Recently posted on the Root River Trail website:

Root River State Trail Report April 2, 2012: The bridge repair work is complete and the trail is open from Lanesboro going east to Whalan. Going west toward Fountain, the bridge near Riverside on the Root Restaurant is closed, however, you can access the trail west by starting at Lanesboro’s Bass Pond Parking Lot at the base of County Hwy 8.  The new trail segments will be widened and resurfaced for a fantastic biking experience. The trail is completely OPEN all Saturdays & Sundays and on weekday evenings.

Bikeverywhere offers two options for learning more about the Root River Trail. check out our book Bicycle Vacation Guide or get just the Root River Trail a PDF of the Root River Trail chapter in Bicycle Vacation Guide.

 

The attached photo shows the underside of I-394 where it crosses over the trail. All of that white paint is part of an anti-graffiti campaign. It’s expensive, not very attractive and requires constant vigilance. A better solution, wall art, works throughout the city. Wall art turns an unattractive building wall into public art. It allows an artist or group of artists to express themselves and it discourages graffiti. Let’s turn this dark, somewhat intimidating stretch of the Cedar Lake Trail into a public art gallery. With a palette this large, my guess is that we would have stiff competition among local artists for the right to create a public art display.

North Star, You, Your Bike has been updated. The new file has an insert map for Monticello and new labeling for some of the highways on the North Overview Map. Although the routes haven’t changed, the updated map is easier to follow because of the added detail through Monticello and the additional highway numbering in several locations along the routes to Lake Maria State Park and Elk River.

With the arrival of spring and warmer weather, take advantage of the extra range that the North Star Commuter Rail offers for you and your bike. Families will especially enjoy taking the kids on the train to Anoka, then crossing a single street next to the station to hop on the Rum River Trail. From there you will enjoy car free riding along the banks of the Rum River. At the north end of the trail you can cross the river to Rivers Bend Park for a picnic before returning to the station. You will have over 5 hours to complete the six mile round trip, so pack lunch and fishing poles for a relaxing day.

Sometimes a new piece of public infrastructure fits so neatly into a neighborhood that it appears to have been there forever. That’s what I felt when I checked out the new Mozaic Bridge and bike ramp near Hennepin Ave in Uptown. I first learned about the bridge when Andrew Dahl of the Ackerberg Group asked me to add it to the Twin Cities Bike Map.

During my brief visit I saw dozens of bike riders using the ramp and the bridge. The two amenities had become so integral to the neighborhood that I had to ask Andrew just how long they had been open. I questioned whether I had simply missed seeing them over the last year. Andrew assured me that the bridge is new and his colleague verified that it opened in January.

The bridge creates a nondescript, perfectly ordinary pedestrian crossing. Riders and pedestrians crossed over it and under it without comment. It didn’t draw attention to itself or inspire grand thoughts. The beauty of the bridge was in its pure functionality: You could get from one side of the Greenway to the other without dealing with the traffic or transit stations on Hennepin Ave, and the ramp connected a medium density neighborhood with the highly trafficked trail. In light of the recent failure of the Martin Sabo Bridge, further east on the Greenway, the simple sturdy design of the Mozaic Bridge is even more appealing.

If I have any complaint, it’s about the connection between the south side of the bridge and the rest of Uptown. The bridge empties onto a busway that feeds the transit station. The space around the station is uninviting for either bikes or peds. A walkway across the bus road runs past the Mozaic Art Park with it’s signature Colussus II head, but it doesn’t give the sense of a throughway for either bikes or pedestrians. As a matter-of-fact, it wasn’t until I had left the area, via the ramp and Greenway, that I realized that I didn’t even follow the walkway to see if it connected to anything.

The bridge, ramp and still developing Art Park were built by the Ackerberg Group as part of their new multi-use Mozaic Building. I’m not an architect, so I can’t comment intelligently on the design of the building, but I did note that it steps back from the trail as it rises, an intentional design feature that prevents the building’s shadow from blocking the sun on the trail. That design feature, plus the public bike and pedestrian amenities that came with the project, make Mozaic a great addition to the Uptown area.

The Mozaic Bridge and the bike ramp to the Midtown Greenway will be part of future Twin Cities Bike Map but, like the bridge itself, the symbol for each will not stand out. They will be simple green lines on the map, but they will do their job when you get to the area.

One of the most disconcerting aspects of some bike maps is their habit of showing trails planned for the future as if they were already built. I recall two times where I set out to follow a bike trail that the map showed as existing, only to find that my only choice was a road with heavy traffic and no shoulder. I recently ran into two examples of this, although neither is likely to place the bicyclist in danger.

Brookfield’s Greenway page lists three projects scheduled for 2011-12. The current version of its map shows all three as presently existing. Late last fall, after printing the map, I decided to try all three, only to discover they didn’t exist.

Not to be outdone, Milwaukee’s bike plan shows existing and planned trails. Two of the “existing” trails run south from downtown along former railroad rights of way, one from Washington to Maple and the other along the Kinnickinnic River south of Lincoln. With the unseasonably warm weather last weekend, I decided to check them out. No sign of either although I spotted some construction that may be an early sign of conversion of the latter.

The magazine Rails to Trails has a really excellent article on the Hank Aaron Trail that runs the width of Milwaukee County, starting at the Lakeshore State Park on Milwaukee’s lake front and running east to the Oak Leaf Trail on the west side of the county.

Let me also make a pitch for joining the Rails to Trails organization that advocates for bike trails and worked hard to head off proposals to end federal funding of bike facilities.

