'sconnyboy: Wisco All-Road River Tour of Headwinds, Day Three

Brunet Island to Coon Fork Lake Co Park

We got up and broke camp early to try and beat another predicted round of thunderstorms. Cornell looked well-worn but still vital. The Old Abe trail is paved all the way from Cornell to Chippewa Falls and gets an A+.

Rolled right through Jim Falls, but left the trail for a bit to check out Wissota Lake State Park, where we had a bit of lunch.

The next stop was Bridge Brews coffee in Chippewa Falls, were we took advantage of the first wall outlets and WiFi since leaving Lac du Flambeau. Also, great coffee.

Looking at the weather, we opted not to go into Eau Claire, shortening our route to Big Falls considerably. This meant a short but thrilling trip across the river on a busy state highway, which also happened to be under construction. Not great, but we made it.

Next up were some choice flat, smooth and relatively low-traffic Eau Claire County highways to Big Falls, where we did a bit of hiking to see the main attraction.

Had we been able to cross the river here, we would have been able to avoid the road construction going on north of the park, but the water was high enough that this was not to be. Had to wait a bit for the flagmen to let us through, but I believe sub roadbed counts as gravel, and it was packed well enough to be fast.

Having avoided Eau Claire, we needed to find a place to resupply. Back at the coffee shop, we had spotted Weaver's Country Store, located just outside Fall Creek. This place turned out to be a big metal pole building set a hundred or so yards off highway 12. Walking in the front door, it was clear that one thing the Google hadn't mentioned is that it is owned and run by Mennonites. About two-thirds of the square footage was dedicated to rows of shelving stocked with all manner of poly-bagged and barcode-labelled bulk goods. Turning into the candy aisle, one could hear angels sing (which, because the piped in music was all choral Christian favorites, was literally so.) The other third of the building was devoted to a workspace where a gaggle of bonnets were bagging the bulk items, weighing them, pulling barcode stickers off the printer reel and affixing them to the goods. Probably a great business model if you can afford the labor.

We spent a fair amount of time picking out soup mix, potato chips, dried fruit, cheese, yogurt-covered pretzels, crackers, and I don't remember what all else. Right about the time we were walking out, the promised thunderstorms arrived and it began raining pitchforks. So we sat down in a couple of the plastic wood Adirondack chairs on display under the veranda and dug into our chow, watching the deluge cascade off the tin roof.

After a little while the rain let up, and we decided to go looking for that night's camp. Harsted County Park was the closest, but a brief visit revealed a number of sites occupied by what appeared to be long-term campers whose vibe was, for lack of a better word, creepy.

Continuing on toward Coon Fork County Park, we cut through the Augusta wildlife area. The gravel and doubletrack were quite rideable, and the scenery made it a super-cool find.

It started raining again, and next up was a section on gravel through Mennonite country. For a moment I thought I saw the track of another bike, and then realized there was another parallel to it with shod hoof prints between. We passed a couple of sheds with active sawmills and workshops with blue-shirted, suspendered men engaged in making pallets.