Trip 31 - The Longest Ride... so far

Sunrise east of Verona along Military Ridge. 9/28/2024 dwm

It was a beautiful morning to ride, to be outside. Yesterday I saw dozens of people who agreed with me.

I saw close to two dozen out for a run in Fitchburg. I don't think it was a race but it was organized because for several miles I kept passing groups of 2 or more running east on the Capital City trail.

This week there was no tree across the Military Ridge when I left town. In fact, the tree had been removed entirely from the path, the only thing left was a stump.

The past couple weeks has been calm during my rides. The wind was back yesterday, blowing steady from the north-northeast, which happened to be the primary direction I was headed.

It's 30 miles from my home to Sun Prairie. This time I took the Military Ridge and Capital City Trails to Fair Oaks road, then rode through the Madison College campus, crossed Stoughton Road, then crossed through a Madison city park to Portage Road.

County N turnaround. 9/28/24 dwm

 I didn't know about Portage Road until last fall. It's a quiet road that offers a bridge over the Interstate without the traffic that comes with a cloverleaf interchange. Portage has two 90-degree angles on its way over the bridge which I followed to Heopker Road.

 I took that to Grand Avenue, got on Main Street, and stayed on it until turning on Grove Street where I passed the original Sun Prairie High School, now called Sun Prairie East then stayed with it as it became County Highway N until I hit 35 miles.

 That's where I pulled into a driveway so I could see traffic before reversing course.

 There were a few stops, starting with one to get a picture of the sunrise, another when I turned around and took the photo at left. I made three Kwik Trip stops to fill my water bottle and get snacks. The last Kwik Trip was out of my way, it gave me the extra tenths of a mile I needed to reach my goal.

The trip south of Sun Prairie started with the wind at my back, then it was in my face coming back to town. Thankfully the rest of the return trip I had either a breeze at my back or crossing, which isn't bad. 

Back home, the bike had 70 miles on the odometer, my total for 2024 is 1,310.