Ride 27 - Detour

The "starting point" of ride 27. 9/19/2025 dwm

I met a friend Friday for a ride, We planned to meet at Garner Park on Mineral Point Road. 

From my home in Verona there is decent route to get there that avoids a couple of hills. Unfortunately, when I got to the turn that would avoid the climb, it was closed because crews were cutting trees down for future roadways.

There were barricades across the road, and when I first looked at it, there wasn't much going on. For a minute I thought about riding past some of the construction workers but the moving machinery made me reconsider.

The unexpected detour added a mile or mile-and-a-half to my ride. It was something I didn't want to repeat on the way back. 

I wasn't worried about climbing the hills; but that I hadn't planned on the climbs which might make me late getting to the park. I rode up Midtown then turned north on High Point. When I reached Mineral Point at the intersection with D'Onofrio Drive, 

I used a new bike/pedestrian path on the north side of Mineral Point. It's a nice improvement that allows bikes to get off the busy street. The stretch I used between D'Onofrio and Gammon was home to several businesses with drives with vehicles driving in and out and intersections. The driveways were more of a concern with several drivers stopping on the sidewalk/path while they waited to turn with little attention paid to cyclists and walkers.

A new section near S. Syene Rd. 9/19/25 dwm

 Once I crossed Gammon, the traffic became predictable and it didn't take long to reach the park. A few
minutes later, my friend arrived (we both arrived on time) and we headed out, using Rosa Road to cross Mineral Point before making our way through a business park and quiet neighborhood before connecting to the Southwest Commuter trail. 

 The majority of my rides are solo. It doesn't bother me to ride alone and it allows me to stop if and when I want and go my own pace. Second, I don't know many cyclists who like going on rides of 30 miles or farther. 

From the Commuter Trail we took the Capital City Trail and then the South Yahara Trail into McFarland. The goal was to reach Lake Kegonsa State Park after crossing the boardwalk through Fish Camp County Park. Originally, we were going to ride to Stoughton but time and chances of rain persuaded us to cut that extra 12 miles from the ride.

Taking a short break. 9/19/25 dwm

We didn't get too wet. There was a light rain that took 15 to 20 minutes before we reached it's west edge. 

We kept a good pace spent most of the time riding. After leaving Garner Park, we stopped so I could check my phone after it rang. After that we didn't stop again until more than an hour, maybe 90 minutes, when we stopped at McFarland's Kwik Trip.

It was a nice ride with a nearly constant conversation as we rode at a comfortable pace. When we returned to the intersection of the Southwest Commuter and Capital City trails, we took our own ways home.

From that intersection home is just six miles, while my friend had approximately the same distance to his. Our last topic concluded that if we ride this way again, that the Dunn Marsh 'Five Points' intersection would be our place to meet.

The Five Points is a bicycle-sized roundabout where the Badger State and Capital City State trails intersect with each other as well as Madison's Cannonball and Southwest Commuter trails.

The tale of the bike computer for the 27th ride: 57 miles in 4:04, a 14 miles per hour average.