I’ve been doing lots of stuff the past couple days. Mainly switching it up a little, riding some, looking at property for sale, chopping a bunch of wood and paddling some. I’m trying to do some things that are constructive to my shoulder and hip rehabilitating, strengthening them some, because they are both pitifully weak. I sneaked in the Chequamegon race, just because I needed a goal, but in reality, I’m not anywhere close to back to normal function-wise.

If you’ve never been up to Northern Wisconsin, specifically, the Hayward/Cable area, you should put it on your list. You need to bring all the toys you have, MTB and road bikes, boats, blades, anything you can think of, because the area is conducive to all of it. Lots of empty, beautiful roads, plus miles and miles of awesome singletrack. Then you have the water. Rivers, lakes, flowage, more water than you could explore in years.

The land up here is crazy cheap, by US standards. It is normally less than $2000 an acre for a 40, more for smaller, more developed. That is for fully wooded lots in a beautiful setting. And that is the normal asking prices. If you look around, there are lots of special deals around that would blow you away. It is super fun looking around, playing with options.

I’ve been cutting and chopping wood a couple hours a day. There is something therapeutic about it, plus, Dennis goes through a fair amount of wood throughout the winter. I like the whole process from cutting, to splitting to stacking. It is sort of like shovelling snow. You can see your progress and it is fulfilling. I woke up early this morning with an achy shoulder, but that is nothing unusual. I think I’m going to be waking up achy for the rest of my life, if nothing chances soon.

We went out on Cable Lake for a few hours yesterday. I haven’t been in a canoe for a couple years, so it was refreshing. It was a nice day when we started, but towards the end, the temperature dropped a lot and we all got pretty cold. We saw a few bald eagles, one with a fish in his talons, which was cool. It is super relaxing, going through the water on your own power. Pretty comparable to riding a bike, just a lot slower. Pretty good shoulder workout also.

Changing the subject, today is Jen Voight’s hour record attempt. He’s gonna be trying to break the record of 49km and change, under the current UCI rules. You can click here for Cyclingfans.com for the Eurosport links or go to the Trek website for live video too. I think the coverage starts at 11:30am, CST here in the United States. Not a bad way to spend your lunch break.

Dennis has this nice wood canoe which is a joy to paddle.

Bill and Dennis were using kayaks.

Dennis skims through the lily pads.

We ran into Jeff Bradley, former Olympian and Tour de France rider. He caught some nice Northern Pike.

We stopped at Dennis’ friend’s place on Cable Lake. He has this incredible barn on his property.

They don’t make ’em much like this anymore.

Guess this bike has been laying around here for awhile.

Bill and I admiring the lake from the dock.

Jen’s and his hour record machine.

It is kind of strange for me to have missed most all of summer. By that I mean I had a broken hip nearly all summer, so I missed what I normally do, plus I was physically not anywhere that really had a summer. I spent most of the last 3 months either in Colorado or up here in Wisconsin, and at both places, the weather never seemed summer like. I’ve been mildly cold the past three months.

I like some hot, midwestern summer. Not a ton of it, but enough to make me appreciate milder weather. I grew up with hot summers. I guess it’s in my genes. I do complain more about being way too hot than I used to remember, but I think that is just my body and mind being out of sync, alittle war within myself.

It hasn’t really been warm since I got up to Cable. Hardly in the 60’s any day. Today is not any different.

A bunch of us are riding from here at Dennis’ up to Washburn Wisconsin to get a marriage license for Pat Lemeiux and Gwen Jorgensen. They had a crazy year between them this year. They have a homes in Australia and Spain and have travelled extensively pretty much the past 9 months. Pat actually just baled out of a “short” trip to New Zealand for last week to ride Chequamegon. Gwen did a photo shoot down there, for shoes, but they made here run in shoes two sizes too small. Sponsorship and its joys!

Anyway, Gwen had a stellar season, winning the Triathlon National, but more important, World Championships too. She has a couple months off, just one race in the Carribean, then back to the travel routine. They are fitting in a small wedding up here in Cable in a couple weeks. Dennis is actually going to marry them. He got a license to perform marriages last year. He has a rule that he only marries Olympians or Tour de France riders. He’s stuck to it and this wedding is going to qualify.

It’s a little too early for me. We’re leaving at 9, which is the crack of dawn around here. I’m not sure how we’re going to shuttle everyone back here. I think it is 70 miles one way and I’m pretty sure that I can’t ride both directions. I can hardly ride 2 hours of singletrack, so 3-4 hours on the road is going to be challenging.

Gwen, scrapping the bottom of the dessert pan last night after dinner.

A bunch of us pulling a boat lift out of a lake. I was in my underwear.

A little northern woods lake home.

Gwen winning in Edmonton to secure the 2014 ITU World Championship.