Trip Preparations

How much preparation is enough for a bike tour? We've been reviewing routes, assembling a tool kit, tuning up the trikes, selecting quick-drying clothes, and doing some test rides. We still have more than a month to get everything ready, but previous rides have taught us that a little extra planning can save a lot of trouble on the road. (Having the right size inner tubes, for instance.)

Today's project was to hitch everything up, load the luggage, and make sure it all fits, and that nothing interferes with turning. So far, so good. The Igloo cooler holds three luggage organizers, a large bag for tools and spare tires, and a small packet for electronics. A Velo-Case and a Lone Peak seat-back bag will both fit on the rear trike, while the front trike can carry a Radical Design large seat-back bag.

There was time for some photos by Lake Harriet. I just hope the weather is this nice during the ride!

Green Travels

We are planning a greener vacation this summer, in recognition of the harm done by unlimited oil consumption, but also for the pure adventure of two 60-somethings setting out to bike a thousand miles -- from our front door to Wisconsin, joining up with the SAGBRAW group ride there, then riding to the Hostel Shoppe Recumbent Rally and home again.

We signed up for the events, reserved rooms in hotels along the way, and uploaded maps of the routes to our GPS. The next step was to get our Greenspeed Anura trikes set up so that either one could serve as the lead trike or the one pulling the trailer. We added a Weber hitch to the fork-grabber at the back of each trike.

In past years we rode a Hase Kettwiesel and an Anura linked together, but that required two sets of spare tires and tubes. Not fun when you are looking for the right one in the rain.

We're also exploring how to post to this blog from a mobile device, but getting photos to upload is proving challenging.

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On the road to Stevens Point -- Woodville to Osseo, Wisconsin

Bike route 69509 - powered by Bikemap 

On our second day cycling to Stevens Point, we started from Woodville, Wisconsin and rode to Osseo. The day started on quiet roads. At one point, a bald eagle flew across the road, then hunted back and forth along the road just in front of us for a mile or so. We soon found ourselves on Highway 29, which was being resurfaced. We had to wait to ride past the newly-asphalted section, and we were glad to be able to turn south on the Red Cedar Trail. Wisconsin state trails require a trail pass, which we bought in the visitor center. We ate a picnic lunch along the river, then followed the Chippewa River trail to Highway 10. The highway had a paved shoulder that was wide enough for our trike tandem, but it was both less scenic and less relaxed than the country roads, but it was fast and not as hilly as some of the smaller roads. Since we were riding about 80 miles (130 km), we wanted to avoid difficult terrain. In Osseo, we stayed at the Osseo Inn, where we were given a room on ground floor, so that we could bring the trikes inside. We ate pie at the regionally-famous Norske Nook restaurant and planned our long ride for the next day.

More about biking Wisconsin

Bike route 65811 - powered by Bikemap 

The first day of our trip to Wisconsin started with the ride from Minneapolis to Stillwater that is seen in the previous post. We stopped for a picnic lunch beside the Stillwater lift bridge, which had just come back into service a couple days earlier. After a long wait for a boat to pass under the bridge, we crossed in slow and heavy traffic. Most of the cars went up the main road, but we took the very steep route up County Road E and then continued quite straight across St. Croix County. After the first big hill, there were a few moderate hills, but nothing really difficult. We would have continued much further east before turning south, but a detour on County Road E led us to change our plans. A small but intense thunderstorm had overtaken us, and we didn't want to explore a detour of unknown length going away from our planned direction of travel, so we changed course. We didn't know where to stay in the little towns north of Interstate 94, but a friendly local cyclist directed us to a pleasant little motel in Woodville, where we could lock the trikes under an overhang directly outside our door. A disadvantage of traveling the quiet country roads in Wisconsin is that there are very few places to eat or sleep along the way. We had packed enough food and drinks, so we didn't go hungry, but we had some worried moments before we located a room for the night.

Another Route Option

We've been continuing to explore the routes across Wisconsin, using BikeMap.net as well as Wisconsin's own online maps (click the header for a link), which show even the smallest roads, with color-coding to identify the bike-friendly ones. The route in the previous post was quite direct, but it showed up in red as a high-traffic route not suitable for cycling, so we tried a different option. Here's what we came up with:

Bike route 62197 - powered by Bikemap 

It is still pretty hilly, but that may be unavoidable.

Choosing a route

We're planning a bike trip to the Recumbent Rally at the Hostel Shoppe in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Our previous long-distance bike trips have been in Europe, using the splendid bike routes and maps of the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany. One reason for not doing multi-day trips near home has been the difficulty of identifying suitable roads and getting information about them.

We're experimenting with a route-mapping system developed in Germany by Bikemap.net and building on Google Maps. (Click the header for a link to the site.) It provides detailed topographic information and allows for GPS device imports and exports. Riders can share their route information on the site or draw proposed routes and look at the distances and elevations to see whether the ride will be practical. Here's a route that we are considering (we'll report back on whether it works out):

Bike route 61416 - powered by Bikemap 

We can see already that there are some big climbs and drops; we will try drawing up some other routes and see if anything looks gentler.