Biking

Hiking

Rollerblading

Although we have a noticeable shortage of boardwalks, Madison and Wisconsin in general offer some great areas for hiking, biking and rollerblading.

I prefer mountain biking on off-road trails as opposed to biking on the highway, although it seems to result in more helmet dents. Below are a few I've tried recently:

Chequamegon - This place is huge! Tons of trails, and while they're supposedly well marked, we still managed to get lost. The variety was nice... we rode on grass, dirt, gravel, rocks, clay and combinations of everything. Great scenery. Located way up north, just east of Cable, but worth the trip.

Wounds suffered: Wiped out within sight of the parking lot after biking for 20+ miles. Good road rash with sprained ligaments (?) in my left hand. Scars still visible.

Devils Lake - After the near death experience at Standing Rock (see below), we headed over to Devil's Lake for a nice, but slow ride through parts of the Ice Age loop. The scenery at the top was great, probably even worth the 20 minutes of straight up-hill peddling it took to get there. The trip down would have been much more fun if we had a patch kit.

Wounds suffered: Fell over while practically standing still - first day with clip-in pedals. Hit a rock and put first crack in helmet.

Standing Rocks Trail - This trail was ok, but would have been much better riding if we weren't tired, hung over and dehydrated. Plus we saw one medium-size rock throughout the whole park. Located in Portage County.

Wounds suffered: Massive dehydration, but saved by random biker with Gatorade. Also fell over in parking lot and hit tree within first 5 minutes of clip-in pedal break-in. Not good.

Biking Resources:

Wisconsin Attractions: Mountain Bike and Off-Road Trails

Wisconsin Off Road Bicycling Association

I'm using the term "hiking" pretty loosely here... along with our shortage of oceans we're pretty low on mountains, so the hiking trails are more like wandering-through-the-woods trails, which is still fun.

Devils Lake - Fun to do March thru October, but particularly gorgeous (and crowded) in fall. Great swimming & diving but watch out for the algae which is often tainted and makes you itch. Fun in September if you want to be covered in pseudo-lady bugs.

McKenzie Park - Growing up, my family went here every fall. It's located somewhere near Poynette and has trails, a zoo, a fire tower, and a lot of information about logging. Small, but fun and not commercial.

Owen Woods - Located right on the west side of Madison, this little conservation area has trails for walking and x-country skiing. Spent a great portion of my youth there playing in the "creeks" which I later discovered is sewer run-off.

This section is pretty sad... I love rollerblading but can't say that I travel to find great trails. Madison is small enough that you can really rollerblade anywhere (except places like the arboretum, because that would be too enjoyable) as long as the pavement is ok. If you know of a good place to go, please, let me know. A couple of the best places I found are:

Capitol City Trail - Starts in Fitchburg and continues to the south side of Madison. Nicely paved.

Olin Park/Monona Terrace/Vilas area - There are several short bikepaths in this area and, aside from crossing John Nolen, the traffic isn't bad.