Riding the Semi Skinny

After the ride at Madison, we headed to The Kettle Moraine State Forest area to ride the John Muir mountain bike trails. This is a very popular mountain bike destination near La Grange WI. When we got there... CLOSED to BIKING because of the recent rainfall. Janice's mothers family is from around Lake Geneva, which was just a few miles away, so we spent the night around that area. We called the trail headquarters the following day to find they were opening the trails at noon...we were there...and a good thing because of another deluge as we were leaving. There were a few of these mud spots. That mud is slippery.
The trails were color coded and very well marked. I rode the Blue, which was the outer loop, and I never once had a question of where I was.

The trails here are very well used, with some nice berm'ed corners.

And...a nice jump

There were three options here...very nice

Some of the steeper sections had these mats laid down. It was my first experience with the mats, and found out quickly, that they are slippery. If you start to crank on them hard, the tire WILL slide out.

There are also a lot of rest areas.

And did I say, well marked.

These trails are the most used mountain bike trails I have ever been on. We arrived when they opened the trails to find a few cars in the lot. When we left, a storm was just starting to hit, and there were still 27 cars in the lot then.

Bikin the City

Janice and I are on vacation this week, so we headed south to do some biking, thus the absence on the computer. I have always wanted to ride the trails I see when we go through a large city. It seems like the trails are every where in these cities. We were near Madison, so I tried the trails there.

When we arrived there, it was raining along with lightning and thunder. I waited it out for a while, as it looked like it was clearing. I finally suited up and headed out on the Capital City Trail. It soon was back to storming. The rain was not too bad, but the lightning had my attention. At about halfway into the ride it started to break up and by the time I got back to the truck, it was hot and muggy.

I rode the Capital Trail, connected up with the Wingra Creek Trail and then rode side streets until I hit up with the Southwest Bike path back to the truck. The Capital City trail was very poorly marked. I was off path and semi-lost more than once. So, it amounted to a hick from sticks cut loose on the city trails for about 3 hours. It was much different than I am used to riding...but still fun...and I still want to ride some of the trails in the Twin City area.

Capital City Trail

Camp Randall stadium

Picnic

The place where Janice works held a company picnic Wednesday evening in which we attended. I may not have gotten a ride in, but it was much fun going to the picnic...tables...note plural...of good food, beverages and good people to talk to...and away from work. I think it is great that they put that on for the employees and their families...a lot of little kids is one of the things I noticed. My place of employment must have an average age of twice of what theirs is. We are old. It was just an observation. Gooooood time.

Handy Work

I am in the process of going in and out of the closet...well it's not a closet yet. We are building a new closet in our daughter's room, as we took most of the closet space she had for our wood stove chimney. It is not even like work when she is helping me, more like fun. What I consider good father daughter entertainment. It's bicycle related...can spot some of them

And.....
My daughter was asked by her teacher what her father does, and she replied, "Whatever my Mom tells him to.".

Put in a run your tail off day at work...then came home and cut a load of firewood...and then...Janice and I rode the Univega tandem for an evening cruise. We stopped at a park down the road from the house and lounged around for a while. This one is for CAD...don't show this around and remember click for big...and notice last years left over firewood still covered in the background. I could not get a good picture.
St.Croix River

Path down to the river

Our lounging spot

Lake Gordon

Janice and I were going to ride Sunday morning, but she did not feel well. I waited thinking she may start feeling better, but with the temp around the 80 mark, a strong north wind and just a few threatening clouds, I headed out by myself around noon. As long as going alone, I took some inspiration from Jeff at Road and took the fancy ride down from the garage rafters. It was the first ride on it this year. I used to ride it a lot, but this year the fixed gear, mountain bike and tandem has taken priority. It was good to get on it again. I did 45+ miles at a good pace. At 33 miles in I was at 17.8 avg thanks to the wind that went something like this...cross wind, helping wind and cross wind...which brings us to the last 12.5 miles of head on wind trying to bring it on home. I finally just dropped a ring, relaxed and still came in at over 17, which for me is not all that bad.

WARNING: What I consider bike porn.

Ready for take off.