After many false starts and delays, Bikeverywhere has a Facebook page. Check out the link on the right sidebar and click it to “Like” the Bikeverywhere page. You can learn more about milestones in our bike map publishing, see photos of interesting discoveries during research rides and learn about new developments at Bikeverywhere.

Why so slow entering the 21st Century? Call it a personality type. I can spend days riding around researching bike routes, then weeks in front of a computer creating and updating maps, but I can’t spend a lot of time scanning through the endless entries of the Facebook world or telling the world about every detail of my rather boring life. It just doesn’t work for me.

On the other hand, there are a lot of interesting things to discover by bike, so I’ll be posting photos and stories about my discoveries. My focus will be on the Twin Cities, but if you discover something interesting in any of the areas mapped by Bikeverywhere, drop me a line. I’d be happy to post your photos and stories.

One more thing: Bikeverywhere is making some big changes. It’s too early to go into detail, but stay tuned.

The Martin Sabo bike bridge over Hiawatha Ave broke a cable this morning or late last night and buckled. Traffic and trains were blocked from going under the bridge for the day. The bridge should be stable enough so crossing under it will be safe by tomorrow. Bicyclists, however, won’t have access to the bridge until the concrete surface is stabilized and repaired. The city hasn’t specified an official detour for bicyclists to date.

From the Midtown Greenway going east, I suggest turning right at 28th street and crossing Hiawatha Ave at grade. You can pick up the Greenway on the east side of Hiawatha.

Riders who prefer to cross on a bridge can go north to 24th St, cross on the bridge, then turn south on Minnehaha Ave. Minnehaha Ave connects with the Greenway on the east side of Hiawatha Ave. Accessing 24th Ave will be tricky until the Sabo Bridge is stabilized. After it is stabilized, riders can turn off the Greenway at 28th and follow the bike path to Hiawatha Ave, then turn north on the path that runs parallel to Hiawatha.

Francis Stanton, Madison Ridge and Valley Rides. Madison WI: Stanton Studios 2011.

Reviewed by Bruce Thompson

Let’s say you have just arrived in Madison and are wondering where the good rides are. Or you are an experienced Madison rider but find yourself in a sort of rut: it is time to try some new routes, to explore more of the countryside surrounding the city. For either bicyclist, the Madison Ridge and Valley Rides offers a solution.

The core of this guide is a set of forty maps of suggested bike loop routes in the Madison area. Most of the loops are between twenty and forty miles in length, although a few longer ones range up to seventy miles. Most routes are in Dane county, with a few in neighboring counties.

Accompanying each map is a page containing one or two cue sheets. This page also includes information on starting points, information on the starting point, a succinct summary of the terrain (for example “level and rolling hills”) and a paragraph summarizing the route and its attractions.

The author suggests that the map and cue sheet be photocopied back to back on the same sheet of paper. This advice is wise since the 8″ by 11″ spiral-bound, 110 page guide would be cumbersome to pack on a bike and would probably suffer a short life when subject to being stuffed into a bike pack.

Also included in the guide are nine strip maps showing “bicycle escape routes” leading from Madison to some of the rides outside the urban area.

Strip maps of the major trails in the area are included as well as a page describing these trails: the Military Ridge Trail, the Glacial Drumlin Trail (east to Lake Mills), the Sugar River Trail, the Badger Trail (south to Monroe), and the US 12 trail. As with the other maps in this guide, these are printed in black and white and are easy to read.

The guide’s introductory material includes a brief history of bicycling in the Madison area, a discussion of glaciers, some suggestion for safe riding, and a list of starting points with driving directions and whether they have restrooms, water, and shelter.

One theme that runs through the guide is the effect of glaciation on the terrain. The terminal moraine lies just to the west of Madison and two rides are deliberately designed to track the base of that terrain. Further west is the driftless (unglaciated) area, with the most challenging hills, particularly between the Military Ridge and Blue Mounds on the south and the Wisconsin River on the north. To the east is the area that was smoothed by the glaciers offering mostly level riding interrupted by drumlins, glacial river debris, and other glacial features. In a number of cases, the author suggests the glacial origin of the features the rider encounters.

This guide would be particularly useful to riders new to bicycling or to the Madison area, but it could also offer suggestions of new routes to experienced riders. It offers sufficient information for a rider to pick a route that fits his or her ambition and mood. The maps are sufficiently detailed to serve for navigating so long as the rider sticks with the route. I would suggest that the rider also carry a bicycle map of the area in case he or she decides to diverge from the suggested route because of weather or other reasons.

I do have one minor caveat as to the organization of the loop rides: they are organized alphabetically. I would prefer a geographical organizations, so that nearby rides are placed adjacent to each other in the guide.

Biographical Information on the book’s author: Francis Stanton is a Madison, Wisconsin cartographer and cyclist. Mr. Stanton has been producing maps for clients since the 1970’s, and has self-published several bicycling map sets for Southern Wisconsin and the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in bicycling event maps, including the Horribly Hilly Hundreds and The Wright Stuff Century in Wisconsin. He rides many miles every year commuting and touring the local back roads.

Bikeverywhere will be at the Green Gifts Fair in the Global Market on Lake Street this Saturday, November 19. This is the 6th annual event and one that we’ve enjoyed being a vendor at for almost that many years. Stop by to talk about bicycling in the Twin Cities and beyond, then spend some time visiting the 70 plus other local and green vendors who have gathered for this popular one day event.  Global Market is located on the first floor of the old Sears Building at Chicago and Lake Streets in Minneapolis. After visiting the local green vendors, check out the unique blend of independent businesses, representing all of the ethnic groups of the Twin Cities, that  make up the year round Global Market.