Two Rivers, WI

Fishing Museum, Two Rivers, WI

 After a nice weekend and another bicycle ride around Fitchburg, WI, we traveled Monday to Two Rivers, WI.
This is the first time for us to visit this part of Wisconsin and to be on the western shoreline of Lake Michigan.  As we'd been told, not as sandy as it is in Michigan.  Still pretty, though.

We got off to a fast start on Tuesday by walking to the post office in town.  Just by chance we walked by the Washington House which was a hotel, bar, dinning, and entertainment center built in the middle 1800s to serve visitors traveling Lake Michigan and the fishing industry.  Now the place is a visitor's center, museum, and ice cream parlor.  And as you can tell, they claim that this town is home of the original ice cream sundae.  You'll have to make your own determination if that's true or not.  And there are two rivers here - East Twin River and West Twin River.

Two Rivers Beach area

On Wednesday we drove a couple of hours north past Sturgeon Bay to Peninsula State Park.  Excellent place to visit!  Well worth your time to go out of your way to see.  It has several campgrounds, many trails and a good unpaved bicycle trail.  It consists of bluffs that overlook Green Bay.  If you're in a good spot, you can see Michigan UP in the distance. Otherwise, you see

Two Rivers, WI

the islands in Green Bay.  Not sure what they're called.  One map lists them as Green Bay Islands.  Another map listed them as Strawberry Islands.  A couple have structures built on them.  One of the most popular of the islands is Horseshoe Island as it has a beautiful bay that protects boats from the prevailing winds.

We went to the park to hike the Eagle

Eagle Lighthouse, Peninsula State Park, WI

Terrace Trail, but found it too steep and narrow for our taste.  We decided to walk the Sunset Trail.  That's the bicycle trail through the park.  It took us by the Eagle Lighthouse, several areas along the lake shore, north woodlands that give you that Christmas smell, the nature center, and Nicolet Bay & Beach.

Today, we drove to Green Bay and rode our bicycles along the East River Trail.  We went to lunch a Kroll's West just across the street from Lambeau Field.  After lunch we walked the Fox River Trail.  The Fox River is the longest of the bicycle trails in the Green Bay area and is a nice path, but we didn't find that trail to be very scenic as the riverbanks of the Fox River are generally industrial areas.  Looks like a good ride, though.

Nicolet Harbor and Horseshoe Island

That's been our week.  The campground we're in is located on an unpaved bicycle trail that travels north to a local national forest area and beaches.  Go south and it links up to a paved trail that travels down to Manitowoc, WI.  That's our planned trip for tomorrow.

Sunset Trail

We're here through the weekend.  Plans are to return to DeForest Monday and stay through Labor Day.  We head south to Illinois after that for a planned Folks-on-Spokes Gulf Shores rally near St Louis, MO.  As always, that's the plan!

So that wraps up this week.  Thanks for stopping by and checking up on us.  Hope you had a good view of the eclipse.  (We had clouds and got cool.)

Sunset Trail

Until next week, David


P.S.  Lots of pictures this week.  Hope you enjoy them!

View from Sunset Trail

Green Bay Islands

Deforest Week 3

DeForest, WI

We've continued checking out the various areas around DeForest, WI this week.  More walking than bicycle riding this past week.

First up was to check out the local bicycle trails here in DeForest.  What we found was a marsh, prairie, oak savanna, and river ecosystem recovery set aside around the Yahara Stream/River.  Nice walk - about 7 miles round-trip and easy to reach from the KOA.

We also realized just how easy it was to walk into town from the KOA by either by following parts of the bicycle trail or cutting through the various subdivisions.  The dirt paths you see here in the top three photos are currently closed for paving.

Picnic Point, Univ of WI

We tried to make a second visit to the Farmer's Market around the Capitol Square, but it appeared to be move-in week at University of Wisconsin and parking was at a premium.  We decided to go to Picnic Point.  Picnic point is a short walk in part of the beautiful Madison Nature Preserve and just a short walk from some of the University of Wisconsin dorms.

The pictures to the right are from that walk.  Be aware as you walk the area that Native American burial sites are scattered along the point.  Seems a lot of people see it as a special place!

Last place of note was a visit to New Glarus, WI.  New Glarus is one end of the Sugar River State Trail.  It's also an old Swiss Immigrant town as you can from the historical marker and is trying to market itself as a little Switzerland town.

It's worth a stop if you're in the area if for nothing other than the local bakery.  It's an hour trip (one-way) for us to go to New Glarus, and we may go back just to visit the bakery!

For you bicyclists, the Sugar River State Trail is similar to most other trails that we've ridden in Wisconsin.  It's a packed earth, crushed stone path and resembles a dirt road though the local farmland and woods of the area.

Otherwise, we're fine.  Plans are to leave here Monday (during the eclipse) and travel a few hours north to Two Rivers, WI for a week.  We've never seen the west shoreline of Lake Michigan from Wisconsin, so we thought we'd check it out.

Hope everyone is doing well.  We know a lot of people are out to see the eclipse.  We're doing our best to stay out of your way!

New Glarus, WI

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next week, David

Deforest Week 2

Pheasant Branch Conservancy

 We've had an active week since we last posted.  After a day of dodging thunderstorms, we managed to get out on Saturday to the Farmer's Market held each Saturday on the Wisconsin Capitol Square.  On Sunday we met for lunch with Jean and Allen Hilgeman (Folks-On-Spokes, Gulf Shores) at Mullen's Dairy Bar in Watertown, WI.

On Monday we joined Lee and Christine Mitchell for a tour of the Wisconsin State Capitol, ate lunch at The Old Fashioned (most popular restaurant in Wisconsin per Facebook), and took a tour of Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac, WI.

Yep, that's Wisconsin's Capitol

On Tuesday we took off on a walk of Pheasant Branch Conservancy in Middleton, WI.  For Wednesday we drove over to the Glacial Drumlin trail-head in Cottage Grove, WI.  We rode about an hour east and returned for a total of about 20 miles round trip.  Trail conditions are the same as many other trails we've ridden in Wisconsin; generally a shaded trail of pea-sized gravel on a mixture of hard and soft ground.

Today we've taken the day off while avoiding pop-up thunderstorms.  We've made one trip out for some things, and I've got some of the dust off the truck before the thunderstorms started.  Turns out it was a good day to rent and watch Star Wars: Rogue One.

As you can tell, we've had a good time.  Still over a week to go before we leave.  More bicycle riding to do and at least one more visit to the Farmer's Market before we leave is the plan.

So that's our week and plans.  Hope everyone is doing OK.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David

DeForest, WI

 After one more trip to La Crosse, WI to walk along the Mississippi River and one more bicycle ride on the Elroy-Sparta State Trail from Sparta eastward to the first tunnel & return, we made the short trip over to Deforest, WI on Monday.

Our exploring has just started.  Since arriving, we've bicycled the Southwest & Cannonball Bicycle Trails and took a tour of the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.  Top picture is of the Wisconsin State Capitol from the Lake Loop Trail.  Picture to the right is from the deck of the Dawley Conservancy Bicycle Hub.

Yesterday, we visited the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.  It was Butterfly Blooming Season at the gardens, so the place was pretty crowded as folks came to see the butterfly exhibits.  Nice place to visit, and we'll probably go back when it's not so crowded.  And take a better camera!

The pictures to the right and below are from the gardens; the last one of a local resident located along the garden's parking lot exit.

Today's been a rest and wait-out-the-rain day.  There's more bicycle trails to ride and many places to visit, so I think we can stay busy for our stay.  At least we plan to stay busy!

That's been our week.  Hope you enjoy the pictures of the gardens.  Until next week, David