Hello,

I thought this would be a good subject for people who are seeking a good rails to trails bike trail.

I have a couple of places that I enjoy riding.

1. Wild Goose State Trail. I grew up near the trail near Waupun. I can remember it being a railroad when I was a little boy and converted into a bike trail during the late 1980’s. One thing that is really cool about this trail is the Horicon Marsh. You can stop by the Marsh Haven on HWY 49 (there use to be a bike trail that went into the Marsh Haven area, not sure if it’s still there). Anyway, the trail starts in Fond du Lac and ends past Juneau. Around the Juneau area is a camping site where you can camp for the night.

2. Fox River Trail Green Bay Wisconsin. I like this trail because you can ride in Green Bay, Allouez, De Pere (an assume city with some interesting stops), Rockland, Wrightstown, Holland and soon to connect with the CE Trail (I think).

3. One more trail… the Sparta Trail. The only cool thing about this trail is going through the old train tunnels (it’s really nice during the summer).

Let me know other cool rails to trails out there and why.

Routes I have ridden in SE Wis:

White River trail - Burlington to Elkhorn.
Greenfield Park to Waukesha (does it have a name?)
Various trails along the old Interurban route from Wind Lake down to Burlington, run along Loomis Rd.
Glacial Drumlin trail - Waukesha to Madison.
Another old Interuban route - St. Martins to Big Bend.
Ozaukee County Bike trail from south county line to the north county line.
Racine County has a trail as well, but with all the railroad construction, I'm not sure how much is open.

Why? Why not?

jw

New Berlin Recreational Trail - Only 6 miles long but is freshly paved ('06) and serves as a connector between the Oak Leaf Trail that goes around Milwaukee and the Glacial Drumlin Trail that will take you most of the way out to Madison

That's paved now?

Cool!

jw

There's so many rail/trails in Wisconsin it's hard to talk about all of them. And these are good trails.
1. Not a rail/trail. The Old Plank Road trail. From Sheboygan to Greenbush. Paved with a large hill on the west end.
2. Tomorrow river trail. Crushed limestone from Plover east. Need to take a short detour to reach the east part of the trail. This trail may extend further east than previously, but not sure.
3. 400 Trail. Elroy to Reedsburg. Crushed stone. Pretty flat.
4. Omaha Trail. Camp Douglas to Elroy. Chip seal trail. Can be bumpy in some places. Has a 900 ft tunnel in the middle. Scenic near the tunnel.
5. Great River trail. From LaCrosse to Marshland. Crushed stone. Near the Mississippi for a while. Great bridge crossing about 7 miles north of Onalaska.
6. Old Abe Trail. Paved, but rough in places. Chippewa Falls to Cornell. Very nice ride for a while along Lake Old Abe. Neat bridge crossing over lake Wissota.
7. Chippewa River Trail from Eau Claire to Durand. Paved to chip seal to gravel. Nice at each end, boring in the middle.
8. Red Cedar Trail. Crushed stone. Nice trail near the Red Cedar river. From Menomenie(sp?) to Chippewa Trail.

There are lots more rail/trails in Wisconsin. You can find these and everyother state at www.railtrails.org
There are reviews of many trails on this site. If you've been on one of this trails that doesn't have a review or you found different condtions you should right your own review. Many people read these, as do I and make my decisions on what trails to ride from these.

I live next to these.

Do you think an on-road bike can handle the trail conditions?

I have ridden the Red Cedar Trail and my wife's hybrid did it with no problems at all.

torgrot

I've ridden similar trails with my 25mm road tires and not had problems. However, it does depend on whether we're talking about a state trail vs. a county trail. State bicycle trails are constructed for bicycles (fairly uniform crushed stone or paved). Some county trails allow for ATVs, horses, snowmobiles, and their construction tends to be of a "rougher" quality. Regardless, they're all great and I always enjoys the ride.

I frequently ride the Chippewa River Trail from Short Street in Eau Claire to the Caryville rest stop. The trail gets kind of rough from about 2 miles before Caryville and proceeds after that (not sure how far). It's rough, but not too bad.
That is using my Giant OCR2, not sure of the tire size but they're skinny.

