Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin, October 2005
Kettle Moraine is an area of southern Wisconsin containing a terminal moraine - an area of rolling hills and hollows created by the end of a glacier. Bike trails have been built in two of these areas: John Muir and Ema Carlin trails. They are 5 miles away from each other, and a connector trail has been built to allow you to ride from one to the other. A loop encompassing both trail systems and the connectors makes for a ride of about 26 miles, nearly all off road: 10 miles for John Muir loop, 5 miles each way for the connector and 6-7 for the Ema Carlin loop. I was in Milwaukee to visit a customer, so I managed to bring my bike along and get a ride in. Here are pictures from both areas and the connector trail.
As exciting and challenging as riding in Colorado is, I will always love the rolling hills, beautiful woods and twisty trails of the midwest - there is something very different and special about riding in the midwest, especially on a cool, fall day when the trees are at the height of their colors.
The trails are fantastically maintained, they better be, it cost me $10 in parking and $4 for a trail pass!!! Most of the system is one way, so you never have to worry about meeting anyone coming at you. This makes it a lot safer (and more fun) to go fast - really fast!
John Muir loop
John Muir trails map
Ravens see me off
The trail drops into tree farms near the start.
My art shot - ok, I messed up the settings on the camera! But I think it turned out pretty cool.
Same thing with color.
The trail starts out easy - wide, pretty flat, a nice ride thru the woods.
Then the ground starts to roll a bit.
And the trail twists a bit more.
And more.
Just a few small rocks in the trail.
The trail goes past a bog, great colors!
And thru a meadow, then drops back into the trees.
Nice and easy - you can really rip thru here.
And here too, but watch for the soft sandy bits.
Another tree farm, the rows of trees are amazing. These are red pines - ok, there was a sign! ;-)
This is the big tree farm section in Muir, just before the connector trail turnoff.
There is a surreal quality to this section.
Connector trail
The connector trail goes thru a small section of woods and a short ride on a country road and then runs thru this amazing field.
The colors aren't at their height yet, but they're getting there.
This grass looks silver.
Another field.
Typical midwest farm country.
Then the trail drops back into the woods and gets interesting. The connector trail is 5 miles long and used to be two way for the entire length, but lots of improvements have been made over the last two years, most of it's length is now one way (meaning there are two parallel trails, one for each direction). This was a particularly fun section cruising around the hillside.
More color.
Ema Carlin
The overlook where the connector trail meets the Ema Carlin loop. A few more weeks and the leaves will be down allowing a view across the river valley beyond.
Ema is a great system, smaller than Muir (6 or 7 miles around as compared to Muir's 10 miles on the longest loop), but really twisty, narrow and with very steep, sharp, short climbs.
They have layed in a few short rock sections - fun!
More rocks, more fun!
Narrow and twisty.
More narrow and twisty.
and more.
Sorry for the lack of color, this hill doesn't look like much, but it is steep! Barely rideable! You have to be really careful over the washout strips, it is easy to lose traction there, if you do, you're done. The slope is too steep to get started on if you stop, so you have to push the bike up the rest of the way.
The really cool sections were too much fun to stop and take pictures of!
After the hills, Ema gets more gentle.
Connector Trail, going south back to Muir
There are great new sections on the connector trail, most of the new trail is in the southerly direction.
They built terraces on some sections to support the trail.
More twisty bits.
This is actually fairly steep, with loose rock. It was pretty challenging, ok, it was really hard, I walked part of it.
Back in the big meadow near Muir.
Don't know what the red stuff is, but it is really cool!
End of the connector, back at Muir.
