US Bike Route Comes to Wisconsin
Posted by Bikeverywhere, August 4th, 2010Adventure Cycling has been working with the US Department of Transportation to develop a system of marked bike routes across the state. One of the proposed routes would run from Winona Minnesota to the Lake Ferry in Milwaukee, using mostly bike trails to cross Wisconsin (including the Great River Trail, the LaCrosse River Trail, the Sparta-Elroy Trail, the 400 Trail, and the Glacial Drumlin Trail. (Some time ago, I posted a description of much of this route on my web site.)
For discussions of the overall project click here for the US Department of Transportation and here for Adventure Cycling. It appears from a map of the proposed system that the proposed Wisconsin segment is part of proposed route 30, which will run west through Minneapolis to beyond Billings and east, after cross the lake, to Detroit.
A number of states, particularly in the Northeast now have marked and numbered long-distance bicycle routes. In the 1970s, Wisconsin pioneered with two routes, one from LaCrosse to Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha, and the second running north from LaCrosse to Lake Superior. At some point these routes were abandoned as attention turned more to developing bike trails, particularly on abandoned railroad lines.