These photos are taken along the Fox River Trail. I was forced to turn around about 10 miles early due to a harsh ammonia smell in the air related to a nearby farm spreading something rotten in a huge field. I rode about a mile along the field and the smell would not go away so I turned around to get away from the burning ammonia smell.
Trails: Fox River, Baird Creek, East River and George Kress Trails in Wisconsin Start: Fox Point Boat Launch in Green Bay Route: Ride north to Green Bay cutting across to the Baird Creek trail. Then riding the East River trail and cutting back across to the Fox River trail. Ride south to Wrightstown before turning around. On the way back, in De Pere cut across the Fox River and ride over to Lambeau Field and then return back. Distance 61 miles round trip. Weather: Sunny. Temp: 50-70 degrees. Low Elev 570, Hi Elev 700. Feet Ascended: 1180 Trail Material: Asphalt. Rating: TWO Thumbs Up. Had only planned on riding the Fox River Trail but the ability to ride on bike lanes across Green Bay to other trails had me exploring the City of Green Bay and outlying communities like De Pere. Even rode bicycle lanes over to Lambeau Field which is home of the Green Bay Packers. The trails were asphalt with the exception of some bricks at the north end of the trail in Green Bay and smooth Crushed Limestone on the south end of the Fox River Trail. The interesting thing was Green Bay reminded me a lot of Mobile. City along a big river that drains into a big bay that connects to a big waterbody. Big ships in their river and big industry along their river front including massive oil tank storage and shipping docks. Green Bay, with only half the population of Mobile has done so much to connect their people to their Fox River waterfront. No trash was seen along Green Bay's Fox River but if you go to Mobile, the first thing you see along the downtown Mobile River waterfront is trash along the shoreline of their Convention Center and Riverside Park. Green Bay, half the size of Mobile has a big NFL team and is noted for filling the stands of their stadium regardless of the weather. Mobile, twice the population of Green Bay has no Football but it does have a Triple A baseball stadium. Amazingly, the bleachers are almost empty during games. Is the vast difference between the two communities due to race? Green Bay has about 4% blacks whereas blacks make up the majority of population in Mobile with 51%. The only bad parts of this ride was the green slime in the Fox River said by a local resident to be allegedly a result of upstream farming nitrate runoff and the noxious ammonia smell coming from one of those farms that caused me to promptly turn around on the Fox Trail because I couldn't bear riding in the smell anymore. That resulted in not riding about 10 miles of the Fox River Trail. Highlights of this trip: The scenery along Fox River and East River and Baird Creek. Wildflowers. Seeing Lambeau Field and the Cities of Green Bay and De Pere. Loved the ability to get all over the area by bicycle lanes and bike trails. Well done Green Bay! Trails: Duck Creek and Newton Blackmour Trails in Wisconsin Start: Oneida Indian Reservation Trailhead at a Convenience Store. Route: Ride west to New London and back. Distance 65 miles round trip. Weather: Sunny. Temp: 50-70 degrees. Low Elev 740, Hi Elev 820. Feet Ascended: 600 Trail Material: Crushed Limestone Rating: Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down. What I thought was going to be an asphalt trail turned out to be an unpaved trail. Happily the limestone surface turned out to be smoother than the bumpy asphalt trails in Minnesota. The disappointing part of this ride was it looked like workers had recently mowed down all the trailside vegetation taking with it everything that might have been in bloom. Then there was the Rifle Range next to the trail which was very noisy and unsettling. Plus some of the trail was gouged by a huge snowmobile machine that had recently traveled down the trail. Even more disappointing was getting to the end of the trail in New London and seeing it dead end out in the middle of nowhere. For that reason, I give this ride a thumbs down rating. Was a bit windy since a cold front had just passed through but I planned this ride so I'd have a tailwind on the way back and that worked out very well. It was actually a really nice wide trail for the most part so I also give the trail itself a thumbs up rating. I'd ride it again but just not after such a massive trailside mowing. Highlights of this trip: The two trails which connect together are long and straight and very flat. Duck Creek trail has a lot