Ledgeview Ride and Fall Colors

Fall is in full swing in northeast Wisconsin. To take advantage of some of the fantastic colors coming into view, I reprised a route I created in the spring to go riding east of De Pere up onto the ridge line. The name of the road at the top of the ridge is called Ledgeview, so that is kind of what I call this route. What I like about the route is that while close to De Pere, it is actually quite rural and scenic. The area around Ledgeview and Sportsmans roads seem to be more established with more trees. In some ways it reminds me of Door county, but it isn't a 90 minute drive away.

I did a bit of a variation on my normal route today. First, I took the Fox River Trail all the way to the point where the pavement ends and the trail turns back into crushed limestone. This is now at Lasee Road. It is also new this summer. The pavement used to end at Rockland Road, but 4 more miles of trail were paved this summer. The trail is nice in town, but out of town it is even better. Trees line each side and there is less traffic. In one place you are enveloped in trees as you cross a wooden bridge over some low marshlands. This is a terrific amenity for the citizens of De Pere and Green Bay.

Bike route 716544 - powered by Bikemap

Otherwise, the route is pretty much the same. I did the climbs up County W and County X but skipped Scray Hill Road this time. I like loping up through the neighborhood on my way back to De Pere as well. Much less traffic than Chicago street, and this time of year, many trees in this well to do subdivision are turning colors. I ended up getting back to the office on Main. Not something I like, but Grant is under construction at the railroad tracks, so Main is the only choice to get across without going out of your way.

Otherwise, enjoy the photographs

First Weekend of Fall

Fall has arrived in northeast Wisconsin. Leaves on the trees have started to turn shades of yellow and red. Daytime highs are creep up into the 60's. Nighttime lows are in the 40's. And sunset is now before 7:00 PM each night.

Both days this weekend were terrific fall days for riding. Saturday was in the high 50's. Sunday made it into the low 60's. Little to no wind either day. I wore a base layer and arm warmers each day and was comfortable. No need to get the wool socks and leg warmers out for a mid-afternoon ride just yet.

The scenery along the roads has changed as well. Most of the leaves on the trees are still green. It will be another week or two until we are at the height of fall color. But you can see some trees with some of their leaves changing, and a few with all of their leaves a brilliant gold. In the fields, the green corn stalks of summer have turned brown. Same is true of the soybeans as they wait in their fields to be harvested. Some corn has already been harvested, leaving just brown muddy ground where a few weeks ago corn towered 6 or 7 feet into the air.

I now have over 5000 miles for the year. 5063 to be exact. 937 left to make it to 6000. It always comes down to depending on the weather. But I've got probably another 6-7 weeks to get those miles in. Maybe if I can sneak in a long ride or two I just might make it.

Rode by this and had to take a picture. Some sort of contest for who could grow the largest pumpkin. Yikes!

Cherohala River Road

To be honest, Bike Ride Across Tennessee was a disappointment. I'll have more to say in another post about what I thought could have been better. What was outstanding though was a rode that another ride showed me that wasn't even on the official route. On Day 5, our route took us through Tellico Plains, TN. Here, a group of 3 of us (including the rider who had told us about this road) veered off the official course and road 10 miles up the Cherohala River Road to Bald River Falls. It was outstanding. I liked it so much that I skipped the last day of BAT and came back to do the ride again, but this time going all the way to the North Carolina State Line.

Here is the route from bikemap.net

Bike route 711456 - powered by Bikemap

You start out in Tellico Plains. And the place to start is the Tellico Grains Bakery. Fantastic breads baked onsite are just outstanding. And when done with your ride, stop back for a sandwich. Five stars all the way.

A quick right on Highway 360 and then you wil see a sign for the Cherohala Skyway, and this is what you will follow. Soon you are pedaling past a river on your left. The scenery is outstanding as the pictures below illustrate. At about mile 5, the road comes to a Y. The road going left has a sign that says "Indian Boundary". If you want to take the Cherohala to Robbinsville, NC, this is the way to go. Both days I stayed right and kept following the river.

About mile 10, you will get to Bald River Falls. There is a car park and this is a good place to get off and snap photos of the falls. Even in the fall of what has been a dry season, they are beautiful.

From here is is about 13 more miles to the NC state line. You continue to follow the river the whole way. You will pass several campsites along the way. There is a small town too about mile 16 if you need any water. When you are getting close to the top, there is also a fish hatchery. In many places, the trees form a thick canopy over the road, so even though the sun shines brightly, you are in cool, dark shade. Always following the river, water is splashing over rocks, forming little falls as it makes its way downstream.

The road is generally uphill, but nowhere steep. It averages about 100 feet of elevation gain per mile, which is less than a 2% average grade. There are some places where it is probably about 4%, but nowhere is this a difficult climb.

The top of the road is the North Carolina State Line. There is no sign though, the only way you know is that you are at the top and the pavement changes. Just after you cross into NC, the road changes to dirt, so you cannot link up with the Cherohala and do a loop. Its OK though, the ride down is past the same pretty river. Some rides you don't mind being out and back.

What follows are pictures I took on the two days riding the road.

BRAT 2010 Routes

I recently traveled to Tennessee to do Bike Ride Across Tennessee (BRAT). After returning, I've taken the cue sheets and put all of the routes (save the last day) into bikemap.net. Here they are

Route	Miles	Climbing (ft)	Route Link
Harrison Bay to Fall Creek Falls	79.3	4461	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709097
Fall Crek Falls Loop	61.2	3379	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709105
Fall Creek Falls to Athens	61.3	3182	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709109
Athens to Fort Loudon	58.5	2919	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709114
Fort Loudon to Hiawassee State Park	50.4	2559	http://www.bikemap.net/route/709115
Hiawassee State Park Loop	40.9	2230	http://www.bikemap.net/route/710320

A couple of comments about the route.

-- The route was hilly. There is no flat ground in Eastern Tennessee. The biggest climbs were on days 1 and 2, but the route was never really flat.

-- The route took a lot of major roads (read highways) rather than putting us on rural back roads. Given, in some places there is only one road across a river or a ridge, but in other places, it appears perfectly acceptable back roads were available as an alternate. Not sure what the organizers were thinking when they decided to use these roads. Just so everyone knows, I would not suggest riding the routes above for Days 1 or 3. A lot of fast traffic on the majority of those routes. The routes for Days 2, 4, 5 and 6 are pretty good though.

I'll have more to say about BRAT in the coming few days.