It had been a HOT afternoon ride and I was straggling over to the shower house still wearing my bright orange Tee with the Superman logo ($9 at WallyWorld, $18 if you want it in Navy with a Nike Swoosh; the Navy is considered formalwear back home).
Nice shirt, he said.
Thanks. They give one to the guy who rides both ways on the Sparta-Elroy Trail pulling a biketrailer with two Yorkshire Terriers.
Wow, says he, a little less glib.
Yeah. I took it off his desiccated corpse...gave the Yorkies a drink. I think they're gonna be fine.
We have been lucky enough to sample some great biking lately; both Wisconsin and Minnesota are blessed with scads of trails, enough to plan a summer around.
The Root River trail system centered near Lanesboro MN is exquisite. Wonderful paved surface tracing along the river and reaching up to welcoming little towns.
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| ROCK CUTS |
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| BRIDGES |
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| OLD BARNS |
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| PRETTY GIRLS AND WILDFLOWERS |
We rode through Wildlife refuges on the Great River Trail (more Prairie flowers, an avenue of them).
When it's not crossing marshes, passing through corn and little towns with fresh vegetable stands, the LaCrosse River Trail rolls along like this.
You can bag three tunnels on the oldest Rail-Trail in the country, the Elroy-Sparta. One was over 3000 feet and DARK -- the longest we have ever walked through.
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| NOT one of the 10,000 pictures of this tunnel on the Internets |
The other Wisconsin tunnel is on the Omaha Trail. (the worst maintained trail we ever paid two bucks to ride!). ( A bitter rant has been excised since this is a family blog.)
In Lanesboro we camped right in the center of town (Sylvan Park) and rode right from the trailer. Very convenient , even if they did want a buck for five minutes of hot water. Other private RV parks abound.
Our ride to the trail town of Fountain is notable for the best pie EVER. The little Village Square restaurant is worth any long ride, even the long uphill pull past the dairy farm. Put Peach Cream Pie on your bucket list. And even though they are a long way from Dixie, their Pecan Pie was exceptional.
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| PIE JUST AHEAD |
You can eat another piece, with ice cream, 'cause it's nearly four miles downhill after Fountain.
We note that the Aroma Pie place in Whalan proudly proclaiming the "World Famous Pies" is up for sale.???
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| Pride goeth before... |
Perhaps the most pleasurable parts of this interlude were the drives through lush farmland on tiny back roads (sometimes on purpose). What? Another picture postcard farmstead? Another set of hills stripped with corn and beans and that hay crop I can't spell? Whatever happened to corn "knee high by Fourth of July"? It's seven feet tall if it's an inch! And the wildflowers? Not beside the corn, but everywhere else, even the Interstates. It was glorious... and peaceful ...and boy I'm glad we aren't biking over This set of hills.
Signing off. Heading for the great woods...
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