We started our summer out with our first family gravel race! This was mine and April's first race. The race was a 40 mile loop in Sheridan, Wyoming. We found the Dead Swede to be challenging and fun. Bryon towed April in her burley like a champ. We completed the course in just under 4 hours...which included a stop for a diaper change and bottle feeding!
For most of the month of July, we took off for the Midwest to visit family. Along the way, we stopped to check out a couple of rail trails and a bikepacking route in the Chequamagon National Forest. Each of trips did not go as planned, but we still had a great time! I was hooked on bikepacking almost immediately, and Miss April Jean seems pretty into it herself.
The Mickelson Trail, South Dakota
The trail is a rail trail and made up of crushed limestone, which made it a great surface to ride our Salsa Fargos on. April was able to ride in the burley with very few bumps along the way.
The trail consisted of low grades as it is a rail trail. There were a couple short tunnels through the hills that we had to go through, but none were very long.
Water was available every 8-16 miles. On day one, between Deadwood and Custer, there were several pumps for water. On day two, between Custer and Edgemont, water was a little more spread out, but we never went more than 16 miles with out a water stop. This was fortunate with temperatures looming over the 100 degree mark.
We found the Mickelson trail very doable with our trailer in two days. It easily could be extended into a 3-4 day trip, if you wanted to spend time in Hill City and Custer along the way. The shuttle service available from Rabbit Bikes, makes this an easy one way trip. They will also shuttle you to trailheads for day rides. We camped at the French Creek RV Park in Custer our first night. There really did not seem to be any optimal camping spots besides RV parks on the route, as you cannot just camp on the side of the trail. Food was available in Custer and Hill City along the way.
The Lacrosse River Trail and Elroy-Sparta Trail- Lacrosse, WI
After leaving South Dakota, we headed east to Lacrosse, WI to do another overnight on our bikes, before we had to meet up with Bryon's family in Northern Wisconsin. I had hopped online after we got off the Mickelson Trail and found that near Lacrosse, WI was the Elroy-Sparta Trail, America's first rail trail. We decided to start in Lacrosse at a trailhead for the Lacrosse River Trail and then connect to the Elroy-Sparta Trail. This made for a 2 day, 1 night trip that totaled about 112 miles.
The Lacrosse River Trail runs from Lacrosse to Sparta and was just over 20 miles long.
This was the first segment of our ride.
Sparta was a small community, but it's the Bicycle Capital of America.
The Elroy-Sparta Trail had three long railroad tunnels that we had to go through. The longest was 3/4 of a mile. We found the tunnels to be damp and each one unique.
We did not see much wildlife on the trail, but we did come across this turtle.
There is camping along the rail trail in both Elroy and Sparta. We stayed at the campground in Elroy. This was a hike/bike camp. To access the campground in Elroy we went through a culvert like tunnel, that was not very easy to find in the dark. We were the only ones in the campground for the night.
Water was easily available along the route. We did find that many of the pumps and drinking fountains in the parks along the way were not functioning when we rode. The Tunnel Campground between Sparta and Elroy did let us fill up with their faucets before we hit Elroy. Luckily we did this, as the well at the campground in Elroy was not working.
The Sparta Family restaurant, about a mile off the rail trail, served a great breakfast the second day of our ride.
The Chequamegon National Forest
This was an awesome ride beginning and ending in Cable, WI.
We followed the route called the Tour De Chequamegon, found on bikepacking.com for the first two-thirds of the ride. Our first day, we did just over 30 miles and camped at East Twin Lake Campground. The mosquitoes were everywhere in the dense boggy forest. We kept April in the burley shielded from the mosquitoes until our tent was set up.
Day 2 the route took us onto ATV trails. We did not have April's fatties on the burley, and so the ATV trail was difficult to navigate. We also found that the woods in this section were infested with horse flies. After we got off the ATV trail we detoured to the State Highway and road pavement the last 20 miles in order to get back to our vehicle.
We did this trip in two days. We did 30 miles day one and about 60 day two. It could easily be made into three day adventure, but we would suggest riding it when the bugs are not so busy. We also wished we had brought our Salsa Mukluks along for this adventure, as fat tires would have made the ride more comfortable, than on our Fargos.
