tejkowskit
Gold Member
Took another long weekend, this time to the driftless area of Wisconsin and Iowa. This was my second time going here this year, but I didn't post it the first time. I didn't take many pictures or video so didn't bother doing a report. This time i decided to do a report! The roads in this area are great with many hills and curves. The best are the lettered county roads.
This trip I had a riding buddy who I most often ride with. Here is a picture from the last time we came to the area. It was raining and about 45°F when this picture was taken. Thankfully we were on the way home. His bike is a f800gs
On to the current trip. I don't have maps of the routes because we didn't plan anything. We had destinations for each day, but the roads we took were last minute and chosen as we rode.
day 1. Friday 5/30/14
Packed up and left home at about 1:30. Our destination was scenic view campground in Iowa for an advrider meet up. Took I-80 straight west until we hit the Mississippi river and took that north to Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. We then cut west across the river and headed to the campground.
Cruising onon boring I80
Finally made it to the river. Idk why the ride along the Mississippi is spoken so highly of. Its really not an exciting ride at all (though I can't speak for the more southern section of the river). But I have to say it was much better than interstate. There are plenty of small towns along the river to stop in and check out.
Here is the campground we stayed at the first night. This picture doesn't show all of the bikes. I wish I did a panoramic :spank: The adv guys do what they call the great river gravel ride each year where they get a group and ride 200 miles of class a and class b roads in Iowa and part of Wisconsin. We thought it would be cool to check out especially since the f800gs was new to my friend.
Campsite was pretty open and treeless so we couldn't hang the hammocks. Stuck sleeping on the ground. Hung the bugnet on a tree and the other end on the bike.
After drinking our beer and exchanging stories with other riders I went to sleep about midnight.
day 2 Saturday 5/31/14
woke up about 6:30 and got to riding at 7:15. Figured it would be cool to ride with the adv guys on their route for a while. I am mad I didn't take any videos OR pictures from this part of the day, but I did get a sticker to show for it! Haha. I kept up just fine with the slower guys on the class A gravel, but once on the class B road that changed quick. Class A is pretty much gravel road, and Class B is minimal/unmaintained road. After taking the fz on a class B road I called it quits and headed back to pavement. Morning dew on the bikes allowed the gravel dust to stick and made for very dirty bikes!
Once on pavement we decided to head east along county rd mm and county road p from lacrosse, wi to wildcat mtn state park. This was an awesome route with plenty of curves and hills. We then took 33 back west which has an incredible section within the state park, went south along the Mississippi again, and crossed into Lansing Iowa. We got gas at the kwik star in Lansing because they have 100% gasoline. We then headed to yellow river state forest to camp for the night. We wanted to camp somewhere we could hang the hammocks and get a better night sleep after the day of riding.
Some pictures from the day.
Along the river again. Notice the dirty windscreen. Combination of gnats and gravel dust. I have never experienced gnats as bad as I have this weekend.
The county roads offer the most fun. Both times I've been out there i haven't seen a cop on the county road and traffic is minimal, but you have to stay sharp as there is the occasional patch of gravel in the center of the lane from shoulders and driveways. Farm equipment and cattle crossings aren't uncommon either.
We made a stop at a boat launch. Put our bikes in the river lol.
Doing burnouts in the river. He dug a rut and couldn't get out. I laughed at him trying to rock his bike out of the rut before helping to push him backwards out of it.
[youtubevid]2Ic8fCkOKI0[/youtubevid]
Pulling over for a break. Proof that I did part of the adv ride can be seen on my rear wheel and top case with all the dust!
We headed back to camp to set up. Had to bring firewood back.
My last report I mentioned I drink cheap red wine because i don't have to worry about keeping it cold but this time we went with cheap beer. The givi makes a good cooler.
Bikes at camp
Panoramic showing camp. This is what happens to you when you move while a panoramic is being taken lol! 3 arms and half a head.
I took this shot across from our campsite for the riding game challenge which was your bike in wildflowers.
State forest road in yellow river state park is a really good one too, and was ruined by a cager on our way in so we did that 1 more time. Then we cracked a beer, made dinner, and went to bed when the thunder storms rolled in at 9pm.
day 3 5/1/14
Today we left camp in a hurry because the gnats were unbearable. The rain from the night before made them insane! Again, we just kind of picked a direction and went with it. So long as we headed southeast, we were in the right direction. This ended up taking us on one of the best sections of road during the trip. Once we crossed into Wisconsin we took county rd d east and continued onto WI-179 to WI-131 south to the Wisconsin river. These 3 roads coupled together were a highlight. We'd ridden county d before which the road condition isn't very good, but the curves are plentiful. WI179 was smooth, fast, curvy, and hilly!
I was having too much fun to take pictures or pull over and mount the gopro. After that we found our way riding WI-60 along the Wisconsin river. Much better than riding along the Mississippi. Had a Ron Swanson style breakfast (for the parks and rec fans) at a place in Cobb, WI, and finished our ride home. Not many pictures for today, sorry.
Somewhere in Wisconsin.
End mileage was 958 miles for the weekend.
Thanks for reading! If you're ever interested in riding this area and want route suggestions let me know!
