Bike Across America: Sparta, WI to Portage, WI

July 31, 2010
90 miles

Everyone woke up early because we had a long ride ahead of us. Breakfast was at 5:30 a.m. and I rode out alone a little after 6 a.m. Since I was riding my road bike I decided to skip the Sparta/Elory unpaved trail and ride on Hwy 71 to Elroy. Turns out it was a good choice for me as there was no one on the highway that early, I had the road to myself and the pavement was relatively smooth. I had lots of opportunities to stop and check out mom and pop type of farms. I rolled through a few small towns like Norwalk, Wilton, and Kendall. Each time the road would intersect the trail it would climb up a hill and then there would be a good downhill on the other side.

A beautiful morning on Hwy 71 with no cars

Scenery along Hwy 71

Once I got to Elroy (33 miles into the trip) our directions instructed us to get onto the "400 trail" This trail was similar to the trail yesterday but I had to slow my speed down to about 10 mph because the dirt trail had water, sand mounds and bumps. On the trial I passed through more small towns like Union Center, Wonowoc, and LaValle. I got off the trail in Reedsburg which was now the 55 mile mark. Reedsburg seemed like another nice small town in Wisconsin with beautiful old buildings.

As I worked my way out of Reedsburg I came to a park where our lunch stop was. I was the only one so far who had passed through. I stayed there with Blaine for about half an hour.

The ride from Reedsburg to Portage was very nice along country roads however some of the intersections were not marked so my gps came in handy again. As I was riding down one country road a wasp nailed me with an excruciating sting.

Got to Portage around 2:30 p.m. and found the downtown to again, have nice old style buildings. Our hotel is about three miles out in a commercial area. The others showed up later in the afternoon. Ziva had fallen and injured her leg so Blaine drove her and Susan to the hotel.

Clydesdale horses young and old