Trip 29 - Kegonsa

Saturday sunrise. 9/14/24 dwm photo

 Fall is here, which announces itself with the sun arriving later and departing sooner every day.

 The upside is that it is quite easy to get up before the sun in September. Saturday the official Madison sunrise was 6:37 am. A hill and trees made my personal sunrise later than that, it was closer to 6:45.

 It was much warmer than the previous weekend when temperatures dropped into the low 50s overnight, so I wore the short-sleeve Leinenkugel's bike jersey.

 I took the Capital City trail across the south side of the city then headed to McFarland.

The South Yahara boardwalk. 9/14/24 dwm

For some extra miles, I went farther, picking up the South Yahara trail at Fish Camp county park and
riding the boardwalk through the wetland just north of Lake Kegonsa.

After turning around, I stopped at the boat launch to take in the lake, then crossed a bridge over the Yahara River that was closed for repairs on my first visit. The Yahara flows into Lake Mendota then cuts through the isthmus to Lake Monona and then into Lake Waubesa before reaching Lake Kegonsa (photo below left).

There is a fifth lake Madison likes to add to the list, it's Lake Wingra next to the Vilas Zoo that connects via a stream to Lake Monona.

The river empties into the lake. 9/14/24 dwm

 I headed back on the Yahara trail and through McFarland where I rejoined the Capital City trail. On the isthmus the trail connects with the southwest commuter trail at John Nolen road.

 I noticed a lot of in-bound traffic on the roads for the U.W. football game kicking off at 11 am; as I waited for the crossing light to change, I heard an exchange between Alabama and Wisconsin fans.

 It wasn't confrontational. The Bama fans were excited to see their team in a new stadium and the Badger fans were hoping for the best, but thought it would be a tough game.

Near the stadium. (dwm)

I smiled when one of the fans of the Tide remarked they were going to stick around for the 5th Quarter - the Badger Band plays after the game for 15-minutes, the length of a a quarter.

The next two to three miles took a while as foot traffic increased as we got closer to Camp Randall stadium. There were a number of parking lots filled with tailgating fans; and the Kohl Center was where a network pregame show was broadcasting in front of a backdrop of fans; 

I stopped across from the stadium to take a few pictures then headed southwest. After a few blocks it was biking as usual for the rest of the trip.

The usual route home wouldn't go far enough to reach the day's goal so I stayed on the Military Ridge trail through town before leaving the trail to take Nine Mound road to the street that passes our neighborhood.

The extra three miles came up four-tenths short, so just before I took the final turn for home, I double-backed two-tenths than reversed course, reaching 50 miles a short distance from the garage. 

My new total: 1,179.