Segment #18: Clyman-Fond du Lac Wisconsin

Start

Clyman,WI

N 43.34309,W-88.714710

N-S miles 28.5mi

End

Fond du Lac, WI

N43.75215,W-88.46676

Trl lgth 34.5mi Ride 37.2mi

Ride hrs 4

AVS 9.2

MXS 17.5

KCAL 2996

Temp 84

Elevation 815-885

Southern trailhead North of Clyman Junction, WI, adjacent to a
model airplane airport where flying fanatics fill the skies. 

After stopping at the Maquoketa Lumber Company to visit Brother Ted (#3 of 8 Maze boys), nephew Mark and Bicycle Mark, Connie drove me to Wisconsin for the first of three rides. Dixie, voice of the GPS, got us to the trailhead without a hitch.

 

Wisconsin fly boy with his remote controlled
airplane. This little baby is 10x larger and
200X more $ than my brother Don's red paper
and balsa wood 1955 beauty.

After chatting with a couple of fly boys with their toys, I headed out on what is described as a smooth trail. The Wild Goose follows an abandoned Chicago and Northwestern Railroad corridor, therefore it is quite flat, however, the southern quarter of the Wild Goose was not that smooth for me. Horse riders are to use a separate trail on the side of the bike trail but, the piles of “horse-puckie” and jolting speed bump-like divots in the trail told me these equestrian folks were riding full bore down the bike/walking path. After my rough road tune-up, I found the rest of the trail excellent, even the half mile section where the trail switched from hard limestone to a non-descript grass corridor.

Where's the trail?

Looking back, I imagined a line from the stone path to where I was in the grass. Keeping that line in mind, I wheeled the bike forward and made my own path in the shoulder high grass. It appeared the trail was to go through a lush thick field of wheat or barley (probably barley since up until 1940, Wisconsin was the biggest producer of barley and there is mega gallons of beer brewed in the state).

 

 

Barley for the beer drinkers---lot's of them

It would not make sense that a farmer would plant across the trail, yet anti-trail people do some pretty annoying things to express their disdain for recreational trails. It seems as if the tension between land owners and trail users has eased from the early days of trail building. I remember riding the Wabash Trace in the 80’s and seeing a bunch of nails tossed on the trail.

 

 

Rife Range warning!!

Horse riders deal with bicycles and other irritations such as hunting and shooting ranges close to the trail. A sign on this trail warned of horse spooking from a rifle range.

 

The highlight of the Wild Goose Trail is the proximity of the trail to the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, a 32,000 acre wetlands serving as a safe haven for 500,000 migrating birds. It would be nice to go back to the Wild Goose Trail in the spring or fall. One of our fond memories of Nebraska is the espying of more than a half million Sandhill cranes that spend a month in the Platte River basin foraging and resting before flying on to Canada to nest and raise their chicks. The Sandhill cranes have been doing this for ten million years. Witnessing this journey is once in a lifetime event.

The thirty-four mile trail ended in Fond du Lac on several miles of asphalt. There was a convention in town so if Connie had not gone ahead and found the last room at the Comfort Suites, the trip would have started off on the wrong note. In other words, I was pooped after riding thirty-seven miles.

Those following my blog will notice I have added another line of data. I figure that since my bike computer gives me distance, riding time, kilocalories burned, average speed, maximum speed, temperature and elevation, I might as well record it. Maybe someone with benefit from my pedantic compulsion to record everything recordable.