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.

Madison Map Updates

Milwaukee Map Updates

Twin Cities Map Updates

The 2nd edition of the Madison and Dane County Bike Map contains an error north of Paoli. The route identified as County Road PB, then Range Trail Rd, going north from Paoli is Range Trail Rd the entire distance. The heavier black line to the east of Range Trail is County Rd PB.

There was a time in Minneapolis when a news reporter compared winter bike commuting to the Will Steiger Polar Expedition. Today winter bike commuting is almost mainstream, so what do the polar expedition types do to distinguish themselves? Check out Bike Winter for a list of events in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. Some highlights:

• Milwaukee: Bike Polar Plunge: January 1 at 11:00 am. Ride in the New Year with a Ride into Lake Michigan. Meet at Palomino Bar, 2491 S. Superior.  Ride organizers helpfully suggest bringing dry clothes to change into.
• Milwaukee: Bike Polo: Every Thursday and Sunday. Contact mkebikepolo@gmail.com for meet up information.
• Madison: Ride the Capital City Bike Trail: January 17 11:00 am. Meet at the Bicycle Federation office 106 Doty St. Ste 400. Return for post ride warmer uppers.

Stupor Bowl Same weekend as the Super Bowl. This alleycat race is eleven years old and going strong.

Minneapolis Bike Polo For the year round schedule, check the games section of mplsbikelove.

• Northern Minnesota: Arrowhead 135 February 2, 2009. When you’ve done it all and still don’t feel challenged, try this midwinter event. It’s a 135 mile bike/walk/or ski race on snowmobile trails through the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota.. In 2006, the start line temperature was -35 degrees. The high was approximately -17 degrees. One participant lost ten toes to frostbite, so don’t go to this event under prepared.

Saris Cycling Group, makers of bike racks for automobiles, is hosting the Wisconsin Bike Fed’s annual fundraiser on Friday, October 17 from 6:00 to 10:00 pm. The gathering of bike riders and activitsts features Special Guest Christian Vande Velde, former support rider for Lance Armstrong and 1999 winner of the UCI World Cup in Individual Pursuit. Host for the event will be local Triple M radio voice and Wisconsin Ironman finisher Pat Gallagher.

Added bonuses include the chance to win a trip for two to anywhere in the United States by Trek Travel and a Trip for Two to Italy from the Cannondale Sports Group. The Italian prize includes the opportunity to ride in the Liquigas team car during a stage of the 2009 Giro d’ Italia.

The annual fundraiser is a popular event that draws cyclists from around the state and northern Illinois. The Bike Fed recommends signing up early to avoid the long lines. To register, or learn more, click here.

The Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival has teamed up with the Cable Hayward Area Arts Council to host Bicycle as Art The Art of the Bicycle. The show is looking for original 2D and 3D artwork that uses the bicycle as its inspiration. The exhibit will be open to the public during Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival weekend, September 12-14. Artists have until September 1 to enter their work and September 10 to deliver it to Telemark Resort in Cable, WI. More information

Summerfest, on Milwaukee’s lakefront, bills itself as the World’s Largest Music Festival. Running from June 26 to July 6 this year, it has multiple stages booked with music from noon to midnight daily. It also has a long history of providing free parking for bicyclists right in front of the Mid-Gate entrance to the grounds.

This year Summerfest is going green and part of the greening effort is to encourage more ticket holders to bike to the festival. Bikeverywhere teamed up with Summerfest to create a map of bike routes to the Summerfest grounds from three directions (Sorry, no bike routes across Lake Michigan.). The routes start 5-6 miles from the Summerfest grounds and follow bike friendly roads and bike paths to the Chicago Avenue bike parking lot. The map is a distilled version of the Milwaukee and SE Wisconsin Bike Map created by bikeverywhere.

You can download a free copy of the map from the Summerfest website, or right here. Bikeverywhere has also supplied free paper maps to Milwaukee area bike shops.

The goal of this promotion is two fold. The obvious goal is to encourage more cyclists to ride their bikes to big, fun events like Summerfest. We believe that a cyclist only has to avoid parking hassles and slip past traffic once to appreciate the value of the bike when attending a large event like Summerfest. The bigger-picture goal is to show other events, both large and small, that providing basic necessities, like free parking and good route maps, will encourage cyclists, therefore reducing the event’s needs for ever bigger parking lots and traffic control expenses.

For bikeverywhere, the goal is very simple. We want more people to live the bikeverywhere motto. So give it a try. Download the free Bike-to-Summerfest Map. Pick out a route and ride to this incredible music event. And if you want to start further out, consider purchasing a Milwaukee and SE Wisconsin Bike Map. You could plan a route from as far away as Lake Geneva or Kenosha. Now wouldn’t that be fun?

For the record: Bike parking is fenced and a guard is stationed at the lot during festival hours. You will still have to bring a lock for your bike. The fencing and the guard are extra security measures provided by Summerfest.

It didn’t take long for alert readers to notice that I forgot to include the finished part of the Badger State Trail between Belleville and Purcell Rd. No excuses for that oversight. In the process of converting the map into GIS format I overlooked the missing trail. My apologies. Click here for a free pdf file showing the proper location of the trail on the map. Badger State Trail

This is a fund raiser for the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin presented by Trek Bicycle Stores of Madison. The evening starts with a bike ride from the Trek Bicycle Store East to the Eastgate Cinema to see Klunkerz, a movie about the rise of mountain biking from its Marin County roots. Fischer bike founder Gary Fischer will be in attendance and will ride with the group to the cinema. Considering the size of Mr. Fischer’s ego, and his relentless efforts to establish himself as THE founder of mountain biking, expect the movie to feature him prominently.

After the movie, a drawing will be held for a Gary Fischer Monona bike. All proceeds go to the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.