It was supposed to be one of the last really balmy days this week and for this time of year you need to take advantage of any good days you can get with the bikes knowing what is soon to come. So I rallied some friends and we were able to get three more riders besides us to tag along on a route planned to Wisconsin Rapids with hopes to see some colors. Besides Kevin and I, Mark (a/k/a Sparky), Scott and Mike joined us. I met Kevin and Sparky in the main G&L parking lot at 9. From there Hwy 23 to meet Scott in Rosendale. I chose mostly a direct route to get us to Wisconsin Rapids around lunch time. Mike was supposed to meet us at the BP in Westfield. When we arrived he wasn’t there but we were pretty sure he was still going to join us, so we waited and sure enough he showed up. From there I planned mostly county roads up and along the Wisconsin River until Nekoosa where we took highways up to Port Edwards for a stop along the river and then Mike was going to take us to some place for burgers in Wisconsin Rapids. Low and behold it turned out to be the same place we ended up at last year in the fall for lunch while we were up there with some other friends on the bikes, Sportsman Pub & Grill. Which was great because they had good food last year too and this year was as good. I hadn’t planned anything after that point thinking Scott might have some suggestions, but that wasn’t really the case. He chose some county roads to take east and south up to a point, so we gassed up before leaving and we headed out that way. Upon arriving at one county road we planned to take south, Mike dropped off since he lives in Marshfield. After that I ended up getting us on some really nice county and just plain old country roads north of Wautoma and northwest of Princeton eventually running into Hwy 73 south into Princeton for a much needed stop for ice-cream and a stretch at All In Good Taste along the For River. We sat outside behind National Exchange Bank & Trust at their picnic table in the shade for quite a while enjoying the weather, shade and breeze and basically catching up. From there Kevin, Sparky and I planned to take Hwy 23 all of the way back to Fondy and Scott followed until Hwy 73 dropped south just east of Princeton. I think it was just over 200 miles, map and pictures below. I swear I could have just kept on riding, it was just that kind of perfect fall day!
