Biking in Wisconsin, Trempealeau County
Biking through rural Wisconsin on near vehicle-less roads, in one of the nation’s largest connected bicycle trail systems, one encounters vistas of this non-glaciated region along the Mississippi River.
I was catching up on some reading this weekend, when an article in the NY Times about biking in Wisconsin caught my eye. I’m always on the lookout for cool, out of the way, outdoorsy type activities that are close to Chicago. It describes a trip the author took to Trempealeau County and some of the loops he did there (see my google map below).
After a little research I found that this particular region is very bike friendly, over 140 miles of well maintained bike paths in this part of Wisconsin alone, with tons of biking amenities along the way, including roadside bike stewards, friendly locals and eateries. The terrain here is also quite unlike the flat Midwest, there are some nice elevation changes, good for the recreational biker, probably a little too easy for the Le Tour types. The other thing I found is that vehicular traffic is very low on these roads, most of which runs through farm country, which is nice, especially when you don’t have to constantly worry about being run off the road by rogue drivers. Apart from the loops outlined above, the county has about 380 miles of paved county back roads, suitable for biking. Trempealeau County is one of the non glaciated regions in the Midwest i.e. this region was not covered in ice during the Ice Age. This makes for bluffs, ravines, exposed rock and caves.
If biking isn’t your thing, there are also a couple of trails here which seem like good hikes. More info here. Getting there is pretty easy, it’s a nice 5 hour trip up I-90/94 from Chicago.