Loop de Lake

Saturday was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and the open road asking me to grab my bike and get outside.

Madison has so many bike ready streets that one of my favorite ways to go is just choosing a direction and discovering as I ride around.

Just as it started to warm up after 9, I put on some sunscreen and headed in the general direction of Lake Wingra - one of the quiet lakes in the city -  tucked into neighborhoods just southwest of downtown.

I found a bike path that wound behind picturesque Edgewood College and into Vilas Park where the free zoo was already open for dozens of families toting kids in strollers and wagons.

Lake Wingra feeds into a stream that joins Lake Monona and it's along that stream that the road (picture at right) guides joggers, walkers, and bikers into the University of Wisconsin Arboretum.  After a quick route around Wingra I followed the bike path and started a trek around Lake Monona.

Yellow signs pointed the way to go on the Lake Loop, which in itself was a discovery for me.  It was the first time I was riding counter-clockwise around the lake - each time before I only saw a few of the signs and while I never got lost I had a feeling something was missing.

It was.  The loop kept me closer to Lake Monona (left) and through wonderful neighborhoods that felt more like the north woods than the capital city.  Flashing between the homes were views of the isthmus and the Capitol.

Moments that seemed particularly Madison happened several times on the streets when there were more bikes than cars.  That was very cool.

On one corner, and I hope I can find it again, was a home with a small business attached.  Neon signs in the window advertised fountain drinks and bait (folks fish these lakes!).  A sandwich board in the yard trumpeted U.W. Babcock Hall ice cream and across the street an idyllic park on the lake shore.

The home/business precedes zoning laws, I suspect, but it creates a welcoming atmosphere and a neighborhood feel.  It was an awesome ride around town topped with a stop back in Verona and lunch that hit the spot and gave me the fuel necessary to make it the last five miles home.