Pine River Trail June 25, 2010

We camped at Devil's Lake State Park for Baumbach Family Camp so we went a day early and rode this trail that began in Lone Rock. It is not the most scenic as much of it runs along side the highway. We did stop and eat a lot of black caps that were growing right next to the trail - pretty tasty!



When the trail left the highway after Gotham we were near the Pine River and the water level was very high due to a lot of recent heavy rain. The river had swelled over its banks in many places and the trail got a little slick. One bridge we crossed was not too far above the water level.



We walked on a long suspension bridge in Richland Center. The community was setting up for a big country music festival that began Friday night and went through the weekend.







We had lunch at a popular food stand in Richland Center.

We decided to ride the highway back rather than take the trail and we made pretty good time. For quite a distance we had a wide cycling lane and then just a shoulder but the traffic was not bad.



This memorial in Richland Center is to honor military personel who were awarded the purple heart medal.



The trail was 16 miles from Lone Rock to Richland Center - we would have ridden at least 32 miles.

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!

Eisenbahn Trail

From Eden to just beyond West Bend we enjoyed riding this 25 mile trail. Lots of flowers along the way and many song birds. We also saw eagles, a deer and a fox.

Our first 50 mile ride.

Peshtigo Marinette Loop

May 24, we did a road trip from Peshtigo following the Peshtigo River down to Green Bay, unfortunately the river is not visible from the road. It was a very warm and windy day.

The route then went along the bay up to Marinette. The drop of the water level in the bay is very noticeable - waterfront owners now have yards and yards of grass in front of their homes. Many properties had lilac bushes in the yards and the flowers were at their peak, so the fragrance as we rode by was wonderful.

When we got to Marinette we bought an ice cream treat and ate it on the bay.

The route back to Peshtigo cut across rolling lands - a very pretty ride. This is the old bridge in Peshtigo where we began and finished our 30 mile loop.

Mountain Bay Trail

Some day we plan to cycle from Green Bay to Wausau on this trail, so we thought we would ride part of it today. It is a nice trail. We went out 20 miles to Zachow and back.







Along the way we spotted some sand hill cranes. We also saw a turkey, a deer and some sky divers.