Ride 12 - Pie Ride II

The start/finish line. 6/20/2026 dwm

2025 was the first time I signed up for the Janesville Morning Rotary Pie Ride. It was fun and I rode places that I never could while growing up there in the 1970s.

One nice feature is the flexibility of starting the ride as early as 7. I found a place to park ten minutes before the top of the hour, checked in and picked up this year's version of their long-sleeve t-shirt.

After leaving the shirt in the car and pumping up both bike tires, I headed down River Street where I joined the Peace Path that follows the Rock River and connects to Beloit.

The ride stayed with path south to Townline Road where we headed east toward the village of Shopiere and the primary rest stop in Sweet Allyn Park.

Crossing the Rock River on Townline Rd. 6/20/26 dwm

The five miles to Shopiere, I rode with a cyclist on a beautiful red, white, and blue Trek bike. It turned out his other bike is a Volae recumbent built at the Hostel Shoppe in Steven's Point, similar to mine.

My chosen ride option for the Pie Ride was the metric century, which is just over 61 miles or 100 kilometers. Because it worked to eat regularly on my last ride, I kept at it this week, too.

Jelly and peanut butter Uncrustable sandwich was my snack at the rest stop, a follow-up to the protein shake I drank during the first hour.

I followed that up with a pair of cheese sticks and a granola bar, in addition to drinking water as much as possible.

1st of 3 stops at Sweet Allyn Park. 6/20/26 dwm

Leaving the park, we were 20 miles into the trip as I started the first of two loops. this one riding east along Turtle Creek, which flows into the Rock River.

You are sent down quiet country roads which alternately border fields of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa with forests and homes.

It was a beautiful sunny day with mild temperatures remaining in the 60s much of the morning. For most of the ride, until I headed west for the first time nearly 30 miles in and realized there was a wind, it had just been at my back until that point. The east loop was an 18-mile rectangle that started and ended at the park.

Turtle Creek. 6/20/2026 dwm

While growing up in Janesville, our family visited Shopiere often. I recall going there at least one time for a parade and city celebration, probably for the Fourth of July.

While I was working at News 3 from 1986 - 1989, I shot video of a train hauling circus wagons from Baraboo to Milwaukee by way of Shopiere and Tiffany where it crossed a beautiful stone arch bridge over Turtle Creek.

The second and last loop went south of Shopiere between Clinton and Beloit, then went to the east edge of Beloit south of I-43 where it was time to go north.

While it didn't always feel like it, the GPS map of the ride indicates there was 4,037 feet of gain and 4,038 feet of loss, you can't get much closer than that.

A rock turtle statue in Turtle township. 6/20/26 dm

When the loop returned me to the park for the last time, I looked at the map to see how far it was to Janesville when I noticed a hand-written sign suggesting riders take the south loop first and then the east loop. That explains why I saw so few cyclists on the two routes.

On the last loop, I saw the SAG wagon twice and only saw two bikes that were going the opposition direction (so I didn't think they were on the ride).

From there it was north where the ride crossed the U.S. Highway 14 east of Janesville. While I love my recumbent, one thing that's difficult to do is get a quick start from a dead stop, so I decided it would be smarter to walk the bike across. I found out running in bike shoes isn't easy but it was the right call.

Looking south. 6/20/2026 dwm photo

I rode into Janesville on Ruger Avenue which is where I lived with my parents in their second house. It would have been on the edge of town in the mid-1960s. I was so young then, I don't remember living there.

It was less than a block from the old home that the route switched back to a bike and pedestrian path through Janesville Green Space and into Palmer Park, through a golf course, past Rotary Gardens (yes the same Rotary that sponsored the ride), and ended with a bridge to River Road and less than a mile to the parking lot.

It is the pie ride, so after putting the bike on the car, I picked up my pie, Strawberry-Rhubarb, before eating lunch at Whiskey Ranch. The last stop the Frostie Freeze where a chocolate chip malt was the perfect end to a fun day.

According to the Bike Computer:

Distance: 69 miles

Average Speed: 15.5 mph

Time in the saddle: 4 hours, 26 minutes.