Here is a short clip of some of the riding. I'm not much for fancy editing and just save most of my raw footage to watch later as a memory.
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=qb6EVuwGjQ8"]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qb6EVuwGjQ8[/ame]
This trip I had a riding buddy who I most often ride with. Here is a picture from the last time we came to the area. It was raining and about 45°F when this picture was taken. Thankfully we were on the way home. His bike is a f800gs
On to the current trip. I don't have maps of the routes because we didn't plan anything. We had destinations for each day, but the roads we took were last minute and chosen as we rode.
day 1. Friday 5/30/14
Packed up and left home at about 1:30. Our destination was scenic view campground in Iowa for an advrider meet up. Took I-80 straight west until we hit the Mississippi river and took that north to Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. We then cut west across the river and headed to the campground.
Cruising onon boring I80
Finally made it to the river. Idk why the ride along the Mississippi is spoken so highly of. Its really not an exciting ride at all (though I can't speak for the more southern section of the river). But I have to say it was much better than interstate. There are plenty of small towns along the river to stop in and check out.
Here is the campground we stayed at the first night. This picture doesn't show all of the bikes. I wish I did a panoramic :spank: The adv guys do what they call the great river gravel ride each year where they get a group and ride 200 miles of class a and class b roads in Iowa and part of Wisconsin. We thought it would be cool to check out especially since the f800gs was new to my friend.
Campsite was pretty open and treeless so we couldn't hang the hammocks. Stuck sleeping on the ground. Hung the bugnet on a tree and the other end on the bike.
After drinking our beer and exchanging stories with other riders I went to sleep about midnight.
day 2 Saturday 5/31/14
woke up about 6:30 and got to riding at 7:15. Figured it would be cool to ride with the adv guys on their route for a while. I am mad I didn't take any videos OR pictures from this part of the day, but I did get a sticker to show for it! Haha. I kept up just fine with the slower guys on the class A gravel, but once on the class B road that changed quick. Class A is pretty much gravel road, and Class B is minimal/unmaintained road. After taking the fz on a class B road I called it quits and headed back to pavement. Morning dew on the bikes allowed the gravel dust to stick and made for very dirty bikes!
Once on pavement we decided to head east along county rd mm and county road p from lacrosse, wi to wildcat mtn state park. This was an awesome route with plenty of curves and hills. We then took 33 back west which has an incredible section within the state park, went south along the Mississippi again, and crossed into Lansing Iowa. We got gas at the kwik star in Lansing because they have 100% gasoline. We then headed to yellow river state forest to camp for the night. We wanted to camp somewhere we could hang the hammocks and get a better night sleep after the day of riding.
Some pictures from the day.
Along the river again. Notice the dirty windscreen. Combination of gnats and gravel dust. I have never experienced gnats as bad as I have this weekend.
The county roads offer the most fun. Both times I've been out there i haven't seen a cop on the county road and traffic is minimal, but you have to stay sharp as there is the occasional patch of gravel in the center of the lane from shoulders and driveways. Farm equipment and cattle crossings aren't uncommon either.
We made a stop at a boat launch. Put our bikes in the river lol.
Doing burnouts in the river. He dug a rut and couldn't get out. I laughed at him trying to rock his bike out of the rut before helping to push him backwards out of it.
[youtubevid]2Ic8fCkOKI0[/youtubevid]
Pulling over for a break. Proof that I did part of the adv ride can be seen on my rear wheel and top case with all the dust!
We headed back to camp to set up. Had to bring firewood back.
My last report I mentioned I drink cheap red wine because i don't have to worry about keeping it cold but this time we went with cheap beer. The givi makes a good cooler.
Bikes at camp
Panoramic showing camp. This is what happens to you when you move while a panoramic is being taken lol! 3 arms and half a head.
I took this shot across from our campsite for the riding game challenge which was your bike in wildflowers.
State forest road in yellow river state park is a really good one too, and was ruined by a cager on our way in so we did that 1 more time. Then we cracked a beer, made dinner, and went to bed when the thunder storms rolled in at 9pm.
day 3 5/1/14
Today we left camp in a hurry because the gnats were unbearable. The rain from the night before made them insane! Again, we just kind of picked a direction and went with it. So long as we headed southeast, we were in the right direction. This ended up taking us on one of the best sections of road during the trip. Once we crossed into Wisconsin we took county rd d east and continued onto WI-179 to WI-131 south to the Wisconsin river. These 3 roads coupled together were a highlight. We'd ridden county d before which the road condition isn't very good, but the curves are plentiful. WI179 was smooth, fast, curvy, and hilly!
I was having too much fun to take pictures or pull over and mount the gopro. After that we found our way riding WI-60 along the Wisconsin river. Much better than riding along the Mississippi. Had a Ron Swanson style breakfast (for the parks and rec fans) at a place in Cobb, WI, and finished our ride home. Not many pictures for today, sorry.
Somewhere in Wisconsin.
End mileage was 958 miles for the weekend.
Thanks for reading! If you're ever interested in riding this area and want route suggestions let me know!
Here is a short clip of some of the riding. I'm not much for fancy editing and just save most of my raw footage to watch later as a memory.
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=qb6EVuwGjQ8"]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qb6EVuwGjQ8[/ame]
Last edited:
