Sparta, WI - Elroy-Sparta St Trl+ (6/26 - 7/8/24)

Another HoF Rail Trail in WI is where we ventured next to ride after our stay in IA for a few weeks. The Elroy-Sparta State Trail is a 32 mile rail trail in SE WI that is the first recognized rail trail in the U.S. In addition, we rode four additional trails that are joined with this historic trail for a total of over 100 trail miles. Over our six rides, we were able to ride 205 miles. We stayed at Whiskey Creek Family RV Park that was centrally located just west of Sparta.

Sparta,WI calls themselves the "Bicycling Capital of the World" and is where the Elroy-Sparta trail begins.

The first trail of these co-joined trails starts NW of Sparta along the Mississippi River. We started at the end and rode to the beginning of the trail further NW.

The Great River St Trl is about 28 miles long and ends in Onalaska, WI and begins in the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge.

This trail had a nice trestle across the Black River.

Once we came to the very beginning of the trail at the refuge, we found it flooded and we couldn't go any farther. One of the negatives we found from this trail was the close proximity to water that was probably a reason for the large number of gnats we kept running into a few miles near the refuge mostly.

The second trail we rode was the LaCrosse River State Trail that connects from Onalaska to Sparta. This 21 mile trail was fairly uneventful and easy to ride.

Once in Sparta, you join the Elroy-Sparta State Trail (32 mi) that is really the crown jewel of these trails. One thing you notice on these trails are the mostly brick train depots that have been restored and serve as bathrooms, museums, and shops in many of the towns along the way.

This trail was by far the most traveled and in the best condition of all of them.

The real draw to this trail are the three tunnels you carefully proceed through to continue on. The tunnel closest to Sparta was very wet with water dripping from above. It was also the longest.

Caution signs posted at the ends, say you need to walk your bike through for everyone's safety. This picture does not give any justice to just how dark these tunnels are, so you must bring a light to see where you are going.

Even with lights, these tunnels are spooky when making your way across. The eerie echoes from people talking sounded ghostly.

As you can also see, there are doors that get closed for winter to protect people from falling ice in the winter.

Back when this was a railroad the tunnels had these arches to make sure anyone on top of the cars knew they were about to knocked off if they didn't get down.

One noticeable aspect of these tunnels was that it was uphill to get to them and downhill on the other side. The good thing that is with all rail trails, the hills are gradual and not too tough.

On this sign to the left, you can see some history about the trail. Kendalls is the last depot before you arrive in Elroy where this trail ends.

The last trail was called the 400 State Trail. This trail was 22 miles from Elroy to Reedsburg. This trail was less exciting then the previous one, but was in good shape and still a great trail.

Like the others the surface was not paved, but very compacted rock/clay surface that was easy to ride, even on road bikes. Even after 3 inches of rain the day before, these trails drained very well with hardly any evidence of standing water just hours afterwards.

If you come here, you should also include a side ride from Union Center on the Hillsboro State Trail (4.3 mi) that takes you directly to the Hillsboro Brewing Co. This place is huge and has large variety of beers and good food.

One thing we had was the "Pickle Cheese Curds". They were so good and melt in your mouth with a sliver of dill pickle in the middle. One thing you find when you are here is that Wisconsin takes their cheese curds very seriously!

Since we were here over the Fourth of July, we made sure to proudly fly our Stars and Stripes. Now we move west to MN to ride another trail favorite of ours.