Diary

Mileage:  90 miles (148.2 kms)

Elevation Change:  2162 feet (659 meters)

Weather:  cloudy, humid, and cool

Morale:  good and tired

Incidents:  went through three long railroad tunnels

Daily Summary:

Up early for a short 90 mile ride across Wisconsin, from the Mississippi to the Wisconsin rivers.  We were rolling by 7.  It was very humid today, but the cloud cover kept the temperatures way down.  It was only in the low 70’s—so cool that we actually got cold at the SAG stops when we stopped working.  This part of Wisconsin is pretty—rolling hills and farms.  The area is poorer than Minnesota, however.  More trailer homes, unpainted barns, untended yards.  We moved through dairy country today.  We passed through Sparta, Wisconsin, which is apparently the bicycle capital of the world.  Who knew?  It is the start of the Elroy Sparta trail—a 30 mile long dirt bike trail on an old railroad bed.  It is so popular that they get away with charging $4 a person for its use!   We followed it from beginning to end, including through three long, unlit, and spooky tunnels.  The longest was a mile long and we had to walk it because there was absolutely no light in there.  The other two we managed to ride (slowly and carefully!)  with the help of a small flashlight.  The bike trail was a nice change of pace.  Afterwards we still had 30 miles to go.  Wisconsin Dells, where we are now, is a resort area on the shores of the Wisconsin River and connected lakes.  There is lots of beautiful forest land, but also a bunch of touristy stuff.  They bill themselves as the water park capital of the world.  We’re too tired and it’s too cold to test them to see if it’s true.  Christopher didn’t ride today, but helped run the second SAG.

 

In the pix below, you see the welcome sign at the bicycle capital of the world.  Then, you see us going in and coming out of one of the tunnels.  Finally, we got a big kick out of the GO highway.   The county roads are names for letters of the alphabet.  G and O roads ran together at one point.