We’ve been biking steadily through the month of July, although there hasn’t been much coming out on the page. This is symptomatic of an over preoccupation with the Tour de France.
On Sunday, July 29th, we followed butterflies out over the big hills to Galena and 112 miles of glorious suffering.
On the first Saturday in August, it was time to shake off the lactic acid of Galena and head northeast out of the Upper Left Hand Corner.
Our destination was Brodhead, Wisconsin which is the southern gateway to the Sugar River Trail. It is a cycle friendly community with a very nice town center where we found a bike shop with a bed & breakfast above.
Our route took us up through Clarno, Twin Grove and Juda. A lumber yard in every town in case we would require a 2x4. The roads were in great condition and traffic was light—nearly nonexistent. Unlike the previous Sunday where the incessant sunlight sucked the life out of my legs, the weather was overcast and cool.
Out of Juda, we headed north to Greenbush Road and followed that east to County F. Here we took a detour towards Albany in order to catch a lovely “Rustic Road” called Park which we followed back down to Brodhead.
Brodhead has spruced up the old limestone buildings in its center. We found a friendly sandwich shop and tavern at the southeast corner of the piazza and settled into a nice lunch. My guest, Geno Sapinski from Downers Grove, very nearly spoiled my prime rib sandwich when he asked if my lively Salsa cycling jersey was available in a mans’ color.
Afterwards, our route back to Freeport took us south along Mount Hope Road past the go cart track where Indy Racing League star Danica Patrick launched her meteoric career. Mount Hope carves through the flat rich bottom land and eventually rises up to meet State Line Road.
Turning west, we hugged the state line over to Davis Road. We rode south on Davis Road to Walnut Grove Road and turned west again. Walnut Grove, though freshly sealed and overly chipped, was a welcome alternative to rough treeless boring Rock Grove Road. So we crunched through the chips over to Juda Road and Rock Grove.
From Rock Grove, we continued west towards Afolkey Road along Hickory Grove Road. Hickory Grove is another “preferred” route to Dakota Road which is in terrible shape.
We stopped at Berner Cheese in Afolkey to see if we could get Geno some cheese to take back but no such luck. So, we continued down Afolkey to Angle Road and took that over to Henderson Road and the home stretch to Freeport.
In spite of a light drizzle, this is a great 80 mile ride over some beautiful scenic rural roads.
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