and asking the lady at the gas station how many people live here. She says..."let's see, there's  Jim, there's Martha..." and counts up to 9 names. That's even smaller than our home town where we can hand count the traffic lights.

But is South Dakota long enough? They talk about the endless roads of the state - the West River all being downhill to the Missouri which cuts the state in half - geographically and politically. The rest of the state, as you would guess, is called the East River.

I need a long South Dakota because I need time to read all the books across this wind-blown state...

1. A Terrible Glory - a fascinating depiction of General Custer and the events leading up to the Battle of Little Bighorn - many happening in the Black Hills.

2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - this state is the best time to learn about the Native Americans. South Dakota - named for the Dakota Sioux - has 5 counties completely comprised of Indian reservations. Wounded Knee, slightly south of our bike ride, was the site of the last battle against the United States and the Sioux nation and the site of an uprising again in 1973.

3. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan - a highly acclaimed book about the natural disaster that struck the great plains in the dark years of the depression. The Seattle Post calls it "A flat-out masterpiece" and Walter Cronkite said "This is can't-put-it-down history.

4. Dakota - a Spiritual Geography a beautifully written book to celebrate "the places in between".

5. My Antonia by Willa Cather. Yes, this book is written about Nebraska - but I've read quotes from this book for years and the descriptions of the grasslands are absolutely lyrical.
"Between the earth and the sky I felt erased, blotted out."

6. Grassland by Richard Manning - An eloquent plea for the restoration of the great grasslands of America.

7. Built for Speed - read about the amazing pronghorn antelope, the fastest animals in America

8. Where the Buffalo Roam - a vision for bringing back the great herds that once roamed the great grasslands of this country.

9. Black Elk Speaks - This is an inspirational classic - the best selling book ever by a Native American. It poetically speaks of the oneness of the world and all the creatures thereon.

And you can always read the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

...I'd better get Squeaky some more WD-40.

How and when did Sacagawea die?

Sacagawea

We will be biking along much of the trail followed by Lewis and Clark with their Indian guide, Sacagawea.

In fact, we will pass by her grave site in the Wind River reservation in Wyoming. Or will we?

Many stories tell that Sacagawea died a few years after the Lewis and Clark expedition as a young woman in North Dakota in 1812.

But many years later, a scholar found stories told by the Shoshone of a wandering woman who joined their tribe. Over the years she spoke often of a journey with white men on a river and showed a silver medallion she carried depicting Thomas Jefferson made for the expedition. This woman had 2 more children and died in 1884 in Wyoming.

Was this Sacagawea? A memorial stands at Fort Washakie  in Wyoming to commemorate her death.

  And was there romance between her and Captain Clark?

Certainly it is fact that after the expedition he adopted her two young children and raised them in St Louis.

Certainly I enjoyed reading  Stream to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O'Dell who made the story of this young Indian woman and their incredible journey across America come to life.

Our bike adventure pales in comparison to their experience crossing this great nation.

If you think it's cold...

If you think it's cold in Indiana, here's what Gretel Erlich says about Wyoming...

After an extreme of sixty below zero, the thermometer rose to ten below and the air felt balmy...a friend's transmission froze while he was in a bar. The only gear that worked was reverse so he drove the eight miles home backward through two towns and up the hill past the hospital, waving at astonished onlookers all the way. When his wife accused him of drunkenness he said," I just got tired of looking at things the same old way."

Luckily for us we'll be crossing Wyoming in the summer.

Leaving Wyoming

And I read across America in preparation for the bike across America.

It was 26 weeks when I started and 50 days of biking to read about. Each week I read about 2 days of the journey. I've read along the Columbia and the Snake Rivers, over Mt Hood and across the Idaho desert. Sometime if you're interested I can give you the full book list.

For the last 4 weeks I've read about Wyoming - wonderful adventures - mountain men and cowboys, ranchers vs farmers, geologists and Indians.

My favorite book may have been The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Erlich - it is absolutely poetic...

"Wyoming seems to be the doing of a mad architect - tumbled and twisted, ribboned with faded, deathbed colors, thrust up and pulled down as if the place had been startled out of a deep sleep and thrown into a pure light."

Most frightening to me are the vivid descriptions of the wind in Wyoming. If there is one thing a biker loves it's a tailwind, but a wind from the other direction is to be dreaded.

But now I move on to South Dakota.

Movies across America

Today I had a minor surgery. Not much – but it knocked me out of physical training for a day and my mind wasn’t up to reading. Besides which, we are having a beautiful snowstorm, so it’s a delightful day to curl up in bed or on sofa while the snow blows drifts outside my window.

So after surgery I dedicated to low-key movie watching and thinking about the movies to watch across America.

Tonight was Shane, a classic Western, complete with black hat bad guys and noble good guys. It fleshes out the conflicts of the ranchers versus the farmers – personally I thought the ranchers had a point. I got the book out of the library and it is beautifully written...Shane “road into the valley wearing no gun and riding a lone trail out of a closed and guarded past.” The valley in the movie was the valley of the Grand Tetons which we will see on Day 15 of our ride across America.

In fact, we can watch several movies depicting this incredible mountain range as described in a marvelous book, Rising from the Plains by John McPhee....”Hollywood cannot resist the Tetons. If you have seen Western movies, you have seen the Tetons. They have appeared in the background of countless pictures, and must surely be the most tectonically active mountains on film, drifting about, as they will from Canada to Mexico, and from Kansas nearly to the coast. After the awgon trains leave Independence and begin to move westward, the Tetons soon appear on the distant horizon, predicting the beauty, threat, and promise of the quested land. After the wagons have been moving for a month, the Tetons are still out there ahead. Another fortnight and the Tetons are a little closer.”

So now filling out the proposed movie list we have Little Big Man, Jeremiah Johnson, Brokeback Mountain, North by Northwest and probably some other old westerns since my husband, Tom, likes the old Westerns he grew up on. Maybe a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. He suggested Henry Fonda?