Biking in Wisconsin

On Sunday, we drove up to West Salem, near La Crosse, Wisconsin, to bike with friends Candis and Greg, Kathy and Bob.

Wisconsin Welcomes You (or, us!) -- Recreation, Industry, and Agriculture

We stopped for lunch about halfway along on the trip and in the truck area of the rest stop a Schneider truck was parked over from us -- Carl took a picture for son Steve (who works for Schneider).

We met our friends for dinner in West Salem and then joined them in the lobby of their hotel for snacks and catching up on each other's lives.

On Monday, we wanted to go bike riding (after all, that's the point of getting together for bike riding, right?!?!?). Rain was predicted for later in the day so we tried to get going early in the morning. I think we finally got onto the trail at about 10am (after deciding where to go, getting to the trail head, getting our bikes unloaded, making another restroom stop, etc. etc.).

We rode on the La Crosse River State Trail until the point where it met the Great River State Trail. We knew that we were supposed to have a State Trail Pass, but had not seen a place where we could purchase it until we got to Onalaska.

We registered and paid our fees.

Lake Onalaska, formed when a lock and dam was built in 1937 (http://www.lakeonalaska.org/).

Our crew at the point where we decided to turn around

It was good that we decided to turn around at that point -- we got back to Onalaska and stopped at Culver's for lunch and frozen custard. We decided to eat outside until rain came and forced some of us inside. The rain lasted about 20-30 minutes, and then stopped enough that we decided we'd better get back on the trail to bike back to our cars.

Our return trip was a bit faster than our outbound ride as we wanted to get back to our cars and get the bikes put away before another shower hit!

Total of 28+ miles, almost 3 hours of bike riding (no credit for the time spent at Culver's!)

The route was pretty level, we got some good exercise.

Biking with friends encourages us to go further than we would probably go by ourselves -- and it is enjoyable as we get to chat with others!

Across from the trailhead parking lot I had noticed a company "Three Brothers Bat, Co". After our ride, I walked over and took a picture to remind me to look up information about the company. It has a neat story: https://threebrothersbats.com/about-3/

Other than getting slightly damp, we had a good first day of bike riding!