of closed canopy. Newton Trail has lots of open canopy. I thought the ride was going to be all boring but there was some change in scenery now and then. Like from roadside to farmland to swamp and an occasional creek or river crossing. There were several small towns along the trail. Myth: "No license is required to ride a bicycle in the City of Mobile." Fact: False! Bicycles are required to be licensed and have a license plate. The City of Mobile council members are out of touch with the city laws they constantly update and approve. Mobile Municipal Code; Chapter 61-TRAFFIC; Article IX-BICYCLES; Section 61-362 - LICENSE REQUIRED: No person who resides in this city (City of Mobile) shall ride or propel a bicycle on any street or upon any public path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles unless such bicycle has been licensed and a license plate is attached thereto as provided herein. Section 61-363 - LICENSE APPLICATION: Application for a bicycle license and license plate shall be made upon a form provided by the city and shall be made to the city license department. An annual license fee of twenty-five cents ($0.25) shall be paid to the city before each license or renewal thereof is granted. Section 61-366 - ATTACHMENT OF LICENSE PLATE: (a) The city license department, upon issuing a bicycle license shall also issue a license plate bearing the license number assigned to the bicycle. Trail: Cannon Valley Trail in Minnesota Start: Cannon Falls Trailhead in Cannon Falls. Route: Ride east to the town of Red Wing and back. Distance 47 miles round trip. Weather: Partly Sunny. Temp: 50-70 degrees. Low Elev 700, Hi Elev 845. Feet Ascended: 850 Trail Material: Asphalt. Rating: Thumbs Up. Trail Pass: $4 Daily. What a shame. Minneapolis is suppose to be the most bike-friendly city in the country but I was intimidated by the huge City of Minneapolis. Finding a trail in Minneapolis to ride and a place to park was seemingly impossible. Never had any problem finding trailheads on other trails in other states. Michigan trail maps made it extremely easy to find parking. Most Minnesota websites did not give parking info. Some said parking is a premium in downtown Minneapolis and that you have to pay to park or have a parking permit sticker. Dunno. I know nothing about taking a bicycle on a commuter bus or train to get downtown Minneapolis. It was the weekend and the trail was likely going to be real busy. I don't care to dodge people on a busy trail, so, I decided to do a half day ride on the Cannon Valley trail that someone recommended before quickly leaving Minnesota. First bad thing about the Cannon Valley ride was more bumps. My ass still hurt from all the trail bumps yesterday. To make things worse I had to buy a trail pass which cost 4 dollars just to ride on the recreational trail. Luckily the Cannon trail smoothed out fairly quickly which is why I still give it a thumbs up rating. Was not as impressed by the trail as I hoped it would be because it was another one of those trails where it felt like riding in a tunnel of trees. The good thing of a densely covered trail is it keeps the temperature about 10 degrees cooler. Highlights of this trip: Wildflowers and the number of the people kayaking, tubing, and canoeing down Cannon River which was occasionally visible from the trail. Anyone ever tell you they ride their bicycle on the road because it is illegal to ride on sidewalks? Myth: "It is illegal to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk." (Referring to the City of Mobile only) Fact: *False! It is only illegal to ride a bicycle on a sidewalk in Mobile "within a business district." Since there are no signs erected in Mobile to delineate the start and end of any particular business district location (that I am aware of), there is no way for the average resident and especially out of town visitors to know the business district locations due to the crazy number of zoning catogories. So yes, you can indeed ride your bicycle on any sidewalk in Mobile so long as there is no sign erected banning bicycle use on that specific sidewalk. *Mobile Municipal Code; Chapter 61 - TRAFFIC; Article IX - BICYCLES; Section 61-379 - RIDING ON SIDEWALKS (a) No person shall ride a bicycle upon a sidewalk within a business district. (b) The city traffic engineer is authorized to erect signs on any sidewalk or roadway prohibiting the riding of bicycles thereon by any person and when such signs are in place no person shall disobey the same. (c) Whenever any person is riding a bicycle upon a sidewalk, such person shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian and shall give