Bicyclists gather downtown for the the start of the Galesville Apple Affair ride. Photo by Joe Antonie.Heavenly fall bicycling in Trempealeau County
by Phil Van Valkenberg
What more do you need for great cycling than a decent bike, sweet quiet roads and a good map? In our part of the Midwest there are lots of fine places to turn a pedal. But is there a truly perfect destination?
Ron and Kathy Bergin of Cable, Wisconsin, have joined friends for biking excursions in Trempealeau County for a number of years. "We're always drawn back to ride there," Ron said. "We love the bluff country."
He continued. "When you get in from the river, there's just an endless number of options to piece together great rides of 30 to 50 miles and more. The big hills of the area are a real test any time of the year. It's such a bike-friendly area, from the maps to the many events to the Trail Stewards program. It all adds up to a real welcome for cyclists."
The Bicycle Club of Trempealeau County claims to enjoy the "the nation's largest connected bicycle loop
trail system." Such a superlative might send you scrambling for your Guiness Book of World Records to find out where the catch is, but don't bother. There is none. You can pedal in Trempealeau County until your buns cry uncle.
They've mapped 14 loops ranging from 15 to 30 miles on a nice color 11-inch by 17-inch sheet and sure enough, all the routes connect. Indeed you could ride all 383 miles and then some. You'd have some backtracking to do to get all of it in.
Most likely you'll scan the loop information for one of the appealing names to reach out and grab you. They have names like "Ride with the Eagles," "The Peaceful Kingdom," "Big Sky Country" and "The Daydream Trail." Then you'll consult the handy color-coded bar graph showing the amount of easy, moderate and difficult riding as well as the mileage of each loop.
I have to confess to being somewhat of a latecomer to the glories of riding in Trempealeau County. When I co-authored Bicycle Escape Routes: A Touring Guide to Wisconsin over 30 years ago with Doug Shidell, Dougie got to research that part of the state. I do recall him raving about it, as did the late Silent Sports founder Greg Marr several decades ago when he found himself and some friends blown that way on his "Which Way the Wind Blows" tour.
My Trempealeau County experience began in a delightful way with the Galesville Apple Affair ride. This pleasant ride centers around its namesake town in the southern edge of the county. It combines the annual apple harvest festival with bicycling routes of 20, 40 and 62 miles.
Galesville is a beautiful spot tucked in a valley that opens out onto the broad plain leading to the Mississippi
River. Apple orchards dot the surrounding hills. A garden spot really. So much so in fact it inspired a 19th century Galesville minister, the Reverend David O. Van Slyke, to postulate that it was the very location of the biblical Garden of Eden. His clues were plenty of apples and even a few rattlesnakes in the rocky bluffs. More proof than you'll find in the Da Vinci Code.
The Galesville Apple Affair ride has been a popular family-oriented ride for two decades. Entry includes a
slice of the "World's Largest Apple Pie" a 10-foot giant served up at the pleasant town square. Food stops include one of the local orchards where tours are available.
This year's ride is set for Saturday, October 1. (Contact event director Joe Antonie at 608/582-4612, ahcgalesville@triwest.net or log onto www.ridebctc.com for a printable entry form.)
It's always nice to have someone say, "Welcome, we're glad you came." In Trempealeau County hundreds of people do that. And they extend a welcome just where you need them. Along the many loops they put out a blue circle/bike silhouette Trail Steward sign that says you're welcome to stop if you have any needs like water, mechanical problems or just need to use a phone or take a break and say "Hi." I don't know if the offer of aid applies to beer deficiency though.
The Trail Steward program is really unique. The 14 mapped loops are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to great riding in Trempealeau County. There are well over a thousand miles of paved county and town roads. The map shows them all along with useful town road names. You can skim the Department of Transportation's average daily traffic counts for the county roads and barely find a half dozen spots with over 500 vehicles a day. Many have laughable totals like 30 and 80.
The county is rural and out of the way. Its largest town barely tops 2,000 in population. This makes bicyclists cry "Hallelujah."
The character of the terrain in Trempealeau County comes from the great glacial epochs, or the lack thereof. It seems that none of the four great continental ice sheets could bring themselves to flatten, crush, grind or otherwise puree this part of the state. Geologically it is known as the Driftless Area. It was left in peace.
Trempealeau County is long and narrow, stretching over 40 miles from north to south, and generally less than 20 miles east to west. I-94 just nips its northeast corner at Osseo a popular pie shop stop for I-road travelers and the Trempealeau, Mississippi, and Black rivers form its southern borders.
A glance at a topographical map and the terrain looks like a veined leaf. The veins are rivers, of course, and they're all headed to one place, the great stem: the mighty Mississippi.
North America's greatest river has always been Trempealeau County's gateway to the world. The Hopewell culture was present 2,000 years ago at what is now Perrot State Park. One of Wisconsin's scenic gems, the park's bluffs were separated from the western shore when the river made a drastic shift of course as torrents of glacial melt water raged through.
When French explorer Nicholas Perrot set up his trading post there in 1685, he knew he'd picked the
perfect spot. Trempealeau Mountain, his French rendering of the American Indian description of it as "the hill with its feet in the water," gave the county its name. It was the only hill that sat in the great river. You couldn't miss it.
Today the Great River State Trail rail-trail skirts the park and anchors the western end of a system of four such trails that stretch over 100 continuous miles.
The initiative by the Bicycle Club of Trempealeau County to promote touring in the area was sparked at the beginning of the decade with a booklet that morphed into the handier sheet map. When I got my hands on a copy, I knew I would have to spend some serious time there.
My rewards have been memorable rides on roads like County G down the valley of Pine Creek where a micro-climate makes it ideal for fragrant pines to thrive. Square Bluff Road, part of the Top of the World
Bike Tour held in August, rolls along the top of the bluff and offers some of the best views you'll find anywhere.
Club president Ron KcKernan used to live in Colorado and rode quite a bit there. "When I moved to Trempealeau County I was amazed at the beauty in the backcountry," he said. "I thought people would come from all over the country to ride in the this type of environment. There is so little traffic it's like having your own private bike path."
Established events like the Galesville Apple Affair and the Catfish 50 have been joined by the Trempealeau Recreational Earth Challenge bike and foot race, the Trempealeau Hip Breaker Bicycle Tour, the Top of the World Bike Tour and the Tour de Trempealeau multiday tour to give riders something to choose from throughout the season.
So I'm a recent convert to the joys of biking in Trempealeau County. You might say I was recruited by an
appealing event and enthusiastic promotion. In other words, I'm exactly the sort of person the good folks in the county want to welcome.
With so many great areas to ride, I wouldn't want to get anyone's chamois in a bundle by saying Trempealeau County is the best place to bike. What I will say is that if you love cycling, you owe it to yourself to spend some quality time there. And from my experience, it's all quality time.
For information, see www.ridebctc.com, call 800/927-5339 or 715/538-2311, Ext 205.
Phil Van Valkenberg lives in Hayward, Wisconsin. He recently celebrated 50 years as a bicyclist on his 60th birthday. He got his first bike, a red Schwinn Spitfire, for his 10th. Phil was the bicycling columnist for Silent Sports for its first 10 years and has authored eight books on biking in Wisconsin and the Midwest.
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