... the view from the fabulous bike path. Enlarge for cows.
That was yesterday. We did not bike all the way to Illinois... or even to Belleville. At my request, we turned around short of Belleville, and the entire ride was only 26 miles. I say "only," although it was the farthest I'd ever ridden, because Meade has done many, much longer rides, including the ride he took on the Badger Trail the previous day, past Belleville, into New Glarus and Mt. Horeb, for a total of 65 miles, some of it in total darkness, even though it was not nighttime at that point:
The highlight of the trail is the restored 1200-foot long Stewart Railroad Tunnel that was finished in 1887 and is located south of Belleville. Because of a slight bend in the tunnel, you gaze into total darkness. We recommend that you bring a bright flashlight. This tunnel may not be the longest trail tunnel in Wisconsin, but is considered by many to be the darkest in Wisconsin.Meade did not have a light of any kind, but proceeded through the tunnel nonetheless, using various techniques, including yelling, which I don't think was an attempt at echolocation.
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50 comments:
It's going to be nice weather because the cows are standing up. When cows are sitting down it's going to rain soon.
Peter
I wonder, are there bats in those tunnel that come out at night?
I prefer my tunnels to have light at the ends of them.
Top of my head reaction...you guys really are something!
You biked 26 miles at your age?
Kudos, to both of you. Meade is starting to sound like IronMan, what with echolocation and all.
The Blonde says she did 22 miles once, which was about all she could take, and then did a 12 hour shift, but she was in her mid-40s then.
So it's quite impressive.
Meade said...
I prefer my tunnels to have light at the ends of them.
Hopefully, one of them is not an oncoming headlight.
@meade: Back in the '80s, I used to bike from Middleton to Devil's lake SP using back roads (i.e., not Highway 12. I think it was around 40-45 miles one way. We'd go through Merrimac and go right up to the head of the line for the ferry. Parts of the route were hilly and quite challenging.
_____________
wv = mundona: The fifth, lesser known lake in Madison; the pedestrian one that nobody talks about.
When navigating though dark places, I usually use my toes, shins and forehead.
The Badger Trail website likes its "Food and Cheese." Sweet!
Enlarge for cows.
Ha ha! No, thanks. We have plenty of cows around here.
Sounds like a cool tunnel. Here's a 900 foot tunnel cut through solid rock with no supports my son and I drove through last month. It was also originally built for a train. The rough rock sticking out and the dripping water made it scary.
Enlarge for cows.
No, thanks. I am lactose intolerant.
A Guild Rule That Still Applies
Without there be fronds in the foreground
Bucolic is not established,
Yea without there be framing least half 'round
The intimate sense is abolished.
You know who else was enthusiastically for paths and tunnels????
Anyways who is paying for this boondoggle? Nobody uses these stupid paths except people that HATE pickup trucks!
WHO WILL PROTECT THE TAXPAYER!???
Maguro? Calypso? Original Mike?
Help
Enlarge for cows.
There's a joke in there about women, just waiting for a punch line, but I'll spare you.
That said, I love a good long bike ride like that. I'm starting to run again and I fear for when it really kicks in, because I've already developed a blister on one foot, the size of my thumb, and it'll only get worse:
Obsessive compulsive disorder - it's not just for blogging anymore!
garage mahal said...
You know who else was enthusiastically for paths and tunnels????
Anyways who is paying for this boondoggle? Nobody uses these stupid paths except people that HATE pickup trucks!
WHO WILL PROTECT THE TAXPAYER!???
Maguro? Calypso? Original Mike?
Help"
So if I get this right your logic says that if we have paid for one boondoggle then we should pay for every boondoggle.
One dumb bike path = one dumber train line.
You're an idiot.
I bike between 25 and 30 miles a day...at the gym.
Guess how many calories I burn during the 25-30 mile bike ride?
Depending on which level I am on, which is usually 7 or 8, 650 calories.
When I am at the gym on my bike I like to lift up my shirt to "wipe away sweat" so people can see my abs. I someone do this when a fatty walks by just do frustrate them.
Thank you and Good Day.
Hey Titus, do you ever do anything for its own sake and not to make an impression?
Not really Ricpic.
There is always someone watching.
And I worked fucking hard on these abs. They need to be seen one way or another.
As a straight guy in my 60s regularly squatting 150 kilos for reps I've always admire the work ethic of the queer fellows.
I've also been insulted as a queer, fag, and worse, simply because I've chosen to take care of myself.
There are two ways to get a six-pack stomach: abdominal crunches and 12-oz curls. Titus and I have chosen the former.
And I worked fucking hard on these abs. They need to be seen one way or another
*smile*
One dumb bike path = one dumber train line.
