Wisconsin, Two Trails One at a Time

There were Several trails I wanted to take in Wisconsin. This is about one of them.

The Wild Goose Trail starts in Fon Du Lac and goes south for about 34 miles. The real issue is that it takes about 2.5 hours to get there from where I live. That isn't negligible. The trail starts in-town and is a series of off the road trail and on road travel. It is well marked and also part of the circle route around the town. What I knew about Fon Du Lac was from the occasional times we traveled to the commercial areas with friends who lived up there at the time. This really didn't get into that area.

Then just north of where we had stopped for gas and breakfast, the trail went off to two different dircctions. I had taken a long time staring at this trail on the maps so I knew where to go. Thank the Maker for Google Maps. 

As a side note, when we stopped at the Kwik Trip coming into town, Tracy was seething because people weren't wearing their masks. She views that as extremely selfish so it was a fun stop.

When the trail finally started after a trip over the interstate, it transitioned to crushed stone and stayed that way the entire trip.

There wasn't anything really of any note about the path. It was flat and the first 5 miles or so had an annoying set of grooves in the ruts of the trail. I certainly didn't want that to continue. And it didn't. The first main road I came across, it stopped.

I was noticing that on certain stretches, it was hard going. I plodded along but I had to do it in a lower gear. I'm certain that the grade was slightly uphill but it was a hard way to go. I knew overall, I was going up a couple hundred feet from start to finish, but that is spread out. But it was noticable. 

My biggest takeaway was finding this about 2 miles in from the last road, along the most deserted part of the path. It is a little, free library. The idea is that you can stop to read a book, or take a book if you leave a book. There wasn't anything in it except a birds nest in the bottom cabinet but I love the idea. Too bad it wasn't kept up. It was a glorious place to put it.

Later in the ride, I came across a patch of tiger lilies. I grew up with them and I am surprised at the patches I find in odd areas in the upper midwest.

At the end of the official trail, the Glacial River Trail kicks in. It really is just along a road for a bit and through the small town of Clyman. Then, for a couple of miles, there's a paved path alongside 26 and with the northern breeze, I screamed along that path. I was in the highest gear and I could actually outrun the red-winged blackbirds that tried to attack me ceaselessly along the route. Tracy picked me up and we went to lunch. I gave serious consideration to keep going along the trail, but it was 27 miles to the end and I just didn't have that in me. I figured I'd already gone 40+ all told and I was done. After getting lost in the neighborhoods of Fort Atkinson, we made our way home.