Bike Camping

There's just something about being able to get out of town for a weekend, get out into nature and camp without ever turning on the car.

Mike turned me on to the idea of Bike Camping a few years ago before I even had my bike. We rented a bike from Budget Bicycle near our home, packed up the bike trailer and biked out to Blue Mounds State Park. As I didn't own my own bike or bike regularly it was a challenging ride and left me with a very sore behind but I loved it!

If you have a bike, some means of carrying your gear and a destination in mind, I think it's about as easy as any camping trip can get.

The Military Ridge State Trail is perfect for this type of adventure! You can hook up to the trail from the Capitol City Trail in Madison and the trail takes your through Verona, Mt. Horeb, Blue Mounds, Barneveld, and all the way to Dodgeville. http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/militaryridge/pdfs/mrtmap04.pdf It is one of the Rails to Trails systems with a fairly level grade and smooth limestone and asphalt surfaces.

In the last few years we have tried to make it out to Blue Mounds for a bike-camping adventure at least once a year.

Last year we decided to do a two-night trip and take the trail out to Governor Dodge State Park. We took off on a Friday night after work for the journey. The weather was questionable but after I had told most of my co-workers about the trip I felt obligated to see it through. We got a slow start and ended up biking at least half of the ~25 miles in the dark. I didn't complain. When we hit Mt. Horeb about 6 miles away from our first campsite at Blue Mounds...my bike light went out. I had to bike right behind Mike so that I could follow the beam of his bike light and see where I was going. I couldn't complain. At about the same time the bike light failed it started to rain. We pulled into our campsite at about 10pm on Friday night and had our dehydrated Pad Thai dinner sitting on the wet picnic table in the dark. It was an adventure especially dodging some unrecognizable nocturnal creatures on the trail.

This year the weather was nicer and it was the first time we could talk other people into joining us for the trip. We had two other couples bike with us on Saturday to Blue Mounds.
We met up on the Southeast Bike Trail near our house and proceeded to the Military Ridge. 3 bike trailers and several saddle-bags helped carry our camping equipment and other necessities for the evening.



We stopped off at Tulavu Coffeehouse in Verona for some iced beverages and met up with another couple who were going to ride along for a short part of the trail. After getting our caffeine buzz for the morning we continued down the trail and through some beautiful wetlands. Our plan was to stop at Riley's Tavern about 7 miles from Verona for the infamous Riley Fest for live music lunch and some beverages however they were charging $15 just to get into the festival. We decided our intention of staying for an hour and having a drink didn't justify a $15 cover-charge so we pushed on to Mt. Horeb another 6 miles away.

Mt. Horeb is a quaint suburb of Madison WI. In the 1800s more than 75% of the community was Norwegian so signs entering the city read Velkommen (Welcome)! The city has been dubbed the Troll Capital of the World and you can find trolls everywhere when driving or biking through town.

We ended up having our own festival like fun at the Grumpy Troll Brewery with some pizza, beverages and shuffle-board. The second floor of the brewery was recently converted into a pizzeria and the pizza is delicious as are the bloody mary's! http://thegrumpytroll.com/

After a short walk around Mt. Horeb to walk off lunch we found ourselves at the Mt. Horeb Aquatic Center. We enjoyed the water slide and diving boards and surprisingly a competitive game of pool basketball!

We got into Blue Mounds around 6pm and set up camp at the State Park. Blue Mounds State Park has created bike only campsites that are accessible right from bike trail.

Yesterday we packed up the campsite by 9am and headed into the Town of Blue Mounds for breakfast. We stopped at the Hooterville Inn for breakfast (this was also our stop Saturday night for dinner). Don't let the name confuse you...this is nothing like the well known Hooters restaurant. If you leave a tip over $5.00 the servers will pull something similar to a train horn and the restaurant fills with a lovely hoot-hoot-hooting noise! The food is good too!

We all made it back into Madison in one piece. There may have been a sore behind or two...but no accidents, no popped bike tires and no complaints!



Plus to keep in the environmental theme...we didn't burn any gasoline!
We did burn calories though...fueled by pizza, french fries and burgers.

Here's thanks to the strong guys who hauled the trailers!