One Three Zero

I went up to Door County last weekend for a weekend of bike riding. I stayed at a lodge in Fish Creek along Hwy 42 across from Peninsula State Park. This turned out to be a pretty nice central location to start my bike rides from. My parents were planning on going up to Door County for a weekend and they decided to invite me along so I could do some biking up there. After breakfast I did my bike rides and they went off and did their activities and we met up again for dinner is pretty much how it worked out. On the way up we drove separate so I could take my bikes. On the way up Friday I had them drop me off in Sturgeon Bay near a ship yard and I rode my bike the rest of the way to Fish Creek via (mainly) Bayshore Drive along the bay side. That was a pretty nice ride. There was about as much bike traffic as there were cars until I got to Hwy 42. It was a nice warm-up ride of approx 28 miles.

Saturday I did a tour of Peninsula State Park (map here). I went mainly from the East entrance of the park up to Eagle Tower and then west thru the park on the roads and bike trials and then finished on some of the mountain bike trails. I haven't been on mountain bike trails for a while and it rather made me want to do it some more. These were simple trails as mountain bike trails go. I also found out how crappy the brakes are on my old bike...lots of sliding and squeaking. I'd forgotten about that since I've been riding my new bike. Riding my old bike just made me want to go out on my new bike later in the day so I did that. There's a lot I skipped at the park so I'd like to go back someday. This little park tour clocked in at about 13 miles.

Saturday afternoon I took a trip up to the north end of the county. I stopped about 2 miles west of the car ferry to Washington Island. Somewhere about where the "people ferry" is which I think is Gill's Rock. I took roads the whole way that were marked on a bike map they had in the office lobby of our lodge. (It looked something like this.) It was an enjoyable route. It may have been more enjoyable except for it rained on me for about 45 minutes of it. The roads were wet for other stretches and it sprinkled here and there for a while even after it stopped raining. It didn't bother me much, but I was glad when the sun came back and I was able to dry up some. This outing came in at about 49 miles.

Saturday night for dinner we went to Ephraim and ate at Wilson's. It's sort of a burger/ice cream parlor type restaurant. It looks like the 50's or something inside and they have coin operated jukeboxes right at the table to pick out songs to play from. It says "Coca-Cola" on the outside of the building so right away you know it should be good.


Sunday after breakfast I had to get going pretty quick. Scattered thunderstorms were forecast for later in the afternoon about 3PM so I wanted to get out before that. I drove to Jacksonport and parked at Lakeside Park at about 57 and V. I had my picnic lunch there after I got back and the park sign said it used to be a big shipyard where they loaded up lumber destined for Milwaukee and Chicago. I followed the "bike route" signs south on N. Cavepoint Drive and then through Whitefish Dunes State Park to Glidden Drive. I continued south after that. I wasn't sure exactly how far south I went until I got back and looked at the map. I followed Lake Forest State road all the way to where the Sturgeon Bay ship canal is. I walked out onto a concrete pier and watched a big yacht come in. It was super windy. You can see the pier on Google Maps on the satellite view. Glidden Drive was about the coolest part of the whole ride. It's forested the entire way and the only thing separating you from the lake is lakefront homes which are mostly in the forest also. Glidden Drive was all nice rolling hills and curves and none of them tough to climb really. On the way back I was really hauling tail. I made it back in probably 2/3 the time it took to get out in the first place. The 15 mph wind at my back didn't hurt either. I battled that the whole way down. I saw some dark clouds rolling in just as I was north of my turnaround point. I got rained on a little, but nothing like I did Saturday afternoon. It passed and cleared up again. This outing came in at just over 40 miles.
This is N. Cavepoint Drive. It wasn't this colorful just yet.


Google Satellite view.

A picture I found on the web of the pier. I didn't take my camera on this particular outing.

All weekend I kept seeing letters and numbers painted on the road. I didn't realize until my route on Sunday that the "DCC" I kept seeing stood for Door County Century and the numbers were the mile marks. I might do that ride next year. The only thing is it might conflict with Maywood. If not it might only be a week apart. That would be interesting doing 2 century rides in back to back weeks.

Sunday night we ate at PC Junction (YouTube Video here). They deliver your drinks and food on a model train. As it turned out we were the only people in the whole place, but I understand it's often mobbed during tourist season and you have to wait just to get in. I had a Baumeister Cream soda which was pretty good. I think it was bettter than Sprecher's Cream soda which I like a lot too.

Monday morning after we checked out we ate breakfast in Sister Bay at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant. It has a grass roof but the goats weren't grazing up there because it was raining. I had Swedish pancakes which I found out are flat. I had no idea Swedish pancakes were flat until I had these, so I learned something that morning. They were square too and they looked exactly like in this picture.