July 26, 1998 - Winona - Elroy

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 100.9 Miles

TIME: 11 Hours 20 Minutes

AVERAGE SPEED: 14.6 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Warm and sunny all day.

ROAD CONDITIONS: 70 miles of trails which were all dirt. They were however very easy to ride even while on a road bike. Also, because it was an old railroad, there were almost no hills and they used tunnels to bypass obstructions. The small amount of road that we were on in the beginning was also good.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: A very easy day in terms of terrain, but when I expected to have 75 miles and then it ended up to be an extra 25, it made it a very long day.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
I woke up at 7:30 and found out that breakfast was ready so I went downstairs to get some corn flakes and orange juice. I was just about to put my things in the SAG and I then found out that I was on host cleanup. Because of this, I wasn't able to leave until 10:20 with Brad and Heather.(Picture69) About 1 hour later, we got onto the first of three bike trails that we were to take for the day. I expected them to be all paved but it turned out that they were dirt.(Picture70) Fortunately they were all hard packed so it was easy to ride on and actually better than many of the roads that we had been on. It was great to be off of the roads with the cars passing by us. A little while after we started on this trail, we caught up with Katie and Jade where we ate our sandwiches and a little after eating, we caught up with Lana and Julie. After the first trail ended, we stopped at a Hardees where I had a hamburger and a shake. It tasted good at first but when we were ready to leave we found that the high fat didn't work to well with exercise. We continued on anyway and soon felt better. Lana and Julie hadn't stopped so by the time we caught up with them, they were on their way again. We stopped at an old railroad stop which was turned into a tourist center. We all bought some sodas and sat around for an hour.(Picture71) When we finally left, we rode for a few miles(Picture72) before coming to the first of three tunnels.(Picture73) This one was ¾ of a mile long and fortunately was perfectly straight.(Picture74,Picture75,Picture76) They hadn't installed any lights and since Bike-Aid didn't tell us to bring a flashlight, we walked as straight as possible and tried to train our eyes on the small dot of light at the other end. At the beginning we could only see light from where we had started. The air was cool and there were many times when we would have water dripping down our backs. After we were got through, we rode for a little while longer and then went through two more ¼ mile tunnels. These two were dry and we were able to see the other end clearly. Incredibly, Brad rode through all three without lights but I was only able to ride through the last since it was moderately paved. Even on that one, I went off the edge and came close to the wall a few times. We finally arrived at the church at 9:00 where we were greeted by the pastor of the church where we were to stay. We ate tons of food since we hadn't eaten in a while and I then got ready to take a shower. I went over to the pastor's house and cleaned up before going back to the church across the street to go to bed. I listened to some music and fell asleep around 12:30.

TRIP ROUTE:
Lt onto CR 21. Rt onto 14. 14 turns but continue straight onto Pelzer St which becomes River Rd which takes you over bridge. 54 E in Wisconsin. Follow Hwy 54/35 East for about 5 mi. Rt onto Great River State Park Trail @ or near marshland. Follow trail for 22.5 miles to Onalaska. Lt on Hwy 157 for 2-3 mi. Lt onto the L Crosse River State Park Trail for 23 mi to Sparta. Go Rt off trail to Visitor's Ctr and continue on trail. Follow old 400 South not Omaha to E-S trail entrance. Lt into pking/camping area at the start of Elroy/Sparta trail. Follow for 32 mi to Elroy. This ends and 400 trail begins at elroy Commons. Take 400 8 mi to Wanewoc. After passing Ray-O-Vac plant turn Lt onto unmarked road(Gordon St?). After seed mill Rt onto NE St. One Blk after crossing Hwy 33.