Bikeverywhere is looking for a freelance web designer who can maintain the current site in WordPress and has extensive experience working with shopping carts. The current shopping cart is called SHOPP and works with PayPal. I’m open to trying a different cart. Interested designers can contact Doug Shidell via the contact page.
To co-workers and friends I billed it as an “Extreme Leisure” bike tour. It was an intentional spoof and antidote to the extreme rides some had taken recently, like the Arrowhead ride; 138 miles of snowmobile trails in the dead of winter, or the Continental Divide Race; from Canada to Mexico on jeep tracks and mountain bike trails at a pace of 120 miles per day. My plan: 50 miles per day, lots of lounging, photos, talking with the locals.
In reality, it was a little tougher, with one 88 mile day and several days of 60 plus miles. I also rode through temperatures over 90 degrees, with high humidity and one day that started in the 40s, with 20 mph winds. Today, my last day, looks to be in the low 50s with a light drizzle.
I wandered off the planned route several times just because the road ahead looked better than the one I was on. I also spent several mid-days laying on picnic tables in the shade whle waiting for the most intense heat and sunlight of the day to pass. Met a Mennonite family and talked with them as I was buying asparagus directly from their garden and spent an hour in a bar, drinking a beer and eating pork rib sandwiches as my phone charged in an outlet. Spent one night in a campsite next to a gurgling, boulder-filled river and a couple of nights in a state park with warm showers. Those are the experiences that make a bike trip for me. Mega miles and extreme conditions test your limits and provide their own kind of experience, but they don’t work for me.
I finish this afternoon. Total miles will be approximately 370. My only regret is that the trip wasn’t longer. It takes several days just to settle into the routine, and my trip was broken up with a visit to family- enjoyable, but it diisrupted the flow I was developing. I’m hungry for another tour.
My apologies to anyone who didn’t get their orders fulfilled immediately while I was on vacation. I made the best arrangements I could think of, but some things fell through the cracks.
I leave Saturday for a bike tour across the state of Wisconsin. I’ll ride from the Twin Cities to Green Bay, approximately 325 miles. The tour will be self contained, about a week in length and the first significant bike tour I’ve taken in over 20 years.
My original plan was to ride the Mountain Bay Trail from Wausau, Wisconsin to Green Bay, but that changed a couple of weeks ago when I had the chance to test ride the eastern end of the trail. The ride began at the end of an all day rain. The first thirty miles were on paved road, then I jumped on the trail. It took only a couple of meters for me to realize that my speed on the trail would be permanently reduced from about 16 mph to 11 mph, and even that reduced speed required a substantial increase in effort. The trail in this area, near Shawano, looks and feels like a jeep trail with two narrow tracks, soft wet gravel and occasional puddles. I turned off at the first cross road that went in the direction I was heading.
Wisconsin has an extensive network of paved back roads, some of them with as little as 50 cars per day, or one every half hour. Central Wisconsin was flattened 10,000 years ago by glaciers, so the road system is pretty much in a grid. With a resource like that, all I had to do to get to my destination was ride generally northwest by going first north, then west and making my turns almost at random until I neared my destination. For me this is the essence of bicycle touring- to get from Point A to Point B, but not necessarily in a straight line. I look forward to a week of similar meanderings.
We’ve just added a new and exciting map for the Twin Cities metro area. Titled “Northstar, You, Your Bike”, this 9 page brochure/pdf file opens up the world of bikes and commuter rail. Hop on the train, ride to another station and begin exploring. The options are endless. Here are just a few:
We’ve mapped out big loops and small ones, routes that follow country roads and routes that take in local trails. The brochure includes train fares, first arrivals and last departures, destinations, points of interest and local riding conditions. As a matter-of-fact, there is so much information, including our unbeatable maps, that each pdf is too large to download from the site. We’ll send it to your email address using YouSendIt. Check out the jpgs on the product page for samples of the route maps and information available for each station.
This is the perfect antidote to riding the same old loops again this weekend, and you don’t have to drive to get there, either!
Printed brochures are available on standard paper or tear and water resistant paper. Choose the delivery style that best fits your needs: Electronic delivery or hard copy.
Bikeverywhere has again been chosen by the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts to update their route maps. This is the 31st year that the Ride for the Arts has been held. Funds are used by the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) to support 34 performing arts groups throughout the greater Milwaukee area. Many of those groups, from symphony orchestras to street jugglers, perform in the Summerfest Grounds, creating a festive atmosphere for riders as they finish their rides.. This year, for the first time, the ride starts and ends at Summerfest, making it easy for riders to get back to their cars after the ride.
Bikeverywhere has been creating maps for the MLRA since 2007. Routes vary in length from as little as 4 miles to over 75 miles. The longer rides start at the Summerfest grounds and head north along the shore of Lake Michigan. Shorter rides start at the same place and head south along the Lakeshore.
Bikeverywhere will be on hand at the finish line. Stop by our booth to say hi.
Bikeverywhere has just released a minor update to the Twin Cities Bike Map. Map changes reflect new research and suggestions from map users. Some changes include the addition of the Aldine St bridge in St. Paul, a trail connecting Fish Lake Park to Elm Creek Park Reserve, a corrected alignment of the LRT trail out of Hopkins and a number of changes in the inner suburbs north of Minneapolis.
This update is part of the ongoing research that keeps Bikeverywhere maps as current as possible. The irregular pattern to the minor updates reflects the realities of publishing. When I run out of maps, I reprint and incorporate any changes since the last update. I don’t usually make a big deal of the change. The cover and ISBN numbers are the same. The only way to tell the difference is to look at the back cover. Just above the price you will see “Rev 8.2.” The original version doesn’t have these words.
