Bike 4 Trails” Bike Ride

Aug. 23-26, 2007

Submitted by Tommy H.

We left on Thurs. August 23 with 13 bikes for 13 people. We drove over 3.5 hours to Tomah for lunch and and then we set-up our tents in Elroy City Park. We only had to pay $2 per person to camp there. Then we drove 25 miles to Reedsburg and biked 25 miles back to Elroy City Park on the “400 Trail”. The last miles it rained and we got soaked. We changed our clothes and camped there for the night.

The next day it rained all morning. Good thing they had a great shelter to hang out under. Nicholas, Jared, and Mr. Acton decided to bike the entire 30 miles to Sparta,. while the rest of us drove to Sparta and biked the 11 miles to the end of the ¾ mile-long tunnel and back. The tunnel was pitch dark; we had to use flashlights. Water was dripping off the ceiling. Ricky, Dane, and Philip survived one minor bike crash when they were riding side-by-side. We set-up camp at Leon Valley campground and Mr. Acton made tasty cheeseburgers on his grill.

On Saturday morning, we packed up and left by 9:00 am. We biked east 15 miles and had a break in West Salem. Then we biked only 10 miles to have subs in Onalaska Park (just north of LaCrosse) and ice cream at DQ. Finally, we biked the rest of the 50 miles by biking a couple of miles past Perrot State Park and then back to Perrot State Park. I felt exhausted but still played ultimate Frisbee. For the last time we setup camp and had a big spaghetti supper. Everyone wanted to go home but we stayed there for the night. In morning we packed up for the third time. Everyone took a nap on the way back.

When we got back Mr. Acton recapped the bike trip by the numbers as follows:
Snakes run over by a bike - 1
Turtles seen on trail - 6
Snowy Egrets - 1
Wood Ducks - 3
Scouts in bike crashes - 4
Turkeys - 5
Deer - 7
Meals eaten - 117
Miles biked - 1000
Fun had – infinite