Minneapolis to Chicago, Day 5

Day 5

Devil’s Lake to Lake Mills, self-register DNR campground

71 miles

Once again the hills out in the a.m. were not as formidable as the hot afternoon before. I got to the Merrimac Ferry and was across “Lake Wisconsin” in 5 minutes. There was no big ascending hill up to Lodi where I finally came across a franchise. I had a flatbread pizza at Subway and that substained me all the way into Madison, where I arrived around 12 noon and ate once again at Subway, saving the second half of my foot long for later that night.

farmland outside of Madison

Lake Mendota

I accessed the Glacial Drumlin trail in Cottage Grove by a combo of city streets and some paths getting out of Madison, not a problem. The GD is 52 miles straight across to Waukesha outside of Milwaukee. This trail can also get a bit monotonous—but it was flat and shady—what I needed that afternoon.

In Lake Mills there is about a mile off the trail a DNR, Self-Register bike campground, Sandhill Station. They had pit toilets, drinking water etc and the nastiest mosquitoes ever. A shower is provided for riders right next to the trail, so make up your mind if you want to shower and then ride down to camp or set up camp and come back to shower. It is about an 8 min. ride. There is a $4 user fee for the 4 trails I listed earlier and for the GD, altogether for me $16. A year pass is $20.

The sunset that night was a vibrant orange, rose-red, fading to lavender and purple. What does this portend?