This is the first time I’ve labeled the revision numbers, and ironically, I did it wrong. This is the 9th edition of the map so I should have labeled it Rev 9.2. And those of you who care about this sort of thing at all will wonder “Why 9.2 instead of 9.1?” The answer is that I did another minor update about a year ago, but didn’t label it. Check your map. If it has a break where the I-35W bridge collapsed, it is 9.0, the major update. Rev 9.1 reconnected the bridge. It also has other small updates, but it would require some deep sleuthing to discover those changes.
It’s been two years in the making, but we’ve finally added Jefferson County, Wisconsin to the list of Bikeverywhere maps. With the addition of the Jefferson County Bike Map it is now possible to ride from the western edge of Dane County to the shores of Lake Michigan using Bikeverywhere maps. And you don’t have to do it all on the Glacial Drumlin State Trail. Skirt the southern edge of the county to connect to Racine or Kenosha. Visit Lake Koshkonong, then follow the Rock River until you feel like turning east again. Cut across the county at a diagonal, mix it up between bike friendly roads and the Glacial Drumlin Trail. Or make a tour of the Rock River and conquer some drumlins. Jefferson County turns out to be pretty interesting on its own, so consider making it a destination.
The Jefferson County Bike Map has been researched by Milwaukee Bike map researcher Bruce Thompson and developed to the same standards as the Milwaukee and Madison Maps. The routes are laid out on low traffic, scenic towns roads and county highways. The primary difference is that the Jefferson County Bike Map is a downloadable pdf file. That makes it a less expensive alternative to the paper maps, and you can reprint the map as often as you wish.
You can view the Jefferson County Bike Map in the Shopping Cart.
As a special introductory offer, the Jefferson County Bike Map will be reduced by $1.00 to just $5.00 from now until the end of 2009. Now’s the time to start planning that city-to-city bike trip, or a close to home get away into rural beauty of Jefferson County.
I saw them two miles into my homebound commute; father and son, fully loaded with panniers and asking directions. The guy on the street wasn’t very helpful. He only knew the autoroute to their destination. I was going that way, so I volunteered to lead them.
Before we’d ridden a mile I knew they needed more than a shop. They were tired, a bit cranky, lost and carrying camping gear, but faced with an expensive motel stay because there was no way they would get out of the city before dark. I volunteered our backyard for the night. It’s exactly the sort of thing that others had done for me on my long ago trip to Portland, Oregon.
By chance, they were riding west from Portland. their destination was a friend’s house in Vermont. Too far into the ride to carry the novelty of the adventure and too far from the end to feel the accomplishment, they were at a mental low point, and the normal tensions of parent and teenage son were heightened. It would have been great to hear travel stories of wonder and parent-child bonding, of cherished memories and life changing experiences, but that wasn’t for this night. Dad needed someone to talk with and son needed “space” and rest.
What we could offer was an ear and a respite from the road. We fed them cheese and crackers until the large pizza arrived, then followed up with a couple of large scoops of ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. They took hot showers and dried off with the thickest towels we had. We listened as Dad unloaded his travel blues while the boy slept. In the morning Dad woke up early and worked on the bikes in our basement bike shop as son continued sleeping. I made a pancake breakfast for Dad, but son chose to get another hour of sleep.
I gave Dad a copy of the “Twin Cities Bike Map,” marked the location of shops for picking up the gear he needed and highlighted the route out of town. Then I hopped my bike and went back to work. It was a small respite for the travelers and a break from the daily grind for me. For them, I hope they form that bond and settle into a close friendship as they continue their travels.
For me, I’ve made a down payment on a debt. I can never directly repay those who helped me on my cross-country trip. The best I can do is pass the favor to another traveler. I’ve done it once. I still have a couple more to go before the debt will be fully repaid.
Maps are dynamic. Bike routes change, new trails get built and old ones extended. Some trails get shut down, temporarily, because of nearby construction or because the trail itself needs an overhaul. Well post the updates here, then provide a permanent, one-top page for all of the posts within each of the metro areas covered. If you want to see what’s chqnged since your copy of a map was printed, click the links below. If you have update information that we should know about, please email us by using the contact form here.
The Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis, Wisconsin, has never been an easy venue to bike to. There were no bike racks, no security and no official encouragement to ride to the fair. That has changed dramatically in 2008. Thanks to the efforts of Jack Hirt of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin and the enthusiasm of Kathleen O’ Leary of the State Fair, bicyclists will be welcomed with open arms this year. “Pedal to the Park,” the State Fair’s official name for the promotion, will encourage bicycling to the State Fair by offering bike parking near the north and south entrances to the park. If you are a member of the Bike Federation or on the mailing list of some bike shops in the Milwaukee area, you will soon receive an email encouraging you to “Pedal to the Park.” The email blast is expected to reach nearly 30,000 cyclists.
Bikeverywhere has helped with the promotion by producing a custom map of bike routes to the State Fair and sending out promotional materials to bike dealers in the greater Milwaukee area. This is the same assistance that we gave to Summerfest earlier this summer and similar to the custom bike route mapping Bikeverywhere did for the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts. You can download copy of the map here. Eventually the map will also be available for download on the Wisconsin State Fair website.
This year you can add a bike ride to the corn dog/Midway/animal barn experience of the Wisconsin State Fair.
