April 27, 2025. 11.3 miles
I’m in soft gravel road territory now, and I spent over half an hour driving back and forth between trailheads trying to figure out which way was more downhill so I could make my bike riding easier. Both directions seemed more uphill than down, which I understand cannot be possible. I realized, after my third time driving back and forth, that I am tired and need a break.
I finally decided on a direction to bike and parked the car. Then I rode my bike mostly uphill (sigh) to where I left off yesterday to continue a westbound hiking direction.
Turtle Rock segment was enjoyable. It takes a hiker along the other side of the Wisconsin River from the previous day’s Grandfather Falls segment and offers a different view of the dam. There were some large rocks, one of which is supposed to look like a turtle..? The trail then heads through the woods along single track and ATV trails.
The volunteer coordinator for this county texted me yesterday and gave me a heads-up about the Averill-Kelly Creek Wilderness segment. She told me to road-walk around it because its water crossing is too high to safely navigate. Under such circumstances, a detour still counts for Thousand Miler status. I therefore walked 6 miles of gravel road back to the car.
It is going to rain heavily and thunderstorm all over the place tomorrow (the 28th). That’s a good excuse to take a zero.
