Life is an Adventure

I wanted to remind everyone to find some time this summer for a little adventure. At the last FORCs meeting I had mentioned that I had this idea for a ride that would link together all the trails that are (more or less) west of town - Blackhawk, Badger Prairie and Quarry Ridge. Some people were intrigued by the idea and some were probably thinking I was insane.

Well, on Sunday I was very unmotivated to ride but needed a little adventure so I decided to give the ride a try before I tried to drag anyone else on it. I did the standard ride to Blackhawk from downtown using Kendall, Old Middleton and Old Sauk. It's not too exciting of a ride but I did get a little "off road" adventure on the way since Grant Street is under construction and so is gravel and chopped up pavement. And at Old Sauk Rd I cut through the business park and road the grassy terraces behind UW Health just for a little bit of extra fun.

It took me about 50 minutes from my house to Blackhawk. Once at Blackhawk I rode for a little over an hour looping around up on top, through the gully and up the little singletrack climb on the far side of the property. It was the standard day of riding at Blackhawk. Right before leaving I ate one Clif Blok (the gummy like energy things they make now).

Next I headed out for some road riding and took Blackhawk Rd to where it ends, took a left and then a right onto Old Sauk Road. I took Old Sauk to where it dead ends and turned left on Timber Trail. Timber Trail has some nice up and downs although I do think there is more down than up the direction I was going. I got a little more "off road" adventure on this section since a small piece of Timber Trail is under construction and is gravel right now (although it looks like they are going to pave it any day).

Right before the gravel section three triathletes passed me without even a hello (it is probably a good idea not to talk to people doing long road rides on mtn bikes as they are probably crazy). Then we hit the gravel so I gunned it and flew by them as they slowed way, way down. I gave them a breezy "hello" and kept the pace high. Of course once they turned on Midtown I slowed back down as I knew I still had a long day ahead of me. A little showing off can add some excitement to the day . . .well, as long as you can sustain it so I was glad they turned off when they did!

Eventually you reach Hwy PD after passing through what seems to have become the mansion row of Madison. At PD you take a left and then a quick right on White Crossing Blvd and before you know it you are at the Military Ridge State trail. It took me approximately half an hour from Blackhawk to the Military Ridge trail riding fairly easy most of the time.

After a few minutes of riding on the trail into a lovely headwind I ate my 2nd (and last) Clif Blok. I realized I was actually quite hungry and started to question my sanity in doing this ride with only water and 2 Clif Blocks. There was nothing to do about it though but curse myself, keep pedaling and hope that I soon arrived in Verona.

Twenty more minutes of pedaling got me to the outskirts of Verona and headed towards a snack stop. Just off the path in downtown Verona is a Cousins Sub/Pizza Place/Chocolate Shoppe. I went in and bought a small lemonade and a bag of harvest cheddar flavored Sun Chips. A kind of boring snack but at the time it was like nirvana. At this point I was 3 hours into my ride.

After consuming my very tasty treat I headed on through Verona to Badger Prairie County Park which is just off the path. There aren't a lot of trail at Badger Prairie and most of them are just paths mowed in the prairie but there is one tiny little section of singletrack which doesn't see too much riding by the look of it. I'm not sure the little steep sections were exactly what I was looking for at this point in my ride but it was nice to get back on some actual mountain bike trails.

After about 20 minutes of riding at Badger Prairie I figured I could check that off my list and I headed back to the Military Ridge trail. As I pedaled towards Fitchburg I came to the realization that I really just wanted to ride home. However, I had set out to ride all three trails and I wasn't going home without accoplishing that.

Quarry Ridge is not far from Badger Prairie so I was there pretty quickly even with the headwind. I rode down to the parking lot to get on the trail and took off on some of the trails. There seemed to be some new trails and some pieces that are not yet fully cleared out. I rode around somewhat aimlessly and sometimes just rode down a piece of trail and turned around and rode back when it didn't go where I expected. I rode the nicest part of trail backwards (Diane and Shannon style).

I have to admit that I didn't last too long (maybe 15 minutes) at Quarry Ridge as my legs were getting tired and lemonade and Sun Chips will only take you so far. Then it was back on the path which would take me almost all the way home before one last "off road" section down the torn up Grant St to my house.

As I pull into the driveway I hit the stop button on my heartrate monitor at 4 hours 37 minutes. Not a bad ride for someone who was totally unmotivated to go ride at all.

Here's what I learned from my day -
Take more food (stupid rookie mistake really)
Ride less at Blackhawk if you want to ride more at the other trails
Buy a new saddle (this may be just the motivation I need to finally do that since my butt was hating me by the end of the day)
Take a camera to document fun stuff along the way (I broke our pocket camera during last season's cross season and haven't had the money to replace it yet)
Adventures are everywhere, you just have to look for them