Day 48 – July 21 – Fletcher Lake, IN to Ft Wayne, IN – 70 Miles

We entered the Eastern Time Zone yesterday and our 6:00 alarms felt like 5:00.  We all rolled out and prepared for another day on the road.  The pot-o-gold at the end of this one was a rest day at Grandma Hankel’s in Ft. Wayne.  A neighbor at the campground at Fletcher Lake offered us coffee to help get us going.  Like the beer the night before, we accepted.  The coffee and peanut butter on a toaster pastry sufficed for an early breakfast.  We would stop later for breakfast #2.

The weather was sunny, but cool enough to warrant a long sleeve shirt for the morning.  Near the town of Deedsville, IN we encountered the Nickel Plate Rail Trail crossing our route.  Our maps had indicated that a railroad was still in place that ran between Deedsville and Denver, IN, our anticipated breakfast stop.  The route on our maps would add a couple miles on county roads, the rail trail was the hypotenuse of the triangle, was downgrade the entire way, straight and smoothly paved.  The choice was obvious.   Miles on a trail like this go by too quickly.

At breakfast in Denver, we met Tom from Naperville, IL.  He was touring by bicycle on the Adventure Cycling North Lakes route.  His destination for the day was Monroeville, IN.  Later he would head north into Michigan and either cross Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, WI by ferry or go north through the Upper Peninsula and back down to the Chicago area.  We rode with Tom to the route intersection  with US 24 near Lagro, IN.  There we diverted onto 24 toward Ft Wayne.

Route 24, though a 4 lane was a decent route into Ft. Wayne.  It is relatively flat following the Wabash river valley near Huntington and the Little Wabash river into Ft Wayne.  Along 24 one can still see remnants of the Wabash and Erie Canal as well as the right-of-way for the Indiana Railroad, an old electrified inter-urban that ran between Ft. Wayne and Lafayette.

We arrived in Ft. Wayne around 4:30.  It turned out to be an easy days ride.

Tomorrow is a rest day.  We will do some maintenance and route planning as well as acquire some supplies for the road.  We’re looking forward to a BBQ with my Aunt Karen and Uncle Joe on Sunday evening.