audible signal before overtaking and passing such pedestrian. Trail: Sakatah Singing Hills Trail in Minnesota Start: Faribault Trailhead at Hwy 21. Route: Ride west just past Elysian and back. Distance 52 miles round trip. Weather: Mostly Sunny. Temp: 60-85 degrees. Low Elev 990, Hi Elev 1115. Feet Ascended: 730 Trail Material: Asphalt. Rating: Thumbs Down. Had planned on getting a motel in Minneapolis but after being assigned a room with black mold covering the wall behind the toilet, a room with no internal lock on the door, no shower nozzle, no towels, and an air conditioner that was blowing out heat making the room too hot to sleep in, and other motels were booked solid, I drove south to Faribault to get a motel. My fault for not getting a reservation on a Friday Night. The good news was there was a bike trail starting in Faribault. I liked the Sakatah trail between Faribault and Watertown because of the smooth asphalt and varying scenery. Marshes, woodlands, dense canopy, open canopy, farmlands, and lakes. The reason for the thumbs down rating is the trail west of Waterville gets very bumpy. When I say bumpy, the bumps (frequent cracks in the asphalt) were rough enough that it was hurting my butt making the ride so miserable that I cut the ride short and turned around. A trail has to be pretty rough to make me turn around. No way I wanted to ride a bumpy trail any further knowing I had to turn around and ride over the same bumps again on the return trip. One area of the trail was so bumpy that a "Caution" sign was posted. Someone later said the Sakatah Trail was the first paved bike trail in Minnesota and it was scheduled to be repaved next year. The other bad thing about this trail causing the thumbs down rating was all the bridge crossings. The wood used to build the bridges was treated with some chemical that smelled so bad that it was nauseating to spend any time near the bridges due to the noxious fumes. Highlights of this trip: The overhead canopy gets dense in places which is nice on a hot sunny day. Unfortunately, the minute I stopped to take photos or to take break the mosquitos were out for blood. Seeing the lakes was nice but I would not ride this trail again unless it gets repaved. While on the drive to Minneapolis I stopped by to see the Badlands of South Dakota and took a few photos. More photos from the north part of the Mickelson Trail ride. Trails: George Mickelson Trail in South Dakota (North End) Start: Mystic Trailhead (Mile Post 75). Route: Ride north to Deadwood (Mile Post 108+) and back. Distance 73 miles round trip. Weather: Sunny. Temp: 50-70 degrees. Low Elev 4600, Hi Elev 6225. Feet Ascended: 3500 Trail Material: Crushed Limestone. Trail Pass Required: $3 per day. Rating: TWO Thumbs Up. Note: For riders with a bucket list of top ten Rails-to-Trails to ride, put the George Mickelson Trail on your list. Another chilly start (low 50s). No trouble finding this trailhead since the ride yesterday turned around at it. Highlights of this trip: One major climb of about 1500 feet over 19 miles then the trail drops 1600 feet over the next 15 miles into Deadwood. Unlike the middle and south parts of the Mickelson trail with all railroad slope grades, some of the slopes on the north end reach 5 percent with one short climb of over 15 percent. That one had sure had me huffing and puffing. The 6200 feet elevation may make those used to lower sea level elevations huff and puff even more. The north end of the Mickelson trail gives the rider a more mountainous experience with long sweeping curves and steep trailside terrain. The previous small trailside stream becomes wider with more rushing water and a few small waterfalls. There are some seriously dangerous areas where if you lose attention looking at something and ride off the trail, it is going to be a long, long fall to the bottom. Makes for a more exciting ride. The deer and other animals, beautiful mountains, rushing water, beautiful meadows blanketed with wildflowers, tunnels, rocks, and more made this another ride I did not want to end. Breaking up the 108 mile trail into three out and back full day rides turned out to be the perfect way for me to expetience this awesone trail. The only warning I give is South Dakota appears to be a Tourist Trap with ridiculous prices but I there just as the hugely popular Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was about to begin. |
BicycleMode of transportation 25x more efficient than a car. Law SuitsCities are liable for citizen injuries when it comes to road grates, pot holes, and substandard roads.
Click Here to read more. Categories
All
Archives
September 2015
|