The Longest Ride

A mile into the ride. 9/30/23 dwm

After my last ride I looked at the year's mileage and realized there was a chance I could hit 1,000 miles for the season.

If the weather cooperates I might be able to ride until the end of October.  Yes, I could keep riding but I don't have cold-weather gear for rides - if the day is sunny and expected to hit the mid-40s with no rain, I'm in - colder with no sunshine and rain will keep me home.

The ride Saturday was a round-trip to Sun Prairie.  It's an easy trip in a car.  With a bike there is a three block section near East Towne Mall where I used sidewalks and pedestrian crossings of East Washington street.

The start was similar to many rides, riding east to the Ice Age trail which connects to the Military Ridge and Capital City state trails.  From the state trail I turned left at Fair Oaks road.

It's not a formal intersection.  The trail crosses in the middle of the block at a marked crossing.  The car approaching from my left slowed down and stopped when it saw me.  I was getting ready to turn when I noticed a car, which seemed to be going faster than the posted limit, coming from the right.  I waited for him and was grateful to see the first driver still waiting for my turn, I bet he's a cyclist.

View of downtown across Lake Mendota. dwm

 From there came that three-block section.  There are probably better ways to navigate that stretch but I'm not in that area enough to know which streets go through and which don't.  

 Eventually I was on Lien road which is quieter than the main streets, following it around the mall to High Crossing which would take me to a bike path through green space to the west edge of Sun Prairie.

 My goal for the day was 50 miles but once I reached Sun Prairie I thought I could get more than that by heading downtown. When I got there, I found a couple blocks filled with a farmer's market.

I walked my bike past several booths before seeing one selling baked goods.  The family-run stand had pretzels, bread, cinnamon rolls (tempting), and cookies.

 

The chocolate chip cookie I received had enough chips and cookie dough to equal two, if not three, cookies.  After paying for it, I started in, finishing it while riding back down Main Street to Kwik Trip to refill my water bottle and grab some protein with two sticks of string cheese.

 

I got a cookie at Bri's Fresh Bakes. 9/30/23 dwm

My return trip retraced my route through Sun Prairie down to Reiner road which I took south until it changed its name to Sprecher.  Reiner is a busy country road. 

Most of Reiner had new asphalt but no pavement right of the lane line, just a drop off to a foot-wide layer of gravel.  That makes for a white-knuckle ride with traffic having no choice but passing close when there is on-coming cars. 

When Sprecher met Cottage Grove road, I turned right toward Madison.  There is a gradual incline followed by a downhill from the bridge over the interstate to the passage under U.S. 51.  Two blocks later I turned on Dempsey, following a stretch of the Monona lake loop until it put me back on the Capital City trail.

The longest ride of the year went well, averaging 15 miles per hour over 66 miles, leaving me 235 miles short of my goal.