Mountain Bay Trail - Green Bay to Wausau

June 17 & 18, 2010 total - 114 miles

Our first ride for more than a day and it was a good trip!

We rode from Green Bay to Shawano on Thursday and then Shawano to Wausau on Friday.

It did not take us very long to get to Shawano and we would have continued on except that we had booked a hotel

already and could not cancel it. So we rode out to Lake Shawano and swam and relaxed for the afternoon. We learned a lesson that it may be better to get accomodation as we see fit along the trail in future.

We pulled into the Ho Chunk Casino around lunch time on Friday for a break (against Larry's better judgement) and to 'invest' a few dollars. Larry tried his luck after a while and he won enough to buys us lunch and some very delicious ice cream when we reached Wausau - plus he had a little change left. That was a good deal!

The trail is very nice and even though it was hot and sunny there is considerable shade as you ride. You move through a vriety of ecosystems and there are many birds and butterflies. We saw cranes, a turkey, eagles, a woodchuck, multiple deer and possibly a black bear in the far distance (unconfirmed sighting).

The most challenging part of the 114 mile ride was the large hills on the route we took from the end of the trail in Weston to get to Wausau.

If anyone wants to do the ride we would suggest beginning in Wausau and ending in GreenBay - it is more downhill that way. Also take time to swim in Norrie Lake - it is very nice. Since we had just spent an hour or so at the casino we skipped the lake swim - but it would have been a treat!