Dear Friends,

Today we drove to Elroy and rode the 32.5 mile Elroy-Sparta State Trail. Mary agreed to be the pickup driver and Doug, Sharon, and I rode our bikes. It was a great trail and after we got started I was sorry that we did not bring two vehicles so that Mary could have gone along. The trail was not paved, but it was very smooth and packed down. It would not have been too hard to pull Queen Mary on it. I noticed three riders with narrow road bike tires riding the trail, and I could have even pulled her with my road bike.

The trail has three tunnels, the first two of about ¼ mile and the third of about ¾ mile long. Going through the third tunnel was like walking in the rain, as we obeyed the signs and walked through the tunnels, well mostly, as I rode most of the first tunnel. There was almost no one on the trail I think we only saw about 11 bikes all day. The trail tended to be either gentle uphill or gentle downhill. It fact we always went up to each tunnel and then down to the next town so there were three uphill runs and three downhill runs. I think the trail dropped about 300 feet between Elroy and Sparta, so going North we had a little more downhill than uphill but we had a wind in our face a bit of the time.

Mary drove to the town of Wilton, which was about half way on the trail. When we got here, we found a Café and had lunch. It made a nice break in the riding. Mary then drove to Sparta and we met her there. It was so nice to find her in the van right where we would expect her to be. I really had no idea as to where the trail parking in Wilton would be, so was only able to give her directions to where I thought it might be. She was great and found it after a little looking.

When we got to Sparta, Mary asked if there was a Culver’s on the way back. I put it in the GPS and found one less than a mile away in Sparta, so we made a stop there before heading back to Westfield.

As of tonight I have ridden 251.1 miles on my bike. Queen Mary was behind me for 178.7 miles. Don’t think I will do more, but maybe a little ride in the morning.

Tomorrow we head for home, but not until evening. I hope to get at least three hours South of Madison so Thursday will not be too long a drive to get home.

Jared