Tigersnake's travels, 2010

In the summer of 2010, we set out on a thousand-mile bike tour on two Greenspeed Anura trikes, linked together, and pulling a Burley flatbed trailer.  We had noticed that two organized events in Wisconsin were close enough together that we could do both on one ride, and not exceed our available vacation time.

SAGBRAW is a multi-day, supported bike ride in central Wisconsin.  Luggage is trucked from town to town, cots or tents are available at local schools (we chose to stay in motels at favorable SAGBRAW rates), and there are cafeteria breakfasts and suppers.

The Hostel Shoppe bike store in Stevens Point hosts the annual Midwest Recumbent Rally for three days in August, bringing together hundreds of recumbent cyclists from across the country to enjoy supported day rides on quiet country roads.  Their catered meals are legendary!

Riding to and from these events, we also wanted to take advantage of Wisconsin's famous Rails-to-Trails routes, including the very first -- the Elroy-Sparta trail.  We also had some famous pies in mind -- particularly the ones at Gina's Pies are Square along the Elroy-Sparta trail, and the prize-winning pies at the Norske Nook in Osseo.  (Sadly for us, Gina has moved on to other adventures and has given up her pie shop.)

A few days into the trip, two skittish saddle horses inspired the name of "Tigersnake" for the rig.  From their reaction, we imagined them seeing this "monster" and having a sudden desire to head for the safety of the barn.  (They calmed down when we took off our helmets, stood up, and talked to them.)

We blogged the ride using a Motorola Droid smart phone with Bloggerdroid, and sometimes adding more comments or photos from a laptop, if we weren't too tired and had a good internet connection in our motel.

We rode 1008 miles, with an average of more than 65 miles a day, over a bit more than 15 days of riding.  The trip had been planned as a loop starting and ending in our driveway, but just 35 miles from home, we encountered a section of road construction that eliminated the bikeable shoulder on a busy highway that was the only fairly direct route.  There was a U-Haul rental service right there.  We had gotten past 1000 miles, had returned to Minnesota -- to Hastings, which we had passed through earlier -- and we were out of inner tubes.  We could have taken a long detour to the north or west, spent another night in a motel, and hoped for no more flat tires.

The trip blog starts with this entry about the trip preparations and can be followed through by clicking "newer post" at the end of each entry.