So, I was going to visit Wisconsin in the Summer. It's supposed to be a great place to ride (and previous experience says it's true). So what kind of adventure could I have. How about riding across the entire state?
Well, when I started searching, Google led me straight to an event "Ride Across Wisconsin". Yeah, clear name. Unfortunately, this year's event was a couple of weeks too early. But it did give me an idea of a good route.
So let's look at a ride from the Mississippi River on the west side of Wisconsin all the way to Milwaukee on Lake Michigan, totalling 263 miles and 6900 ft of climbing. It roughly follows the off-road route version of "Ride Across Wisconsin". But where they do it in one or two days (yikes) as a supported ride, I took 5 for a self-supported ride.
I used the RAW course as a baseline and modified it for my purposes to find appropriate day route lengths and places to stay. Two long 'metric century' days followed by one slightly shorter. Then two shorter days to be able to drop in on family in Waukesha before finishing in Milwaukee.
I did it fully self-supported, alternating between camping at trailside walk-in (no cars, no campers, minimal services) camps and hotels/family. A perfect route for a classic touring bike like my Waterford Adventure Cycle, which just happens to have been made in Waterford, Wisconsin. I would have loved to drop in on the factory but they shut down in 2023. Side note: My first self-built wheels worked beautifully the whole run even with 40 pounds of cargo.
To start the trip from Milwaukee, a trip on the Amtrak Empire Builder made a simple way to start in La Crosse on the west side.
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| Full route across Wisconsin color coded by day |
Day 1: La Crosse to Elroy
The Empire Builder arrives in La Crosse in the evening, so I spent the night there in a hotel. In the morning, I headed over to the Mississippi to make a formal start at the river.
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| At the Mississippi in La Crosse |
From there, I picked up the 21.5 mile La Crosse River State Trail. It begins through the wetlands in La Crosse with a meandering, off-road, paved route across bridges and through the woods. The day began overcast and muggy and eventually mixed clouds and sun with warm, muggy temperatures.
As it leaves the city, it ends up mostly on an old railroad right of way, elevated and flat. There is an odd jog onto regular streets with a bizarre two-way "bike lane"/"sidewalk" that makes one question what is to come. (don't worry)
It's worth noting that this route mostly follows US Bicycle Route 30 while traversing the various linked trails and road segments.
29 Miles in, the trail reaches the town of Sparta - the self-declared "Bicycling Capital"
While there are a couple of small towns along the route so far, this is the first bigger town to stop for supplies, eat lunch, etc. without too much of a detour. There is also a space and cycling museum in town (Deke Slayton was born here) but unfortunately no secure bike parking for loaded bikes.
From Sparta, the headline trail starts: The 32-mile-long Elroy-Sparta State Trail. This is the one that caught my attention earlier this year as the very first rail-trail conversion in the USA in 1967. And it has tunnels! Three of them. Not as many as on the Alpe-Adria, but definitely real.
In this direction, the first is Tunnel #3, the longest, darkest, and wettest. You can see in the picture below that the damp, cool air is spilling out into the humid and warm outside as fog. For silly reasons, they have big red signs saying to walk through the tunnel. No thank you. 3/4 of a mile means being in there a LONG time. I brought serious lights so I could see fine. Ride through the pitch black, raw tunnel with spring water dripping on your head. Eventually, one sees the other portal and makes it out.
BTW, that water is why they installed doors. When it was an active rail line, the RR kept a crew there to close the doors between trains so that it wouldn't freeze inside in the winter.
The trail continues to gently roll up and down through the Wisconsin countryside and 2 more tunnels, an uncounted number of bridges and more until Elroy. There, the kind citizens of Elroy have supplies, showers, and more, along with a ride-in campground to spend the night.
Daily Run 1: 67.8 miles and 1,290 ft of climbing (no big mountains but lots of up and down)
Day 2: Elroy to Lodi
Elroy is the eastern terminus of the semi-eponymous Elroy-Sparta trail. But it connects directly to the 22-mile "400 State Trail". Why is it called that? Because of the Chicago and Northwestern passenger train, which traveled the 400 miles from Chicago to Minneapolis in 400 minutes along this route.
The day began cooler than the first with crystal-clear skies and puffy white clouds rolling out of Elroy.
The 400 also spends much of its distance out in the countryside, but does pass through various towns, including one with a farmers' market on this day.
The route parallels the Baraboo River for much of its run. This means it crosses both tributaries and occasionally the main river
From there, we begin the on-road segment of the route. Despite beginning on a very busy road out of town, it quickly turns on to the much more pleasant Wisconsin country roads. The bigger ones tend to have a reasonable shoulder to ride on. The less busy, it just doesn't matter much. Most drivers seem to be well aware of slower traffic being around, whether a cyclist or a tractor.
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| Plenty of room given |
The road segment had considerably more ups and downs than the former railbeds of the trails. But eventually, I rolled into Baraboo (Circus capital) for a late lunch.
Leaving Baraboo comes the biggest climb of the trip. Nothing by California mountain standards, but still a bit of a beast with a loaded touring rig - 600 feet in a few miles.
But on the other side, is quiet pasture and farm land rolling down to the Wisconsin river, aka Lake Wisconsin.
