Ride Recap: Milwaukee to Kolher Andrae State Park

Anton, Steve, Andy and I hit the road last Saturday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for the road ahead.  Before leaving Anton's house we discussed our route options; because of the direction we were heading there were many for us to choose from.  We chose the bike path out of the city and zig zagged our way through the burbs a bit, until we hit the country where we chose roads closest to the lake.

Ozaukee County Inter Urban Trail

Later we arrived in Port Washington where there was a necessary stop at Bernie's Fine Meats.  If you are ever in the area, you need to stop there and pick up some of the best jerky your taste buds will ever have.  Before continuing on, we hung out in the shade at the marina park, with cider and jerky in hand.

Wisconsin's soul food

Steve and I pit stopped in the shade at Karen's Lama Farm

This particular lama was kicking his or her's legs, presumably because we were hanging around.

The shade is our friend, ya gotta be safe.

We stopped at Lake Church Inn, in the town of Belgium, for lunch and beers. Talked to some very friendly folks for a while, which is to be expected because we're in Wisconsin after all!  Some of the locals mentioned a few times a place called the "Top Hat", but we never did make it there.

Finally, we arrived at Kolher-Andrae State Park after stopping at a local grocery store, fully stocked with food, ice, beers and ready to cool off in the lake. Hammock camping is my new preferred method when the weather permits; but if it drops to the 40's I'm inside a tent. A big thank you to ranger Ken who upgraded our site, he informed us that it's his favorite site in the park.  We later discovered that the morning sun, the crashing waves at night, and being wrist rocket distance away from the lake were a few of the reasons why our site was the best.  Also, just across the road was the trail head to the sand dune trail.  The previous one we were assigned to was simply inadequate for 2 hammocks and was basically on a giant ant hill.

Soon after are arrival to campsite #2 we were turning the Revelate Viscacha saddle bag into a home made cooler.  We listened to Bob Uecker announcing the Brew Crew with Anton's handy am/fm radio, while doing 12oz curls around the fire.

Sand Dune Trail

After a good night and kind of relaxing morning we were turning and burning back home.

Notable moments:  Andy ran over my banana that fell while riding(no he did not wipe out), Andy dropped the map while going down a hill at 35mph+ and Steve not telling anyone until we were at the bottom of the hill. Steve taking a bum bath at the fish cleaning station, Andy getting stung by a bee, and one flat tire 10 minutes from home.  All and all it was yet another successful weekend get-a-way from the city with some of the best buds around.

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Ride Recap: Reveal the Glacial Drumlin

From left:  Andy, Anton, Myself, Dan, Arthur. 

We left from the infamous Ben's Cycle alley way about 6:30pm last Friday evening and rode to our destination stop, Lampham peak, while chasing the sunset on the New Berlin trail.  It took us around 2.5hrs to our camp site with a couple pit stops along the way, which one was at Le Duc's Frozen Custard.

Our campsite was superb with plenty of area to pop up multiply tents and two trees ideal for my hammock in the clearing.

Dan had the heaviest bike when we left the shop out of the 5 of us, but when we loaded two bundles of fire wood in his rear pannier bags and a twelver on his front rack, he tipped the scale for sure.  My surly Junk strap came in handy when securing our beverages to the his rack.  Thank you Dan for hauling like a pro up to the peak!

Picture to the right showing the preferred spicy brown sauce for the night.  I can say only one of us was bold enough to wake up and relive it's qualities the next morning.

The four of us weren't willing to tough it out and wake up at sunrise like our friend Arthur, who had a hot date in Madison the next day, so we left the park short a man.  

 Anton is happy as a lark while cruising through Lake mills.

We stopped at one of the trail headquarters, which was converted from an old railroad station, for a water and peanut M&M break.  We stopped in briefly, but mostly stayed in the shade outside.

We passed through a hand full of tunnels that were about 20-30 yards long.  Overall trail conditions for great, they weren't too dry or too wet.

We were greeted with this nice message when reached the end of the trail just outside Madison.

I had by far the least amount of gear and had the lightest setup out of the group.  I'm running an Shimano Alfine 8sp with a 42/18t drive train.  I used a Revelate Designs Viscacha saddle bag and an Outdoor Research horizontal dry bag rigged to my handlebars.  Both systems worked wonderfully and I am completely happy with them and how they performed.  I admit using a hammock over a tent made using only these two bags possible, but I'm really looking forward to running this same setup in the coming weeks.

We see our first signs of the capital in the distance. 

We made it!  Beer and popcorn await us!

The director, Mike Dion, and the soundtrack artist, Dominique Fraissard,  spoke prior to the film and gave a some insite

Earl directed us to a much needed fuel filled breakfast at Lazy Jane's in Madison Sunday morning.  Super good!

Most of the next morning I followed the smell of Italian cheese.

We saw a fair amount of Wisconsin wildlife.  Beavers, great blue herons, Peregrine Falcon, Hawks, and a white tailed doe on the New Berlin trail 25 yards in front of us!

The obvious last check point before we all retreat back home to our lady friends, who had dinner waiting for us btw, was Frank's Power Plant for tall boys and muscle relaxers.