Ride 3 - The Mendota Lake Loop

A new intersection. 4/19/25 dwm

One of my regular rides over the last decade has been a ride up and around Lake Mendota.

Last year, construction crews made much-needed upgrades to this stretch of County M between County K and State Road 113. As Madison and neighboring communities grew, so did the amount of traffic on the two-lane road, which was really more of a highway as traffic goes 55 and there is only three or four feet of pavement to the right of the white line.

When I rode that highway, I try to get out early in the day before weekend traffic builds up. Saturday was the first time I'd even looked at it since last fall. A sign as I left Middleton warned the road was closed to thru traffic ahead but given all the cars I saw, I felt good about getting through.

The street County M travels through Middleton is two-lanes going east and two-lanes west with no room for a bike lane. There is a stretch going uphill where a wide path replaced a regular sidewalk on the north side of the road. As I was about to climb the hill using the street, I stopped and crossed the street before the climb.

Left to Waunakee,straight to Westport.4/19/25 

 There is one long block in the middle of the path that hasn't been improved, leaving cyclists and pedestrians to share a narrow (3 to 4-foot wide) sidewalk. 

 The path reappears in the next block and then runs until it stops at the entry into a gated community. I'm not sure if there is more trail to come but it will take 2 or 3 more miles of asphalt for cyclists and runners to travel on safer conditions than sharing the road.

 At the top of the hill, Governor Nelson State Park is on the east side of the road, that the path begins, using a tunnel under the road into the state park then up a quiet road to the North Mendota Trail. 

Looking back toward boardwalk. 4/19/25 dwm

The boardwalk crosses wetlands and marsh extending north from Lake Mendota for more than a mile where the path becomes an asphalt trail. It's interrupted with a short road that curves around a strip mall and a Kwik Trip, then there's one more block before it ends clumsily on a side road. 

I've been stopping at this Kwik Trip for years. It's in a perfect location with a clean restroom and it's a great spot to grab a pack of peanut butter on cracker sandwiches, which is underrated as a cycling pick-me-up.

The trail ends on Westport Road,a quieter street than the nearby county and state roads through wetlands until you get to the north reaches of Madison along Lake Mendota. I take Green Avenue and Troy Drive to Marcy Road which empties on to Woodward Drive which runs through Warner Park where it borders the lake. 

Less than a mile to Kwik Trip from here. dwm

 It's after the park that Woodward becomes Farwell Drive as you enter Maple Bluff, a beautiful neighborhood located on a bluff over Lake Mendota which is where you can find the Wisconsin's Gubernatorial Mansion. 

 It appeared an egg hunt was underway at the Governor's address as I road past. In Maple Bluff, Farwell becomes Woodward again, then stay on it until turning right on Sherman Avenue and take it to Tenney Park where you'll find the next path.

Thanks to the North Mendota Trail, this might become more popular with cyclists around Madison. The Lake Monona Loop allows you to ride closer to the lake, but the views around the east side of Lake Mendota are spectacular. 

It's a 40-mile loop from my home. The new sections of bike path make the ride more accessible to cyclists but wear a helmet and stay alert, there are still stretches where you share the road.