Welcome to Wisconsin

Winona MN to Sparta WI – 61 miles
Average Speed – 10.6 mph

Good intentions pave the road to hell and our road is golden. We didn’t leave again until after 8. Some days we just don’t move too quickly. We went to downtown Winona where we thought we might get a glimpse of some of the steamboats, since this is the time of the Steamboat Festival. Well, it seems that the boats won’t actually arrive until later today. But, we did get to see one of the famous blue herons.

We crossed the bridge over the Mississippi which brought us into Wisconsin.

We wouldn’t be traveling on many roads today because of the extensive network of trails in Wisconsin, which might offer some shade and keep us out of the wind. Our first trail started just a short way from Winona. We had checked it out online and followed the directions to the trailhead, which had little to do with reality. We went farther than the website indicated and turned around before we got too far away from the parking lot that we were looking for. Although the parking lot was supposedly right on Route 35, it was down a short gravel road. We finally got on the Great River Trail and then toured the Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge, where we spotted an eagle on the opposite bank of the river.

The trail snaked around the refuge and finally came to a more direct segment of the trail, which led us to the town of Trempealeau. The heat and humidity already affected us after just these first 20 miles, so we pedaled over to the Coffee Attic for refreshments and to buy our trail passes. Right next to the Coffee Attic is La Fleur Jardin, which shares the same building. It turns out that Jill from the Coffee Attic and Lois from La Feur Jardin are neighbors in real life as well. After finishing our iced coffee and pop, we chatted with Jill and Lois and then met a fellow cyclist. She was traveling from north of Minneapolis to Cheboygan, Michigan for her son’s birthday party. Her husband sagged her, so she had very few things attached to her bicycle. She covered much more territory than we do in a day.

In Onalaska, we stopped for lunch and then continued our journey on the La Crosse Trail.
The heat intensified, so we took it easy all the way to Sparta, our destination for the evening.
We are staying with the family of Peggy, who is married to one of Robert’s former students. We have the perfect camping spot in their big backyard.

Tomorrow, we continue on the trails, so we should have some shelter from the heat and wind.