Because it worked so well last year, Steve, Nate, Tyler and I did a long spring training ride that began before sunup and went almost 150 miles to sundown. This time was a ride down the Badger State Trail to Illinois. It had been a long winter and there was still some ice in the tunnel and snow on the trail in the highlands north of Monroe. The weather had been threatening all morning and a severe thunderstorm hit us just south of Monroe, forcing us to hide out at Clarno lumber until it passed. Good thing, because it hailed like crazy.
Back underway, we crossed the border into Illinois and the Badger became the Jane Addams Trail. Hail lay like snow on the bridges especially, calling for a little extra caution, but the sun was out and we were making time again.
We had lunch at a Mexican place named Amigo's in Freeport, checked out the new bike shop downtown and were back underway. Picked up some fine Illinois pavements and gravels northbound and even found some surprise Wisco gravel north of the border. Rode a little bit of the Sugar River Trail, but cut some of it off short in the interest of making up some of the time lost to the thunderstorm.
Stopped for a snack at a C-store in Oregon and followed our well-worn route back into Madison, dodging lightning bolts as we rolled in through Nine Springs and across the causeway.
You know where to find the pix.
No comments:
Post a Comment