Posts tagged #Trail

Great River Trail along the Mississippi River

 

Adventure Tuesday

Great River Bike Trail

    W went off biking with his brother starting in La Crosse, WI, and then entered into Minnesota land. I decided to start biking from a small town called Onalaska, along the Mississippi river. This trail takes you through wetlands and beautiful forest, over boardwalk and across small tributary streams flowing into the Mississippi river. 

 
 

    These bridges are so beautiful. And the whole landscape too.

 

    You could definitely start seeing some signs of fall while biking through this landscape. Even though the peak colors don't start until almost 2nd week of October.

 
 

    I am really happy I got to bike this stretch of the trail, and that I didn't venture off into Minnesota land. Maybe next time. 

 
 

    Do you have a favorite fall bike trail?

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Wisconsin and tagged Great River Trail biking biketrail mississippi river Wisconsin Minnesota border state states Summer Adventures Summer Flod spår 2016 Adventure Trail Macro Rail Trail Bike Adventure Biking.

Elroy Sparta trails and tunnels in Wisconsin

 

Adventure Tuesday

Elroy Sparta Bike Trail

    W and I went biking the Elroy Sparta trail that goes between Elroy and Sparta, hence the name. We ended up starting in a small town called Norwalk, and the plan was to bike all three tunnels. However, my knee decided to not corporate with me and we only did one tunnel. The old conservation department started to convert the old railroad to a trail in 1965. 

 
 

    I think it's pretty cool to bike through a landscape like this, and that it's made so accessible. The trails are in perfect shape. They go through agricultural lands and deep forests.

 
 

The Tunnel/s

    It's pretty cool to see all the design features of the tunnel. These tunnels were built at the end of 1800, in an effort to keep the gradient down for the trains. Apparently they had to install these large doors because of the temperature differences inside and outside the tunnels (warmer inside and colder outside in the wintertime). Which led to the fact that someone had to be stationed there to open and close the tunnel doors as soon as a train came.

 
 

    I guess I never quite thought about the fact that the tunnels would be dark. Next time i will for sure remember to bring my headlamp. The light on my phone did help a little bit to make sure you didn't trip on anything. These tunnels supposedly has some bats in them, but we never saw any. I was thinking that the tunnels would be prime habitat for rats, but no rats. The only animal we saw was unfortunately a dead raccoon :(

 
 

The Creamery

    In Norwalk, at the start of the trail, there is this beautiful old creamery. It looks like it's abandon now but I hope that they wont let it go to waste, because it is really pretty!

 
 

    Have you encountered any cool trails lately?

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Wisconsin and tagged Elroy Sparta Bike trail biking tunnels Railroad Wisconsin Norwalk Summer Adventures 2016 Trail Rail Trail Bike Adventure Biking.

Hiking Devils Lake State Park in Wisconsin

 

Adventure Tuesday again, and this time I'll bring you to Devils Lake. I brought my DSLR camera on the hike, but since I wasn't hiking with W, I actually didn't take that many pictures. I did snap quite a few with my phone though, as always. 

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Devils Lake State Park

    It's been hot, like for a Swede hot. It's in the upper 80s -90s (27-35 C) almost every day now, and humid, some mornings it's about 98% humidity. A friend of mine suggested going on a hike around a lake, and then finish of with a dip in the water. Of course we weren't the only people there, many many cars and parking lot was already filling up early in the morning when we arrived. Most people go there to BBQ, hang out and swim in the water. Fewer people actually do hike the trail, although, plenty of people compared to a day-hike in Alaska. I have a falcon guide book to hikes near Madison that actually describes this hike as "one of the tougher in the book". I guess this speaks to the fact that there aren't any mountains, or large hills in Wisconsin. There are several trails, you can walk along the ridge on both sides of the lake, which is what we did, in that way you actually get some views too. 

 
 

The Landscape   

    Since we wanted to hike on the ridge, we quickly started to climb and got some gorgeous views of the lake and the forest. The landscape is really pretty, boulders mixed with both deciduous and coniferous trees. And boulders, lots of boulders, leftover from glaciers back in the day, combined with lush green vegetation, like everywhere in Wisconsin. The area is a great spot for vulture watching, and we did see quite a few, but hard to catch with your iphone camera. We saw more signs of glaciers, and then one of the main attraction, which everyone else wanted to see and touch too: the Balanced Rock.

 
 

Trail Maintenance

    They really take care of their trails here, almost a little too much maybe. Parts of the trail actually had asphalt on it. Makes it easier to hike on though, and less erosion i would think, but not sure how it works during a heavy rainstorm. I would think it would channelize the rainwater? 

 
 

 I had a really great time, even though this is very different from Alaska. On the other hand it's very similar to Sweden. At the end of the day that dip in the water felt very good. 

Where do you go to swim, do you have any nearby lakes? Or maybe outdoor pools?

 
Posted on August 9, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Wisconsin, Madison Life and tagged Devils Lake Devils Lake State Park State Park Blue Lake Forest Wisconsin hiking Summer Adventures Madison Adventure Trail Trails Hiking vandra Hikes.