We have bike paths and cross country trails all over the state. So I assume you are for not subsidizing the upkeep on this trail any longer?
Whoo hoo! Look at me! I'm an Earth Goddess at one with nature! No carbon footprint!
*Gag*
For Meade-
I've found this to be very good for occasional night riding.
http://cygolite.com/products/tridenx750.html
garage mahal said...
We have bike paths and cross country trails all over the state. So I assume you are for not subsidizing the upkeep on this trail any longer?"
I didn't say that...in fact I said the opposite. I think you look at each group and even elements of each group and make a value decision.
An example that I'm familiar with would be the Bearskin Trial up north. It's used for biking/hiking in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter. It was an abandoned railroad bed to start so costs to "create" were low, and since it's just a crushed gravel base maintenance is low. It also draws a lot of people into an area that "tourism" as it's main economy. so subsidize it, sure.
Building a high speed rail line for a billion dollars that's not going to be used and cost millions per year in running it...no.
People say your bright but wrong minded. I don't see that at all. I think you're wrong minded because you aren't very bright.
You know who else was enthusiastically for paths and tunnels????
Yes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_LfUmdR2Mo&feature=player_detailpage#t=127s
wv - handrot - nuff said.
An example that I'm familiar with would be the Bearskin Trial up north. It's used for biking/hiking in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter
Well that's great. YOU pay for it then. Hardly anyone uses it! Why do I have to subsidize your hobbies? That's like modern day slavery.
At the link it says "Trail complete by the end of June 2011 promised."
Can you say boondoggle?
People of Wisconsin brag about the darkness of their tunnels. Is it any wonder that they elected Al Franken?
People of Wisconsin brag about the darkness of their tunnels. Is it any wonder that they elected Al Franken?
People from Wisconsin elected a senator for Minnesota? Neat!!
"William said...
People of Wisconsin brag about the darkness of their tunnels. Is it any wonder that they elected Al Franken?" Dude, Minnesota elected Al Fraken.
One correction: The Badger trail doesn't go to Mount Horeb. Perhaps Meade went to Monticello?
The Stewart tunnel is very cool - literally. It's also fun to investigate in late March when the icicles are still formed in the tunnel interior like stalatites.
"garage mahal said...
Well that's great. YOU pay for it then. Hardly anyone uses it! Why do I have to subsidize your hobbies? That's like modern day slavery."
Actually, it get's very heavy use summer and winter, costs very little to maintain and like I said, it's important to the tourism economy up north (especially in the winter). BTW, I don't use it. If I looked at it selfishly, I would want it closed, as the snowmobiles make a lot of racket in the winter and it runs very close to my lake home.
Again, these kind of responses reinforce the "not very bright" conclusion.
"Depending on which level I am on, which is usually 7 or 8, 650 calories."
Which is why exercise isn't very effective in losing weight. After a 26-mile bike ride, do you think you eat the same amount you'd eat if you sat around most of the day (which would also burn calories of course)? It's highly unlikely. You'll compensate with a few more calories, canceling it out. I don't bike to lose weight, and I sure wouldn't waste 2 hours biking on a machine imagining I'd lose weight. You have to eat less. It's much more efficient way to use your time. Now, if you want to experience the experience of movement through the natural world, with sights and sensations, a bike ride has intrinsic value. That's what it's good for. You might care about how beautiful you are, but I care about how beautiful life is. I also care about weight control, but exercise is not worth the time spent on it for that goal. I recommend living.
"experience the experience"
LOL. Don't write like that.
Garage. These trails are useful to we rich who like to do life extending exercises off the traffic clogged roads. You should feel grateful that your betters are staying in shape and willingly pay up. We will be happily profiting from the fat dejected poor and might buy new, better, bicycles with our profits. You, meanwhile, can eat up. Fill up those narrowing arteries with fatty foods and sloth. Go ahead. Get on Social Security D isability with the fruits of your chow. We rich will be happily peddling down the paths while your fury makes your veins explode.
""People of Wisconsin brag about the darkness of their tunnels. Is it any wonder that they elected Al Franken?' People from Wisconsin elected a senator for Minnesota? Neat!!"
It was a really long tunnel.
PackerBronco said..."One correction: The Badger trail doesn't go to Mount Horeb.."
I know. I should have written that more clearly. I meant to say that he took the trail past Belleville and then, to get home, he went to those other places rather than doubling back on the out route as we did yesterday. That made it a much longer trip.
There's some nice hills between New Glaurus and Mount Horeb. It's a great ride as long as it's not hot and humid; otherwise you suffer 'cause there ain't no shade on that section.
