Day 64: Hayward, WI to Buffalo Lake

Aug 5 blog

37 miles

2,538 miles so far

Today’s destination was the home of our Warmshowers hosts, Kristin and Jeff Dahl on Buffalo Lake. Warmshowers is an online organization of cycling enthusiasts or supporters who open their homes or properties to welcome touring cyclists. We have been members of Warmshowers and look forward to hopefully hosting bike tourists in our home in Ponte Vedra, as cyclists either complete or embark on the ACA’s Southern Tier route with its Eastern terminus in St. Augustine, FL. This was our first experience with Warmshowers.

We exchanged messages with Kristin, and she confirmed that we could stay in the apartment over their garage. She also suggested that we consider the route up Rt. 63 that would take us through the town of Cable which would be a nice stop for a break or lunch. We were so glad to have connected with Kristin, as we would have missed this cool little town.

We stopped and had coffee, a protein smoothie and a snack at Velo Cafe, a cyclist themed coffee shop. We also visited the bookstore, Redberry Books, which was physically connected to The Rivers Eatery. We weren’t ready for lunch, having just had a snack but were encouraged to take a quick look inside the restaurant. The restaurant has a deep (no pun intended) connection with cycling and Birkbeiner ski racing. The walls are hung with old racing bikes and Birkbeiner racing bibs. I was not familiar with a Birkbeiner. Just in case you’re interested..

Birkebeinerrennet" or "Birkebeiner Ski Race" is Norway's most traditional cross-country ski race running every year from Rena to Lillehammer. It has been held annually since 1932, and commemorates a trip made by the Birkebeiner loyalists to save the infant pretender to the Norwegian throne, Håkon Håkonsson, in 1206.

The American Birkebeiner (Birkie) is a nearly 35-mile cross-country ski marathon that traverses its way through the north woods of Wisconsin on the Birkie Trail.

The Dahls, our hosts for the evening, have a beautiful log and stone home which is nestled deep in the woods on a peninsula overlooking Buffalo Lake. The apartment over the garage would better be described as a luxury fishing cabin overlooking the lake which happens to sit on top of their garage! What a wonderful treat.

After cleaning up, we rode our bikes a couple of miles down to the Ransom Bar and Grill in Clam Lake. We sat at the bar, had delicious grilled chicken sandwiches, and good conversation with Jeff and Chad, both former Marines and Gulf War veterans. Aside from hearing a little about their experiences in Iraq, we talked mostly about wildlife, bear spray and guns. Jeff shared a video of a herd of elk eating from his wife’s bird feeders last winter. We talked with Chad about how to best protect ourselves - if not a gun or bear spray, at least wasp spray. It works just as well with unwanted humans!

It was dusk when we were riding back the wooded road toward Buffalo Lake. After all that talk about wildlife, I was surprised to see two large animals standing up ahead of us on the side of the road. While I couldn’t quite make them out, I thought they were moose which are known to be aggressive. We froze. I started ringing my bike bell and yelling to try to scare them away. One turned into the woods, but the other just stood its ground and stared right back at us. Eventually, she (I think) also turned and disappeared into the woods. Sharon raced up the hill leaving me in the dust. I limped up the road having just discovered that I had a slow leak in my rear tire which was now half flat! I caught up with “speed racer,” and we made our way down the long gravel driveway through the woods to our home for the night. The last thing I felt like doing was changing our fifth flat tire, but Sharon insisted I tackle it before I passed out for the night. The unsettling thing of course, was not being able to determine what had caused the flat. Enough excitement for today!

By the way, it turns out that the large beasts in the woods were elk, which are rarely seen in these parts during the summer. We felt “lucky” to have seen them.

Lake Views