Day 33 - 100 miles from La Crosse to Wisconsin Dell, WI

God has really provided us incredible weather. Knock on wood, but it has only rained once during our riding time since we started 33 days ago. Today was no exception, as it was another gorgeous day.

Anne and Michael rode the Co-motion to the second SAG stop and I finished the rest on the Cervelo. The original distance was suppose to be 91 miles; however, due the disappearance of our road for repaving, we had to go an extra 9 miles making it a century. Overall, we have ridden 500 miles in 5 days. We are really moving across the Midwest quickly!

Because John and Denny, Anne's  brothers, had driven part of the route we were to take, they told the Support Staff about some loose gravel that could have been dangerous. So, the Staff re-routed us over a nearby bike trail that was much safer and better
.

Since we are in Amish country, it is no surprise we ran into a carriage.

Then, we ran into some of the riders at a convenience store. Here are HiSi from Thailand and Chris, the youngest rider at 15 from CA.

WI is known for it cheese (why there are so many cheeseheads!); so, you see it in many shapes, football players, cows, etc.

The highlight of today ride was the Sparta Bike Trail in Sparta, the Bicycling Capital of America, that is home of the oldest bike trail in the US.

Here, Don and Holley sit atop a big Penny Farthings.

We started the trail behind Philippe from Israel.

On this trail, there are 3 tunnels, cut through three steep hills for a railroad that no longer exists. So, the trail, which uses much of the railbed as well as these tunnels. This one is called the 3rd tunnel; however, we are going through them in reverse so it is our 1st.

As the sign says, you are to walk your bike through the tunnel. Why? Because most of its road surface is narrow, uneven, slippery and wet. You must have a flashlight because you actually cannot see your hand in front of your face.

Here is Anne if you can tell. Spooky, huh!

After walking ~4,000 feet, you reach daylight and the exit.

The other two tunnels were ~2,000 and 1000 feet long. Although the same sign about walking them was at each entrance, you could ride these with a bike light because the road surfaces were much smoother, wider and not as wet.

An advantage of rails to trails bike paths is if there is any grade, it is slight as trains don't go up grades very well and the trails are very shaded. However, a disadvantage is that, during most of the trail, you don't get to see the countryside because of all the trees on each side of the trail unless you go over a bridge. So, these pictures were taken after exiting the 1st tunnel and from a bridge.  As you can see, the WI countryside is very pretty.

From the second SAG stop, Michael rode the Cervelo because the Staff did not know if there were any long, steep climbs on the 9-mile detour. Turned out there wasn't. However, it was good that I was able to get to the  Wisconsin Dells fairly quickly because, we found the scheduled motel had changed ownership and had sold out most of their rooms leaving our tour group savenagering for rooms in other motels. The Staff did a terrific job of finding rooms and working out the logistics of get our luggage to four different motel sites and getting us to dinner.

Tomorrow, its 84 miles to Fond du Lac, WI.