Once at the lake, the way to continue is on the Merrimac cable ferry Colsac III, which makes for a fun, short little break.
Then only a little stretch further to reach a hotel for the night (couldn't find a reasonable campground in the right place) in Lodi, WI
Daily Run 2: 61.6 miles, 2,056 ft of climbing (Biggest day of vertical. Who knew?)
Day 3: Lodi to Mud Lake
The first part of the day continues on country roads. Being Sunday, there were more other cyclists out for daily rides than before.
Eventually, I reached the outskirts of Madison, where off-road trails were partially available. The route goes along the lakes, through the UW-Madison campus and downtown Madison
As the day wore on, typical summer stormy weather started to creep in
The day ended at Mud Lake for another night of camping. Only a very short, light rainstorm before the winds faded for a lovely, cool night.
Daily Run 3: ~60 miles (my Garmin crashed and lost about 7 miles through Madison), 1,857 ft
Day 4: Lake Mills (Mud Lake) to Waukesha
In the continuing theme, the fourth day started yet cooler. Almost like early Fall in Lake Mills. Back on to the Glacial Drumlin, continuing east.
Continuing on Route 30
The route overlaps the Ice Age Trail
Daily Run 4: 42.1 miles, 1,070 ft
Day 5: Waukesha to Milwaukee
The final day was short. It could have been combined with Day 4, but I had family to visit in Waukesha. The first miles were through the city to pick up the New Berlin Trail (pronounced BER-lin in these parts). Well, kinda. The local transportation people decided to throw up 'closed' signs without bothering with detours. The first one was easy to figure out by going around through an adjacent industrial area. But eventually it became clear that the trail is actually usable. It was only closed because of road construction crossing it. Ugh. Car think.
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| Not the train I took, but nice timing |
And finally finishing at Lake Michigan
Daily Run 5: 30.7 miles, 627 ft
Conclusion
This is a really great bike touring route. While there is a lot more vertical than one might think, there is really only one segment that is 'hard'. The scenery is lovely. Riding mile after mile of trail through farmland, forest, marshland and more is peaceful and calming. I rode through a weekend in the summer (although after some schools started) and there really weren't that many people out there. Long stretches between people. But there were other people even in the sparsely populated segments. That said, plan to be self-supporting. Someone will come by eventually, but you may be miles from the nearest town. You may be out of cell coverage too. But not too often.
It's also worth noting that a lot of people were out on e-bikes which makes it even more accessible to more people. But, the distances are far enough - with no charging infrastructure - that you should plan accordingly. Any bike could ride this route. But I would recommend at least 30mm tires with more being better. I was riding a traditional touring bike with panniers and 38mm tires and found that a great compromise.
The trails are largely unpaved. But they are well-maintained with a packed gravel surface. Unless you are riding during or right after a big storm, the surface should be fine. Frankly, the off-road segments were smoother than many of the road segments or paved trails because of frost heaves and potholes.
You could stretch this out to more days if you wanted, or just do day-trip segments. But, if you're used to distance riding, 4 days would be pretty easy with no day really exceeding a metric century. One day, like the hardcore RAW riders, is a wholly different thing, though. They are riding supported with no cargo and rest stops.
This trip could be done in either direction. But I recommend west to east due to prevailing winds unless you have some other reason to head west instead.
Booking Amtrak is a wee bit more complicated than it needs to be.
- Make sure to reserve a bike spot along with your ticket. There are a finite number of spots
- I recommend taking the train first and riding back to your start. Otherwise you run the risk of missing your reservation after several days.
- You need the Empire Builder, which is two trains in one that runs daily from Chicago to/from the Pacific. They split far west to go to Portland and Seattle, respectively. Only one of them lets you book a bike because it's the one with the baggage car. It's the same physical train in Wisconsin though. You want Empire Builder trains 7 (westbound) and 8 (eastbound if you go the other way). Not 27 or 28.
- You cannot take the Borealis with a bike unless you've got a folding bike.
- The loading process for a bike is a little bit of a pain for a solo rider. You must take your bike up and over to the platform in Milwaukee. Escalators are the easy way if you can handle it. Then you must take your bike all the way up to the front of the train and get the attendant to load it in the baggage car. You are expected to lift it up quite a bit to hand it to the attendant. Since you must remove baggage first, that isn't too bad but take note if that's an issue for you. Then you have to walk all the way back to the day car they choose to load that day. It takes time that makes one nervous about the process and getting a good seat. (The seats are comfortable and I recommend the upper level) If you are traveling with people one can board with the bags and get seats while the other takes the bike forward. In La Crosse the running back and forth is reversed. But the stop is only scheduled for one minute (they will wait). Be at the door with your bags in hand when the train stops. Note that freight trains stop in town, blocking the north-south roads near the station. If you need to go north, a few blocks west is a bridge. It's kinda nasty to ride but just do it on the sidewalk (I normally don't recommend that but here, yes).
Alternate media
- More photographs in my gallery: https://gallery.rochte.photo/Activities/Ride-Across-Wisconsin
- 14 minute video of the whole route on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LknVPUaY9KA In the video, you can see the tunnel experience.
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