Wisco All-Road River Tour of Headwinds, Day Six

Elroy to Madison

We broke camp in the dark, rolling out of Elroy just as dawn began to break. It was another gray day, and we were now on the 400 State Trail bound for Reedsburg and then home. There were a couple of brief stops, one at Wonowoc and another at a little abandoned bridge outside of LaValle. We made Reedsburg by mid-morning hoping to check out Fermentation Fest, but found it not yet up and running.

So continuing on some pavements, we soon arrived at Merrimac, where we rode the ferry across Lake Wisconsin (a widening of the Wisconsin River.) we stopped for lunch on the south bank before continuing on toward Devil's Lake State Park.

We skirted the edge of the park and picked up a gravel road that Grant had discovered the previous year, following it to a gate where it became a dirt doubletrack through the forest.

It eventually emerged on the north edge of the Sauk Prairie Recreational Area, located on the site of the former Badger Ammunition Plant. This place is huge, and warrants its own return trip.

The rest of the day was a blur of semi-familiar roads, with some surprisingly big hills north of Waunakee. Madigan and Schumacher were unexpectedly thick with traffic, and it started to rain as we neared Madison. Crossing 113, things got really familiar as we wove through familiar territory, shortcutting through the Central Wisconsin Center and ending up at the Ohio Tap for a celebratory beer. We parted ways with the job well done, looking forward to another...



(All of the photos are here.)