Osceola, WI to Haugen, WI; 67 miles, sunny, 5-10 mph S wind, 70-80’s
Wisconsin is different from MN just across the river. The roads are much more rolling and as we left the St. Croix River behind, the land transitioned to a 50-50 mix of farms and forests. There was a nice stone dust trail, the Gandy Dancer Trail, for about six miles early in the ride. The rest of today’s ride followed various county roads. Some were lightly traveled, others were quite busy with a mix of local vehicles and lake cottage country traffic. We had to detour around a car show event that blocked the main street of Balsam Lake. We lunched in the town of Cumberland. US 63 is a main highway that goes through town with it’s one stop light. This being the last day of the long holiday there was a long steady stream of cars going through town as people head south back to the cities. The wildlife highlight for the day was having two Sandhill Cranes fly across the road in front of me and land in a field next to the road. (An eye test – see if you can find them in the photo of the corn stubble.) Their calls are a weird kind of clack. The wildlife lowlight was discovering those pesky deer flies ( the big ones with stripped bodies that like to get in your hair and ears) can stay up with you at 13 mph to buzz around looking for a sneak attack. Not fair. And to add a little spice, two large black dogs gave halfhearted chase. This is the first real dog encounter for the entire trip so far, and it wasn’t that close.
