June 28th
I drove up to Kettle Moraine in Wisconsin from Schaumburg. It took 2 hrs as the roads were slow even though its only 70 miles.
I rode the long blue trail first, 10 miles of singletrack and it was
great fun, a few tech bits but pretty easy and flowy.
I rode the long blue trail first, 10 miles of singletrack and it was
great fun, a few tech bits but pretty easy and flowy.
But I could not stop for even 10secs without being attacked by mosquitoes and bitten to death. So it was a non-stop ride. 
The trails were flowy singletrack, well signposted, with some nice roots and rocks and swoopy bits to make it technical. The trails seem to be graded by length rather than technical difficulty.
Next I decided to take the connector trail to the Emma Carlin trails. I started on a 2 mile
stint on the purple trail to rejoin teh blue trail and find the connector. I thought it would be 5 miles of boring straight doubletrack. It turned out to be 5 miles of singletrack trail, pretty narrow, flowy but with some fun roots and rocks.
The connector has 2 one way singletrack routes out and back so no risk
of crashing into anyone coming the other way just into trees. As soon as I was on it having been hot and sunny all morining, the promised storm started, incredible thunder and pouring rain! I got soaked but worst was the wet routes which I crashed on twice! At that point I realised I was on my own in a strange place so to take it a bit more cautiously.
of crashing into anyone coming the other way just into trees. As soon as I was on it having been hot and sunny all morining, the promised storm started, incredible thunder and pouring rain! I got soaked but worst was the wet routes which I crashed on twice! At that point I realised I was on my own in a strange place so to take it a bit more cautiously.
Once at Emma Carlin I rode the orange trail 5 miles. I did not enjoy that as muc, pretty eroded and a lot more inclines with big water erosion ruts. Clearly they have tried to maintain teh trails and there is rubber grid matting and rubber barriers to stop erosion but it must be a thankless task.
It dried up really quickly but I was getting tired so could not wait to be heading back. I rode
the 5 mile connector back and that was the most fun, twisty, narrow, root and rock infested singletrack. Great!
the 5 mile connector back and that was the most fun, twisty, narrow, root and rock infested singletrack. Great!
I was exhausted, 50km all in on my heavy 40lb freeride bike. I was out of water and very
hungry. I drank some water from the fountain at the trail head parking lot but it tasted foul. I stopped at La Grange store for a powerade- a real country store. I then drove back via Panda Express for orange chicken and fried rice dinner.
A great day- thoroughly shattered though and actually ill all night- I might just have overdone it a bit!
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