I've been thinking about riding the trail from Pheonix Park up to chippewa and maybe even to Lake Wissota. I'm worried I won't be able to find where the trail connects when it gets to Chippewa.
Does anyone have a map, directions or is it easy enough to find?

I've been thinking about doing the Elroy-Sparta Trail later this year.
The website for it says it has "limestone screenings". Is the trail paved/covered well for skinny tired bikes?

Not sure where it comes in but the trail runs along Duncan Creek from Irvine Park past Leinenkugels to the Chippewa River. Then follows the River to the Old Abe Trail near Lake Wissota. All paved and a fantastic ride.

I remembered to look at the wisconsin DOT county maps and it has it list well.

The Badger State Trail with the historic train tunnel has been opened for less than a month and I am seeing about 25 bikers coming into Monticello each weekday. Sorry, haven't been around on weekends so have no idea how busy it is. Check out Wisconsin's newest trail at www.badger-trail.com

I've ridden sections of the Military Ridge State Trail that runs from Dodgeville to Madison via Blue Mounds, Mt. Horeb and Verona. It's quite flat despite the hilly terrain that it cuts through- I think it continues East and connects with the Glacial Drumlin Trail. Eventually the new Badger trail will connect with the Military Ridge Trail in the Madison area, but it doesn't yet. The Military Ridge Trail currently connects with the Capital City Trail around Madison as well as numerous commuter paths and marked routes through the city- all paved paths or bike lanes.

Surfaces on the Military Ridge trail are hard packed dirt/crushed limestone- ok on a road bike for shorter sections, but ideally some wider tires would be nice.

also note that the chippewa river trail has been recently paved near durand. the surface sucks about midway (resurfaced but not the good kind - they put some stuff down in mondovi on HW37 that is slick and nice, wish they had put that on the trail!!)

going north from eau claire, you get lost and hope you end up on summer st. so you can take the bridge accross, or else you'll be biking up next to banberry place and get lost trying to find the trail again (its up the hill right before HW53 ...kindof.)

from there, the trail ends by hardees (unless you want to bike through grass) or goes west and ends abruptly no matter what direction you take (south, north, or further west.) somehow it ends up on madison (I think) and loops back through carson park.

Supposedly they are to finish it this year. Ha.

I rode up to Lake Wissota from Eau Claire last week.

I am really surprised with how bad the directions for getting in between the sections of the path go (Eddy Rd-Melby Ln, by those big white tanks near 53 to the bridge going to chippewa).
If I had not known the layout of the streets, I would have been completely lost.

I hope they fix this when they pave the rest of the trail, if they're ever going to.

If anyone is interested in riding on this trail but doesn't know the area, I'm planning on marking a route for it in Google earth. Let me know if you want it.

Post the link here. I would like it and I am sure it would be helpful to others as well. Thanks. Dann

We did part of the Badger State Trail in late June and had it to ourselves. It was great change of pace coming from the Chicago suburbs and all that congestion. Don't forget to bring your light if you go through the tunnel, you're going to need it.

On a slight change, I'm going rafting up near Athelstane, WI, (on the Peshtigo). Any good riding in that area?

Been there, done that.

Hizzah. Here you go. It'll be refined later in the day, so check back with me.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...UTF8&z=11&om=1

That is very nice, indeed!

I started mapping stuff out as soon as I moved here. I have the bike freeway and some other stuff in minnesota. some stuff in chicagoland... I love mapping!

bear skin trail minoqya to tommahawk. loose crushed pea gravel with many many railroad trusses over lakes, marshes, etc. Great place to go to "get away from civilization" and see nothing but pine trees, glades and lakes in all directions.

damn tommahawk! Their 92.5 radio talk station overpowers KQRS from minneapolis, which I can barely pick up already here in Eau Claire. ...

Is this a nice trail (ie, interesting), or is just popular because it's asphalt? I'm trying to find an interesting asphalt trail in that's less than 3 hours away from Madison. Minnesota trails that fit that criteria would do too.

On a related topic, Badger State Trail and Sugar River trail are currently closed due to flooding. Military Ridge is partially closed.