La Crosse, WI to Marquette, IA

Monday, September 15, 2003
Distance Cycled: 72 miles
Total elevation gain: 1915 feet
Our Total Flat Tires on trip to date: 1

I started out the day by pushing the bicycle down the hall of the motel and realizing that when I leaned it to one side the disk brake dragged and when I leaned the bicycle to the other side the disk brake did not drag. When I got the bicycle outside, I checked the rear wheel and found that the shaft was not tight on the bearings allowing the wheel to shift from side to side. I called the bicycle shop that had fixed the broken spoke and a recording informed me that they opened at 9:00 AM. It was now 8:00 AM so we waited a ½ hour and set out for the bicycle shop. We arrived at 9:10 AM. They showed me that all that is needed to tighten the bearings is to use two 5 mm hex wrenches in the ends of the shaft and you can tighten up the bearings. Very simple if you know what you are doing. Therefore, at 10:00 AM we started on our daily ride. We talked to a customer who came into the shop and he suggested that we cross to the Minnesota side of the river for our ride south. Since it was not out of the way that is what we decided to do.

After crossing the river, we headed south and it was a very pleasant ride. At New Albin, we left Minnesota and entered Iowa.

After passing Lansing, IA the ride was no longer so pleasant.

We turned inland and began a very long steady 5% climb. After reaching the top of the climb we descended a long down hill to cross a small creek and than began another long climb that started out as a 5% climb and turned into a 7 to 8% climb. By the time we reached the top we were very tired. We descended into Harper's Ferry, IA planning on spending the night in one of the three motels listed on the Adventure Cycling Association Maps but we found that there really were no motels so we continued on to Marquette. Unfortunately we had another long climb that started out as a 3% climb and changed to a 7% climb. All three of these climbs were about 400 feet in height. The good news is that we called from Harper's Ferry and reserved two rooms at a motel in Marquette. When we got to Marquette, the manager had just rented the last room he had except for the two rooms we had reserved. After showers we walked next door to the casino where we ate their buffet.