June 3, 2015 by Bruce Wynkoop
In September my friend, Lee and I went on a Road Scholar bike trip in Door County, Wisconsin. For those unfamiliar with Wisconsin, Door County is the “thumb” part of the state that juts into Lake Michigan starting just east of Green Bay. It is a very rural, quiet part of the state with many resorts on both sides of the “thumb.” There are also many wineries, tourist shops, and restaurants as the area obviously depends on tourism for a good part of its livelihood. It is a beautiful, “laid-back,” relaxing area and is ideal for casual bike riding.
This was our second Road Scholar bike trip (see “C & O Canal Bike Trail–2011) and we were again pleased with how well-organized the ride was. The daily mileage was pretty low again, in the 25-35 mile range, and most of it was on quiet, rural roads, so was fairly easy, unlike the C & O Canal Trail, which was hard-packed dirt and somewhat challenging at times. And as Door County is not very hilly, there weren’t too many inclines with which to deal. Our group consisted of a dozen riders, of varying degrees of cycling skills, and one guide. Our guide did a good job for the most part but at times was far ahead of the group and would have been hard to “flag down” if something had happened. He assigned a “sweep” rider (someone to ride in the back of the group and make sure no one was left behind) but often was so far ahead of the tail end of the group that if something had happened (a crash, flat tire, breakdown) it would have been a good half-hour before he would have realized it. There probably should have been another guide along to ride sweep who could have handled any problems that happened in the rear. For some reason I have never quite understood, it seems to be nicer to ride along a body of water, and, as Door County is pretty much surrounded by Lake Michigan, there is plenty of water along which to ride.
And many of the small towns have ties to the fishing industry so they incorporate the lake into their community lore, which makes for some fun and interesting tales, some of them even based on fact. We spent one night at a resort on the east side of Door County where, after dinner, a bonfire was lit and a local story teller regaled us with entertaining tales of Lake Michigan. On one of the days we rode to Gills Rock, on the far north end of Door County, and took a ferry to Washington Island, then rode around the island. In a small church on the island we saw a model ship hanging from the ceiling in the sanctuary. I have seen this several times before, once in northern Minnesota (in a Finnish community), and several times while on a Baltic cruise. There were “church ships” in churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. It seems to be a Scandinavian tradition.
I have heard two explanations for the ships: 1) They represent mankind’s journey from birth to death and 2) They are hung there as a prayer for the safety of the community’s seamen. As I have always seen them in churches near large bodies of water, the second explanation makes more sense. Either way, it’s a nice tradition. We actually spent a bit too much time enjoying the scenery and had to race back to port to catch the last ferry back to the mainland, making it with just moments to spare. When we got back to the mainland we visited the somewhat small but very interesting Door County Maritime Museum. Lighthouses are abundant on Door County and always make for interesting stops. We saw several regular lighthouses and were able to climb to the top of one, but I was particularly interested in a different kind of lighthouse we came upon on the east side of the county (I think close to Bailey’s Harbor). It actually consisted two shorter houses, one behind the other, each with its own light. I think it worked something like this: When a ship approaches the harbor it needs to use the channel, which is deeper than the rest of the bay, to get into the harbor without running aground.
A different kind of lighthouse.
The ship’s captain lines the ship up pointing at the houses and when the light in back disappears (behind the house in front), the ship is pointing toward the channel. As the ship enters the harbor, it just has to keep the one light in sight to follow the channel. If it sees the second light, it has to correct its approach. That may not be right but it is something along those lines. The week past very pleasantly–the riding was good, the company was stimulating, the scenery was beautiful, the food was good, the lodging quite nice, and the stops along the way very interesting. It all made for a very pleasant week of cycling.