Water was easy to find in the campgrounds on the route. We found that the water at Black Lake Campground tasted the best! Food is available in Cable at the beginning and end of the ride, though when we finished none of the restaurants were open, so we drove to Hayward for Pizza.
Grassy Lakes and Jackass Meadows
After returning from our trip to the Midwest, we decided to squeeze in an overnight around home. Bryon's friend Gary told us of an awesome campsite, off the Jackass Meadows loop, near Grassy Lakes Road, which is on the edge of Yellowstone National Park.
We parked the car and headed out from Driggs, ID. On this overnight, we rode our Salsa Mukluks. We found that they made for a more comfortable bikepacking experience, than our Fargos.
A few of our miles out were along the Ashton-Tetonia Rail Trail. This trail is not the hard packed limestone we had encountered in South Dakota and Wisconsin on their rail trails.
The Bitch Creek Trestle made for an awesome lunch spot
Day one we biked about 45 miles to camp. We were fortune to camp in a spot where there was almost no traffic. We did see a couple of ATVs early in the evening, but by nightfall it was just us and nature.
This was the first trip I had been on that required us to collect our water from streams. We brought enough water in bottles, so that April did not have to drink stream water. We used a steri-pen to disinfect water for cooking and for Bryon and myself to. Our camp spot was near an amazing little stream.
Day two back to the car was a few miles shorter than our ride on day one. We made a pit stop in Tetonia, for snacks. There are so many areas to explore near home bikepacking, I can't wait to get out more!
Rolling Fatties on the Oregon Coast-Our Honeymoon
We decided to get married mid-August and head out to Oregon to ride our fat bikes on the beach. Initially we had planned on bikepacking, but after day one we had to change our plans. The southern coast of Oregon is filled with rocky cliffs between the sandy beaches that we wanted to ride. The only way around those cliffs in many spots is riding on the 101, where logging trucks and cars speed by.
It took detouring over a mountain through Carpentersville, to avoid the 101, and then getting sand blasted in the dunes along the shores of the Pistol River for us to decide we needed to get our car and
reevaluate our plan to bikepack. The 101 was dangerous, especially with a baby in tow!
Our decision to change our plans turned out to be a great idea. We had campsites booked along the coast all but one night that we wanted to ride, so we drove between them. Each morning we got up early and checked out the beach on our bikes. We found that in the morning was when the tide was lowest and the headwinds were almost nonexistent.
The beach near Bandon turned out to be one of our favorites. At low tide there were tide pools, full of life. Star fish and crab remains scattered the beaches.
We found that the beach in Bandon was more hard packed than other beaches we rode on.
Many mornings we were able to cook breakfast right on the beach, after riding.
Afternoons were spent hanging out in the campgrounds and going for shorter rides.
Our last morning near Florence was so foggy you could barely see where you were headed.
We did found this ship washed ashore in Florence.
Our trip was fantastic, despite the hiccups on day one. We made the most of it with morning rides and afternoon chowder stops.
To prevent the salt water from damaging our bikes we took them to a self wash car wash and Bryon sprayed them off after our oceanside rides came to an end
Sun Valley Overnight
To wrap our honeymoon trip we headed to Sun Valley, ID, for another bike overnight, before heading home to Victor. We started at Easley Campground and headed down Baker Creek Road. I towed on day one for the 20 miles we road up to the end of the road before turning around to find a spot to camp for the night.
Baker Creek Road had about 30 dispersed campsites and we found an excellent one next to a creek.
Someone had previously cut firewood at the site, so April had fun rolling around in saw dust and playing with bark.
Before heading back to Easley Campground where our car was parked we decided to climb up East Fork Road. The road wove up a mountain to an area that had burned a few years ago.
At the top of the road were some yurts and an amazing lunch stop.
After descending East Fork Road we returned to our car at Easley Campground and went down the road to the hot springs. After a nice soak we headed to Ketchum for dinner. Wiseguy Pizza did not let us down.
Overall our summer was pretty rad. I think April and Bryon both can say the same!
