Kenosha county has recently paved its two sections of bike trails: from the Racine County line south to 35th St in Kenosha and from 89th St south to the Illinois state line. Thus the entire trail between Racine and Kenosha is now paved.

I just rode the newly paved middle section of the Lake Country trail. The trail is now paved throughout its length (except for a short detour near county P). While the trail is mostly a rail-to-trail conversion with mild grades, the newly paved portion follows a power line directly over a moraine next to the Nagawaukee golf course. So it is quite steep (I am told the state denied a grant application because the grade did not meet standards), but still much nicer paved.

In the same area, the trail along Cushing Park Rd between the Lake Country trail and the Glacial Drumlin trail is mostly open (one bridge was still unfinished when I looked but is easy to get around by taking the road). A side trail leads across the park to connect with the road up Lapham Peak.

An extension of the Brown Deer Trail is now paved and ready to open between Brown Deer Rd and Brown Deer Park. This is good news for several reasons. It eliminates the need for a potentially dangerous left turn between Green Bay Ave and the old village center of Brown Deer. It also means that the Interurban trail system is connected to Milwaukee county’s Oak Leaf Trail. Finally, the Interurban Trail system now runs from Brown Deer Park to Oostberg in Sheboygan County (with a few on-street interruptions).

(cross-posted at Wisconsin Bike Routes)

Shortly after the bridge carrying the Ozaukee Interurban Trail over Interstate 43 opened, I decided to try it out. Looking down, I spotted a couple of bicyclists on the frontage road staring up at the bridge and obviously wondering how to get on the trail. Unfortunately for them, the bridge spanned the frontage road along with the interstate, with no connection.

As more bike paths are built, particularly on converted railroads, we are likely to see more situations where two bike routes cross without connecting. In my last post, I listed a number of such situations with the Hank Aaron State Trail. The HAST is an extreme case, both because it starts in a valley and then moves to a former railroad, but there are a number of similar cases in Milwaukee:

• The new Beer Line Trail passes under North Ave without connecting to it.
• The East Side Oak Leaf Trail passes under Prospect, Farwell, and Locust without direct connections. There is a trail connection mid-block between Farwell and Prospect and one about a block south of Locust.
• A path starts at the east end of Brady St, descends the bluff to the Oak Leaf Trail. It then connects a bridge that passes over Lincoln Memorial Drive to connect to the bike path on the lake side of the drive. There is no connection, however, to the path on the west side of the drive.
• The Marsupial bridge under the Holton St bridge skips over Commerce St.

Just being in the right horizontal location may not be enough if one is too high or too low.

When I first researched the Milwaukee and SE Wisconsin bike map, I prepared some notes on the routes and posted them on my website of Wisconsin Bike Routes. They had not been updated since, an omission pointed out by one of our readers.

They have now been updated and can be seen here. I very much appreciated comments and additions.

The official opening of the Hank Aaron State Trail western extension is scheduled to take place November 8. The new section of trail follows former railroad tracks between 37th St and 94th Place. The route can be clearly seen on the Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin map because it is marked as a railroad line.

There are a limited number of access points to the new trail. On the whole section, there are only two grade crossings. Here are the access points (going from east to west):

• A connecting trail that starts at Pierce St and 37th, goes south down a switchback, goes under the existing railroad track, crossing the Menominee River, and connects to the existing trail at Canal St.
• General Mitchell Blvd in the Wood VA Center, one of the two grade crossings.
• 56th St, a connector from the south.
• The west side of Hawley Rd.
• 68th St, a connector from the north.
• 76th St, the other grade crossing.
• 89th St, an informal connector from the south.
• 94th Place, the present western end of the trail. The continuation of the trail to the west awaits the reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange.

The trail crosses several bike routes shown on the map without connecting with them, instead crossing over or under them:

• The bike trail on the east side of Miller Parkway that connects National Avenue to Canal St (trail crosses over).
• 70th St (crosses under).
• 84th St (crosses over). At this time there is no direct connection to the Wisconsin State Fair.
• 92nd St (crosses over).

Perhaps it is also worth noting the three streets, all with marked bike lanes, that cross over the Menominee Valley on viaducts, thus crossing but not intersecting the older section of trail:

• 16th St
• 27th St
• 35th St

(This post has been cross-posted at Wisconsin Bike Routes)

Several years ago a route was cleared and a rough gravel trail was laid from a point just west of highway 31 to Willow Rd in Sturtevant. But then construction mysteriously stopped. Finally the trail has been paved.

Finding bicycle-friendly routes between Racine and the western parts of Racine county is a challenge. The need to cross two railroads and interstate 94 tends to funnel traffic onto the relatively few through roads. With the improvement of this trail, bicyclists now have the option of an off-road route between Racine and Sturtevant.  They can then use mostly low-traffic roads to continue further west. (The exception is caused by the need to use the route 20 shoulder to get under the railroad tracks. Fortunately the shoulders are wide.)

The northern section of the Beer Line Trail between Gordon Park and Wright Street is open and paved. This trail follows the former train track that service the Schlitz and Pabst breweries. The new trail is at the edge of the bluff above the Milwaukee River. South of this section the trail that climbs up the bluff (or climbs down, depending on your direction) from Commerce Street to the new trail is still under construction.

Update (October 16, 2010): the entire trail is now open.

Brookfield is one of the most challenging places in which to find safe and continuous bicycle routes. Most of the through roads are narrow with heavy traffic. Bike paths along the roads often start and then stop for no apparent reason. Stretches of road will have a bike lane on one side but not the other. These challenges are reflected in the often circuitous routes shown on the Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin bike map, often using winding residential streets.

On the plus side, Brookfield continues to add to its bike trails, with an emphasis on trails through parks. As part of its Greenway Plan, a newly-built trail starts in Wirth Park (near the intersection of North Avenue and Pilgrim Road) and runs northwest to Calhoun Rd. This new trail is part of a marked route, called the Beverly Hills Trail, running between Wirth Park and Mitchell Park.

Another new trail in Brookfield follows Pilgrim Parkway between Bluemound Road and North Avenue.

The second edition of the Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin map shows a gap in the Seven Waters Trail just north of Wind Lake. This gap required bicyclists to ride on the shoulder of highway 36 for a short stretch south of Muskego Dam Rd. With the opening of a new bridge this spring, the trail is continuous between Wind Lake and Muskego Dam Rd.

At the other end of the Seven Waters Trail, in Burlington, a paved trail leads southeast along the Fox River to Bushnell Park. A newly opened unpaved trail continues east from Bushnell Park. On the current edition of the map, the route of this trail is shown as the railroad track it replaced. Currently the trail ends at Vandenboom Rd, which is unlabeled on the map, but is the first road west of highway 75.