Ride 10 - Prairie Ridge

Walking path at Prairie Ridge. 6/7/25 dwm

 So far, so good in terms of covering some new ground on every ride... this time a familiar path took me around the south side of Madison to the east where the Capital City State Trail crosses Fair Oaks Road.

 Fair Oaks starts at Atwood avenue and ends at East Washington, where, thankfully a tunnel was built to get people from one side to the other.

 On the north side of East Washington, Fair Oaks becomes Wright street. I took a right turn on Anderson street through the Madison College (formerly MATC) then crossed Stoughton and through Reindahl Park to Portage road.

The E. Washington Ave tunnel. 6/7/25 dwm

Portage is a residential street that goes north parallel to Interstate 90/94/39 before crossing the highway into the farthest east parts of Madison where you find the headquarters of American Family Insurance and Alliant Energy.

It's also where you find Oakwood's east campus, Prairie Ridge. I used the campus as my turn-around point, 32 miles from home. 

As I started back, I pulled into a nearby Kwik Trip for a hot chicken sandwich. 

The route back was a straighter line than the trip north, I got back on the Capital City trail, where it crossed Fair Oaks then followed familiar paths across the isthmus home.

A snapping turtle laying eggs. 6/7/25 dwm

  In the early part of the ride along the Military Ridge trail I witnessed something new.

 Roughly a mile apart, two snapping turtles were feet off the paved path busy with cyclists, walkers, and runners while they laid eggs in a shallow nest.

 I didn't want to bother the mama turtle, so I took my pictures from the other side of the path, loaded up and rode away.

  This was the second longest trip of the season, 55 miles, and the total for the year to 460.