Blue Hills Inn Winter Loop

I have a few rides over the past week that I need to recap...I'm already getting behind...and I just started this thing! This post is a recap of my Saturday Jan 9th, 2010 ride. This was a tough one. Before the 9th I was just doing some light jogs, and maybe a few short rides while recovering from the Holiday feasting and boozing. Although I hadn't yet been on any challenging rides in 2010, it will certainly be tough to maintain this level of intensity...

On that Saturday, feeling pretty sluggish after the Holidays I decided it was time for a good ol' 4-5 hours of outdoor suffering...I needed to punish myself for slacking during the Holidays. On Friday I went for about a 6 mile run around town, and I'll admit that I was feeling a little stiff the following day. I hadn't been running much at all for several months, as most of my preparation for the Tuscobia Ultra involved regular cycling....little did I know...hehe, running was what I should have been doing!

Brent and I decided to jump on the bikes at about 1:30PM, and our goal was basically to "head east, maybe we'll end up at the Blue Hills Inn". We left from my apartment and crossed the lake. When we left it was about 6 Fahrenheit - we were expecting a high of 12, but it was already after noon and I don't think the temp got much higher than that the entire ride.

We head east with the intention of jumping on the snowmobile trail at some point, so we zig zag northeast until we hit one, then follow that trail straight east out to the blue hills. It's beautiful heading out there...flats, flats, flats...hills approaching until you're immersed in more rolling Wisconsin hills than you know what to do with. The occasional run down houses and shacks also confirm your location....nowhere!

With no map on us...we decide that 22nd ave is the road to follow. I remember from summer rides and glancing at the map a few days before there being a dead end which turns in to snowmobile trail. That trail should take us directly through county forest to our destination....our mid-way warm up point and food stop...we just didn't know how far that was.

My guess was no more than 8-10 miles of snowmobile trail, so at the pace we were making on the semi-packed trail conditions (at least they were ridable), which the hills only make worse, we're looking at hitting the food stop within 2 hours. We're spinning along in the snow, committed to the entire route at this point...but after roughly an hour...I'm starting to wonder where the heck the next road is. At the point when I'm thinking Brent is about to call it quits (not that quitting is even an option...), we see the best sign all day - "STOP AHEAD". Ahhh...food, a few beers and warmth.

We pop in to the Blue Hills Inn for a few Leinenkugel's and some BBQ pork sandwiches and fries. There were some very nice people out for a Saturday snowmobile ride chatting away, completely perplexed why the hell we were out there on bicycles...and riding on the snowmobile trails nonetheless. "Why don't these guys just get something with a motor?"

With a full stomach and slight buzz...we hammer the roads back to town. Clearly, we're not making it back by dark.

We stopped at the Village Dell to pick up a 12er....but I couldn't resist also snagging a 22oz of Central Waters Hop Harvest - 100% Wisconsin grown barley and hops....tasty beverage after a great ride!