Two Trails - Two Days

Heading south on the Badger Trail.
10/10/2020 dwm photo

After a better than expected experience on the Military Ridge State Trail, it made sense to revisit a couple other trails that I stopped riding a few years ago.

The Badger Trail is 40 miles stretched between Madison and the Illinois state line.  The first six miles out of the capital city is paved; the rest is crushed stone.  The stone portion of the trail is shared with snowmobiles.  It's a nice path for the snow machines, but the trail pays a price.  

My early rides on the Badger were in the spring.  While I concluded the poor condition of the path was permanent from the machines; my recent autumn ride pleasantly surprised me.

Just as I left the asphalt path, there were several rough spots but nowhere near as bad as I recalled.  I didn't expect perfect.  It's a road exposed to the elements and burrowing animals, so there is going to be evidence of those things. 

Badger Trail stop
near tunnel.
10/10/20 (dwm)

I rolled through Belleville and made it to the end of the trail.  Hopefully it's just the temporary end.  The Stewart Tunnel is closed because bricks are falling.  That's where I turned and headed back.  The next day we drove to Broadhead.  

Looking back, my first century ride was in high school.  My friend and I took off from Janesville riding our bikes to Broadhead where we got on the new Sugar River Trail. Our plan was to ride up, back, and home.

You might say we overestimated our speed and underestimated the actual distance.  By the time we returned to Broadhead, it was too late and we were too tired.  Nearly 100 miles in, we were done.  We found a phone booth and called home, thankfully my friend's Dad came and got us.

This time I misremembered the distance.  I thought it was 32 miles from one end to the other.  It's actually 23.

One of the longer bridges
over the Sugar River.
10/11/20 (dwm)

 Both the Badger and Sugar River trails follow old railroad beds.  Where the train crossed cropland, grass and trees grew between the tracks and field creating a natural windbreak that helps bikers more than it ever helped the locomotives.

 Just a mile and a half north of where the trail starts in Broadhead stands a replica of the Clarence covered bridge (photo below) which used to cross the river south of town.  The smaller version was built by the town's Jaycees in 1984.  It wasn't standing when my friend and I took our trip.

Broadhead is the first of three trail towns on the way to New Glarus.  Albany is six miles north.  Monticello is 7 miles farther and New Glarus six miles more.  The distance between towns was determined by railroads who developed and sold land to aspiring business owners along the tracks.

An Alphorn concert on the
streets of New Glarus.
1/11/2020 dwm photo

From the trail, you get a better view of Albany than Monticello with a convenience store a few pedals away.  Monticello has signs pointing the way to its Main Street a short distance north of the old depot.

Between Albany and Monticello, the Badger Trail intersects the Sugar River path.  When the Stewart Tunnel is open, the Badger is a straight short north to Madison or south to Freeport, Illinois. Stay on the Sugar and you continue northwest through gentle rolling hills that reminded the original European settlers of their Swiss homeland.

The still-Swiss village of New Glarus is the northern trailhead.  

It's home to cheese factories; special shops; and the craft brewery that makes Spotted Cow beer.  The old depot is now a welcome center for bikers and tourists. 

The trail was in sweet condition for my ride.  Other than a few bumps and holes, it was an uneventful trip down memory lane.

The Clarence Covered Bridge replica just 1.5 miles north of Broadhead.
1/11/2020 dwm photo

An abandoned depot near the former track through Monticello.
10/11/2020 dwm photo

End of the ride at the New Glarus station.  10/11/2020 dwm photo