Shawano Lake 100 Mile Century Loop

I completed my first Century ride of the year today, a ride from Appleton north to Shawano Lake. I circled the lake, went through the east edge of the town of Shawano, down through Shiocton and then back home. I have posted my route over at Bikely. This was not an 'organized' century ride, just a solo one I did on my own.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Appleton-Shawano-Loop

The weather was great. I left at noon, when the temp was about 45 degrees. It later warmed up to about 52. Wind was out of the northeast at about 8 mph all day, so not too windy. It made it a bit of a grind going up to Shawano, just because you were going into the wind for so long and the terrain was flat farmland, so there was no where to hide. But it was nice to have a little bit of a push on the way back.

Shawano is interesting because it is really sort or a dividing line in Wisconsin in that south of Shawano, most of the ground has been cleared for farm land, but to the north, the north woods of Wisconsin start. A satellite phot from Google maps clearly shows this.



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There is nothing wrong with rural roads, but it would be nice to trade farmland for forests once in a while. Now today, April 11, none of the trees have leaves, so being forested didn't really mean much. But this would be a beautiful ride in the summer.

The ride itself is pretty basic. Its not an out and back, but its pretty much a long leg north and a long leg south. I decided to take Ballard up today just because I've been on French Road a lot lately. Crossing 54, its more farmland as you keep heading north. As you get closer to Bonduel, there are a few more hills, but nothing serious. Bonduel is the first refueling point at 37 miles.

From here, I just took Highway 117 up to Cecil and Shawano lake. There is a fair amount of traffic on 17 and its fast. There is also a 4 foot shoulder, so its possible to ride on, but the riding conditions aren't great. I took it because it was expedient. A rider who is not as comfortable with fast traffic may want to zig-zag out to one of the country roads. But today, I wanted to do a 101 mile ride, not a 106 mile ride.

Cecil is a little town on the SE corner of Shawano lake, and you can actually see the lake at one point. From here, you swing north and then west on Lake Drive to circle the lake. This area has a lot of vacation homes, camps and resorts. There is some traffic, but due to the nature of the road, its slower. One does have to be careful though as there is no shoulder on Lake Road. At the NE corner of the lake, Shawano County has a park where you can see the lake (most the rest of the time you are just looking at trees) and I snapped the following photo.

From here, its into Shawano and the second refueling stop at the 53 mile mark. I actually ventured into Shawano a little bit to find a store with more food/beverage options. East Green Bay Street seems to be the main drag in Shawano, so there is a lot of traffic. But you only need to venture into town about 1/2 mile.

Out of Shawano, I got onto Airport Road and then Highway 187. Highway 187 is a highway in name only. There is almost no traffic on the road. And these 19 miles in many ways are the highlight of the ride. To your right, the ground is all forested. This is the Wolf River area, and in summer is just beautiful. Today, it was nice to have a smooth low traffic road with a light tailwind with something other to look at other than farmland.

Shiocton is around mile 80 and the last chance to refuel before heading back to Appleton. You immediately get off of Highway 76 onto County A and then wind through the country roads to get back to Appleton. I decided to do Mayflower to Capitol today just because I usually go over to Meade and go down.

So in summary, 101 miles is always a good ride. This ride also lets you see some forested land, different than what we have in the immediate Appleton area. There are 3 towns to stop in, and they are pretty well placed on the ride. If you are looking for something a little different than your normal century, this may be it.