The La Crosse, WI area is the first of a new series of bike route maps that I am developing for your phone or mobile devices. La Crosse is in the southwest corner of Wisconsin on the Mississippi River and in the heart of Wisconsin’s Driftless area. The city itself, and the city of Onalaska to the north, are in the relatively flat valley created by the confluence of the LaCrosse and Mississippi Rivers. Head east to ride on some of the most remote, scenic, and hilly roads you will find anywhere in the continental US.

The Driftless area is an unglaciated part of the state that has been cut into narrow valleys, called coulees, and rolling ridges.  Expect climbs up to a mile in length as you ride from coulee to ridge, and exhilarating descents as you come back down. This is farm country with small farms and woodlots in the coulees and larger farms on the ridges. Wisconsin’s history as a dairy state works well for bicyclists. The state has paved nearly every road in the area so milk trucks can get milk from farm to market under any weather conditions. For bicyclists that means paved roads, often with as few as 50 cars per day.

The map is available for your iPhone, Android or tablet. The first step is to download the free app from either the iTunes Store or Google Play. This is a one time download.  You can now download any map on the Avenza Map Store. To find the La Crosse map, search for LaCrosse, WI Bike Routes. Or just search for Bikeverywhere to see more maps as I develop them.

I’m giving away the first 50 downloads of the La Crosse Bike Routes map with the hope that I can get feedback that will help me make it even better. After the first 50 downloads, I will charge $4.00.

The free map app has a lot of features. The most important is that you can use it with the GPS in your phone to track where you are. This only works, of course, if you are in the La Crosse area. But even before you get there, you can lay out routes, add points of interest, measure distances and numerous other things. Check it out. The app is always free, but hurry on the map. It won’t take long to get to 50 downloads.