Travelling to Clayton, IA today to spend the night on the banks of the Mississippi as we start our drive up the river to La Crosse WI where we will do some riding. First stop was Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, one of only 22 recognized Wetlands of Importance in the US. The marsh is a stopover point for hundreds of …

Last night Anita pointed out a 4×10 ft canvas of mussels and other shells in the area that she had on the wall. This morning as we prepared to leave she gave us a beautiful mussel shell with both side attached by a strip of ribbon so that it falls open easily in your hand. What a special parting gift! …

The Elroy Sparta is the oldest rail trail in the country and it’s 33 miles long and it includes three long tunnels. We started the trail in Sparta which claims to be America’s Bicycling Capital and has a depot that houses the area’s Chamber of Commerce. The trail is well maintained packed dirt and is heavily wooded on both sides so …

Today we rode 30 miles on the Great River State trail over the course of about 5 hours. The Great River trail is within a larger area called the Mississippi Flyway and passes through two National Wildlife Refuges. The surface is quite a bit rougher than the Elroy Sparta but the trail is far more interesting. The access point where …

We arrived in Eau Claire around noon yesterday and headed for the downtown farmer’s market where we got local strawberries, asparagus, and various other provisions. Eau Claire has many sculptures on their downtown streets. I liked this one right by the market We had a quick lunch nearby and I just happened to look at a map and then just …

We had originally planned to ride the Old Abe and Chippewa River trails, but the park employee that we talked to when riding the Old Abe yesterday said that the Chippewa River Trail was in pretty bad shape. A lot of comments about it on the AllTrails website confirmed his opinion, so we opted to ride the third State Trail …

Saturday was a drive from Eau Claire to Escanaba – a little over four hours of driving time, but five hours of clock time since we crossed back into the Eastern Time Zone. We also crossed back into Michigan, although oddly the time zone doesn’t quite follow the state border. We are now in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan, …

We knew it was windy when we left Escanaba this morning but we had packed the car pretty quickly and didn’t really grasp the extent of the wind until our first stop. Following another of the scenic tours that Tom found until we stopped at Fayette State Park. The park tells the story of the remote community that manufactured charcoal pig iron …

We did a quick replan last night and pushed the Mackinac Island trip to tomorow to give us warmer weather and we hoped, time for a longer trail ride today. We drove to Spring Lake Park to ride the North Western Trail. It was almost 11 when we got there but still feeling pretty chilly. The trail was good pavement …

We boarded the ferry to Mackinac Island at 10 this morning, catching one of their Mighty Mac sailings. Mighty Mac sailings go under the 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge and pause to share some history and bridge specifications. Let’s just say that it’s a mighty impressive bridge! The boat was full and Mackinac Island was already a very busy place …