Categories
Bike News

Biking with Steph: Madison Bike Week: 100% Awesome

Hi Madison Bikes Community, I’m Steph! I am a new member of the Madison Bikes Board, an avid cyclist and coffee drinker. I will be contributing to the Madison Bikes blog on a weekly basis to provide a voice of bike-related encouragement, insight, and amusement. While I am not a bike expert by any means, I am obsessed with all things bike-related and look forward to sharing my thoughts on a new topic with you each week!

This week, I decided to hop on the bike and head east toward the Glacial Drumlin State Trail trailhead. From my home, the ride was about 45 minutes long and roughly 12 miles away. If you’d like, you can use this trail to get to places like Trek Headquarters, Tyranena Brewing Company, and Aztalan State Park. The State Trail’s termini are in Cottage Grove and Waukesha for a total of 52 miles of crushed stone goodness. Day or annual passes are required to bike on this trail.

Unlike my rides out west, biking to the trailhead in Cottage Grove did not involve unadulterated joy. On the positive side, I biked by a farm filled with frolicking ponies.

(OMG, ponies!)

On the negative side, nasty headwinds, bone-jarring road conditions, and sparse bike-friendly road infrastructure proved to be very challenging. Likewise, I was disappointed to see the water fountain was shut off and that the restrooms were still closed. Last time I heard, plans are in motion to create a connecting trail between Madison and the Cottage Grove trailhead.

(Note to self: Bring water, foo.)

While my ride to the Glacial Drumlin State Trail was not 100% awesome, do you know what is 100% awesome!? Madison Bike Week 2019!

Hopefully, you have seen our flyers posted around town, visited the Bike Week webpage, and are ‚ÄòInterested’ in the numerous events posted on our Facebook page. If not, here’s the scoop: Madison Bike Week is an annual event being held from June 1st to June 8th and is chock-full of free events, food, and giveaways provided by local business throughout Dane County. One of the most popular Bike Week events will be the BratCakes on the Bike Path provided by Saris and Madison Bikes on June 5th. Also, be sure to stop by our family-friendly Madison Bikes Party at Brittingham Park on June 7th! We hope to make this the most bikey week of all the weeks, so come on out and enjoy the festivities!

Hope to see you all out there! Tailwinds!

PS: Craving yet more bike-related goodness?! Check out this hilarious video of professional street trials and mountain biker, Danny MacAskill, taking his ‘kid’ on a ride through the Scottish countryside.