One of the rides which is probably a right of passage for Fox Valley Wisconsin cyclists is to ride around Lake Winnebago. For those not in Wisconsin, Lake Winnebago is the largest inland lake in Wisconsin, about 30 miles north to south and 10 miles east to west. Appleton sits about 10 miles north of the lake. At the bottom is Fond du Lac (whose name literally means "Bottom of the Lake")
I have mapped out the route that I took over at bikely.com. The link is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnebago
This is actually just slightly different, because I started at my house in North Appleton, and the route I mapped out starts at Erb park (because if you are going to do this ride, you probably don't want to park at my house)
TO get out of Appleton, I took Prospect Road east through town. This is a generally pretty good road to take to get to the eastern escapes. Its a through route, so you don't have to turn all over the place and traffic isn't too bad. The road is rough in parts though, so you do need to be careful.
Just before getting to the Highway 41 underpass, I turned south on Northern Road. From here I used Stroeble to get over to Lake Road. Lake Road has very low traffic and will take you all to Neenah, so anyone looking for a southeast escape, this is a good one.
Going through towns is always slow and potentially a safety hazard. But Neenah was a joy. The roads I was on had wide bike lanes and were in good shape. I only had to stop at a couple of lights. I was very impressed with how friendly cycling in Neenah was.
From here, you hook up on County A all the way down to Oshkosh. Traffic is pretty light on County A, no problem to cycle on. Unfortunately, there is no good way to get through Oshkosh. I will say that County A entering Oshkosh becomes 4 lanes. Traffic wasn't too bad and all of the cars used the left lane so I was fine in the right lane. You do go through downtown Oshkosh, which has some neat older buildings, but it did seem that I hit a lot of lights. Oshkosh is a grd pattern, so that is going to happen. And then, on my way out of town, A got stopped by a freight train for 5 minutes.
Finally on my way again, I was on Highway 45 headed south/southeast towards Fond du Lac. From Oshkosh, you will spend about 15 miles on Highway 45. Traffic was not bad today. And there is a 3-4 foot shoulder that is in good shape that I was able to ride in the whole way. I did not have any problem riding Highway 45, which was one of my questions, was this road acceptable for cycling. Its not perfect, there are cars and the speed limit is 50 mph, but riding conditions are acceptable.
So finally I was in Fond du Lac. I didn't stop, just rode through. You are on city streets, so you do have to be aware of more traffic, but nothing that bad. The big thing you have to pay attention to in FDL is that Highway 45 through town is in pretty bad shape. A lot of potholes and the shoulder and edge of the road is real tore up, so you have to keep an eye on that.
Leaving Fond du Lac, you come to an intersection with Highway 151. Turning left here would be the fastest way back to Appleton, but one with a lot of fast traffic. Go straight instead and get on the Prairie Trail to get out of town. This trail goes on for 3-4 miles and safely takes you out to rural roads. There is also some climbing here, about 350 vertical feet. But the grade is never bad, so you just work your way up on the bike trail.
From here, its a series of rural roads north. They are all very quiet with little if any traffic. County QQ will take you up to Johnsburg, where you turn right and then shortly a left to get onto Schumaker road. While on Schumaker, you will ride through about 50 giant wind turbines. Even on a day like today where the winds were light, they were spinning. Schumaker will take you to St Paul Road, named for the old church you will pass while riding north. Then its County HHH and onto Tower Road. Tower makes a jog at one point, but you stay on it all the way up to County Highway F.
At this point, I made a decision to head back west to Highway 55. It was a combination of reasons. The afternoon was starting get on, the sun was behind a number of clouds and I was just ready for some faster progress home. Going east, I could have picked up more rural roads, and that works fine. Going west, I could have continued past Highway 55 to Lakeshore Drive, which is very low traffic, but today, I just headed north on Highway 55.
Traffic on Highway 55 was pretty light today. On a summer weekend, it would probably be heavier, and I would probably make a different decision. There is a 3-4 foot shoulder on Highway 55, so if you need to ride on it, its not bad for a highway. Everyone like rural roads, but sometimes, you need to be on the highway because roads don't connect or you need the shortest route. So will I would never take a group ride on Highway 55, its fine for the solo rider or a smalle group in a paceline.
I rolled into to Stockbridge and refueled at the BP. I think the clerk was a little shocked that I was going all the way around the lake. From here I headed north again, staying on 55 again. It 4 or 5 short miles, I beared left and headed towards High Cliff State Park.
The "back" way into High Cliff deserves some discussion. All the maps show a southern entrance into High Cliff from High Cliff Road. I've been on that road and I have never seen it. It looks like from the maps there may have been a pay station there at one time, but apparently that is now blocked off. But if you are on a bike, continue up to the point where High Cliff Road is about ready to take a sharp right turn (as shown here). There is a service building here with a service entrance that will connect you up to the park. I think if you are on a bike, you are probably OK using his to get over into the park (because bikes don't pay a fee to enter the park and a bike is a lot closer to a pedestrian than a car).
Once in High Cliff, you roll down the big hill, out of the park, and then east to State Park Road. From here it is north all the way to Block Road, and then Buchanan. Cross County CE, north through Combined Locks, and then along the river to the Washington Street Bridge, left on Main (Wisconsin Avenue) and back home. All told I ended up with 90.7 miles today.
Some other comments about riding around the lake. The west side is very flat. The east side is not hilly, but there are a few more ups and downs. The west side is much more built up (Menasha, Neenah, Oshkosh) but really Oshkosh is the only town that is a little problematic to get through (if anyone knows a good way through Oshkosh, leave it in the comments). Because the west side is built up, there are no shortage of places to stop at for supplies. On the east side, it is pretty sparse. I stopped in Stockbridge, though if you were riding Lakeshore drive, this would have you deviate a mile to the store and a mile back. You could cut further east to Chilton, but then you will miss out on some lake views and it will add quite a few miles. So you may want to make sure that you are fully supplied before heading up or down the east side of the lake (or plan to take a detour to Stockbridge)
Wind can be a major issue. Today I had light winds, so I was OK. But there are a reason they have all those wind turbines down by Fond du Lac, and its not because there is an abundance of calm days in NE Wisconsin. Also realize that on the lake, thee is absolutely nothing to block the wind, so it can really get going. If you are facing a day with 15-20 mph winds, you may want to ride Lake Winnebago another day.
You do get some good lake views though. On the west side, you can see the lake in Neenah and then sever places on your way into FDL. Here, you are around lake level. On the east side, you are more overlooking the lake, but you can see it from Tower Road and St Paul Road. And of course you can see the lake from High Cliff.
So there it is, a ride report on Lake Winnebago. Hopefully the route and the descriptions are useful for someone else who is planning a ride. It is a good ride, and a 90 mile ride is always a great accomplishment. And now, when it is snowing tomorrow, I can know I already have all my miles in for the week.
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