Richard Treks: BALM: Day 4 (Thursday)

For many, today would have been a perfect day for sailing south from Two Rivers to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with sails full of a stiff northern wind, the boat slicing through the cold waters of Lake Michigan, throwing spray up into a blue sky. Had people on the boat seen a few bikers pedaling north, with helmets bent into the wind and REI down jackets blow back like sails wanting to go south, they would have thought, poor souls, it must be hard to pedal into this cold, stiff wind.

But here is what was given us because we bikes into the wind. At Point Beach State Forest, I met Gene Ahrens, an older gentleman wearing. Miller Brewing shirt. He was birding with his wife. The Bikers for Jesus popped up again, with he news that met someone in Milwaukee who,knew about their ride. It was Kevin, our Warmshower host, who said he had learned about them from us BALMers.

I realized I like the city names: Kenosha, Racine, Sheboygan, Kewaunee, Algoma. They make me think of sound, baseball history, and the Women's Baseball League.

At Paradigm in Sheboygan I gave the owner my Bike Around Lake Michigan book because, after working 7 years to build her business, she's taking a month off to bike around the lake. When I was leaving, she gave me a high quality Paradigm tshirt, with a biker powering a coffee grinder.

There were spectacular views of Lake Michigan and of the dunes and forests that run the length of the coastline. I passé through Two Rivers, which I have always thought of doing because the name of the city's is similar to my 2River.

I had a wonderful dinner at Point Beach State Forest where, in the 1940s, Gene Ahrens, the gentleman I met earlier in the morning, had helped to plant 10,000 pine trees.

All of this because we biked into the wind.