This is a stump where I stopped. The rocks must have flown there from the snowplow this last winter.

Another good ride in the books.

It looked to rain at any time but we went anyway. We took the Univega tandem and rode the Little Circle ride. There were a lot of deer out this evening with the temperature just like porage, not too hot and not too cold. Ended up to be about 15.5 miles and a good effort put in by all.

On a side note: If you haven't in the past, please keep the Fat Cyclist and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Can you tell, we live in Sand Country.

Makwa Trail

We headed south to Menomonie to ride the Red Cedar trail this weekend, but that was not to be the good riding. Sunday's riding on the single track Makwa trail near Hayward was the weekends highlight. I was last there on July 4th and today, two weeks later, 1.3 more miles of indescribably excellent trail had been made. Janice and I rode 16.5 miles of the skinny. Janice did very well...until the technical stuff started up. Bad news... count'em...for, 4, fore and IV, which added up makes four crashes. Fortunately, all limbs and body parts are fine, just badly bruised. She was scaring me, but I have to give her credit as she finished out the ride. We forgot the camera, probably a good thing.

Oh, and if she has a doctor appointment this week, she will have to take over the blogging stuff.

On another note, we have a house guest for the summer that works at Amnicon Falls State Park. Today she had a couple come into the park that are touring on a tandem recumbent. She said she had a nice visit with them and they have traveled over 3000 miles so far this summer. This is a link to their blog spot... http://bikerbeans.blogspot.com/

Makwa Trail

Finishing up the Tremp Weekend

We finished the ride up at Sparta about 1:00 in the afternoon with both us feeling the effects of the heavy bike and all the gear. It did teach us something...we have to do that again soon! This was one of the roads we traveled on in the Marshland Access.
The Butterfly-Weed is a friend of the Monarch Butterfly.

One of the many bridges on these trails. One of them, not this one, I measured at .3 of a mile long.

At some places the many trains we heard and saw are nearby, so we decided to snap a picture at the last minute when this one was passing. Modern day camera's are amazing, as I took this picture with the train moving one direction and us moving in the opposite with one hand on the bar and the other shooting the picture.

One of the many stops we made on this trip.

Finished up back at Sparta with 107 miles and a fine way to spend the weekend together. We would highly recommend this type of entertainment for couples...or anyone for that matter. It isn't that you need to go great distances, it is just getting out and doing something.

Camping

When we pulled into Perrot State Park to camp, a car pulled up to a STOP sign on a road that was joining the road we were on. He was looking the other way not paying attention to us coming towards them. At the last minute he saw us and we were already hard on the brakes. I hit the brakes so hard that it popped the front cable from the hanger and with as heavy as we were rolling, it also rolled the tube up in the back tire...tube shot. I changed that out, set up camp and we went for an evening cruise. We headed north out of the park to what is called the Marshland Access. We were in the exploring mode...something that I do enjoy. This was a Muskrat house we rode by. You can see what trails they are using.

The Great River Trail


Marshland Access.

We spent some time here watching the wildlife. A word to the wise would be...For sure check it out, but be careful where you sit. Bird's shit too...outside and anywhere they want.

The forecast was for no rain, so we decided to sleep without the rain fly.

Nice total for the day, considering the bike and gear weighed in at about 140 lbs, although a few of those miles were minus trailer.

We made a bicycle camping trip this last weekend. We drove to Sparta WI to ride the La Crosse River trail and The Great River Trail. It ended up to be 107 miles. A good way to spend the weekend. We started at the Sparta trail head. We figured the bike, water and all gear added about 140 lbs...note to self, must go lighter next time. With the first day at 63+ miles, a good work out.
These are WI State Park trails and a trail passes are required.

The La Crosse trail crosses a lot of farm country.

We stopped and watched some of a Legion baseball game in Bangor

The main street of Rockland, WI

More of Rockland

Most of the trails are grown in and very scenic.

This is the trail split.

The Great River Trail follows the great river...The mighty Mississippi

Purple Cone Flower's

Will post more when time permits

Weekend Bicycle Camping

We had very nice weekend ! ! !