@ Michael:
garage was being facetious. He's not against the trials. He is trying to make the point that since we built them, we should build EVERYTHING!
Garage. These trails are useful to we rich who like to do life extending exercises off the traffic clogged roads
You can walk. Or do jumping jacks, I don't care. Just don't make me pay for your exercise routine. We're broke.
We should probably think about filling in these trails with concrete and barbed wire to show future Wisconsinites how to protect taxpayers.
Out with Aldo Leopold, in with Scott Walker.
New Wisconsin is Leaner. Meaner.
I know what Garage was trying to say, but here is my point. We rich are not going to approve building his stupid railroads and we are not going to pay his teachers what we pay bankers. We are going to vote in amusing recreational facilities at taxpayer expense because we pay most of the taxes to begin with and we want to feel like the millionbillion bucks we are worth. So he misses the point of few people using the trails having anything at all to do with their worth to we rich. It is axiomatic that we get what we want and he does not. He can chow down on fried cheese while we rich buff up. He can wail about whatever he likes but he is out of shape and angry and suseptible to stroking out.
We have bike paths and cross country trails all over the state.
In our area they are doing a Rails to Trails program on many of the older rail line right of ways. Very good use of an abandoned rail line that is already graded for easy riding path.
There is also a popular Century Bike Ride that is held annually. Hundreds of people come up to participate with several levels of challenge. Very dedicated people for the sport.
Watching TV while using my treadmill, especially sports, alleviates some of the guilt I feel about all the television I watch on the couch. On days when I am angry at the world, I would rather run 5 mph uphill on the treadmill for 30 minutes than do just about anything else.
I think a 65 mile bike ride sounds boring as hell. I would rather walk 10 miles than bike 65.
We are going to vote in amusing recreational facilities at taxpayer expense because we pay most of the taxes to begin with and we want to feel like the millionbillion bucks we are worth.
Sing it brother. Sing it. I wish one Republican could talk like that though. They always have to cloak it in quaint terms like "protect the taxpayer". LOL. Just shows how long we have to go in our society before the rich are finally shown some appreciation. Especially Bankers. They are the best and brightest we have!
I work out because I look better which in turn makes me feel better and more confident in myself.
I was a really really skinny kid growing up. I hated my body. I would wear a tshirt and my arms so so skinny people would laugh at them....Group Hug.
In the summer I would wear long johns under my pants with these fucked up "paddings" that I made to make my thighs look big.
And I would wear a sweatshirt underneath my long polo shirt to make me look bulky.
This was when it was 90 degrees.
Try to change out of that contraption when having sex with someone.
I would dump the long johns in the bathroom drawer before doing it and retrieve it after doing it.
I am all about Living and Choosing Life!
I went to a fucking Gandy Dancer Music Fest in Mazomanie yesterday and juggled, did the hula hoop for like an hour and even tried to learn how to be a Gandy Dancer.
I spun a rifle for 10 years in a Drum Corps and am pretty "talented" when it comes to spinning things.
Although, I was at one time teaching all the little girls at the festival Hula Hoop Tricks. Catching behind the back, under the legs, jumping through the hoop and then doing a somersault. Although, that did start to receive quite a bit of attention. I didn't want any attention at the Gandy Dancer festival.
I also don't eat much. That probably helps my weight. Lots of fruits, vegetables and water. I do pork out every once in awhile though, but the next day don't eat much.
The corn is very high in Wisconsin now.
My dad loves to look at corn rows.
Yeah, well, if Al Franken lived in Wisconsin, he's just the kind of guy you'd elect.
I was a really really skinny kid growing up. I hated my body.
Same here, although I never took to covering it up, but started lifting weights at 11 years old hoping to get heavier and more muscular. After 7-8 years, it worked.
When I entered the 8th grade they weighed and measured everyone. I was 5' 11" and 128 lbs. My uncle had a picture on me from back in those days. I looked life a refugee.
enlarge for cows
For some reason that phrase made me chuckle.
How now brown cow?
(Which I always thought was a mildly carbonated chocolate drink.)
Meade prefers tunnels with lights at both ends -- may I suggest that all do have such accommodation if you go through the tunnel in the daytime.
Now about echolocation, perhaps echolocution would have been an easier thing to do.
The WI Elroy-Sparta trail also has two or three tunnels; the longest is almost 3/4 mile. My transit strategy was to walk towards the light.
Do not strike a pose deep inside the tunnel so that your companion can take your picture; the tunnel walls are covered with soot.
I guess I didnt know the difference either! I never really gave it that much thought:) New follower.
Badger Sweatshirts
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