Day 33
Geeze it's dark in here

Another beautiful day for a bike ride.  I rode "free" today and had a good day on the bike.  Our luck with the weather is still with us as you can see from the temps above. (So far we have not experienced any rain in the 33 days we've been on the road and it hasn't rained on us at all...today we got wet in the tunnel) Today, our day was divided into thirds: 30 miles from the motel to the Elroy Sparta Trailhead, 30 miles on the trail, and 32 miles to the motel after the trail.  The first 30-mile portion of our route took us through some beautiful Wisconsin farmland between La Crosse and Sparta and was pretty tame as far as difficulty.  The portion on the trail was a nice change from the push we feel on the highway.  The final portion was a real test as it was late in the day when most everyone got off the path with a little climbing before we got to the motel.  I think everyone enjoyed the time on the path for a nice change of pace...it's always nice to get out of the traffic for a change.

After a hearty breakfast at at the motel, the riders took to the road.  Karen and I thought we'd go try to ride the trail all the way from Lacrosse to see if that would be a better way to go.  It wasn't the best route to find the start of the trail and we decided the route on the road was better for at least the first 10 miles where the route crossed the path and provided a nice place to pick it up.  We caught the group about 15 miles from the motel and rode parallel to them for another 20 miles getting peeks of everyone as they crisscrossed our path several times before we got to Sparta.

At Sparta (advertised as the Bicycle Capital of America), we picked up the Elroy Sparta Bike Trail.  It's a rail to trails route of 30 miles that takes riders through several small whistle stop towns with plenty of places to eat and sight see.  One of the best places was Pies Are Square in Windon...great atmosphere and great pies as you would imagine.  Mark and Max (below right) were enjoying a little time of rest after a great pie when Karen and I got there.

We were out of sight of the vans for most of those 30 miles, but we glimpsed them every so often as they were riding only a short distance from the highway.  As I said before, the trail was a hard packed limestone surface and was basically flat (or no more grade than 3%) since it was a rail bed, but the main attractions were the tunnels...three of them ranging from a couple hundred  yards to about 3,800 feet in length.  To say it was dark in there is understatement. Close your eyes in a dark room and put your hand about 6 inches in front of your nose...that's what we could see in the longest tunnel.  It was also very drippy in the first tunnel, which had a little gurgling stream running along each side of the path. Someone remarked that we got wetter in the tunnel than we've been on any day of our ride.  In many areas, the bike route made its way through a canopy of trees that provided shade and cool temperatures; also, when the path wasn't surrounded with trees, we would break out into beautiful farmland nestled in a backdrop of large rolling tree covered hills...very pleasant and visually stimulating. 

To say this is a bike friendly area is also an understatement.  With all the trails they have around here, cycling is not only for the hard core, but for the families as well...young and old alike.  Everywhere you looked someone was either riding a bicycle or carrying one on the back of their car.  The only thing that disturbed me was over half of the people riding were not wearing helmets, including the children. 

It's been a long day so I'm signing off as soon as I can.  Jim and I finished mechanics at about 8:00...it's late now so good night.  See you again tomorrow.