Other stories in "Bicycling"

• Bikes, birds and bogs
  Wisconsin's Great River Trail is a happy mix of wildlife and civilization.
• Wisconsin's bike trails: a guide
  The state that pioneered rail trails isn't resting on its laurels.
• Spokes, sneakers and shops
  She likes to shop and he likes to sweat? No problem.
• Bicycling Minnesota
  Across the map, new trails are connecting the dots.
• Languid in Lanesboro
  In summer, head for lovely Lanesboro and go with the flow.
• Bicycling the Bunyan
  A long trail cuts through the heart of Minnesota lakes country.
• Bicycling in bluff country
  In southeast Minnesota, the Root River Trail brought swarms of tourists.
• A trail for Old Abe
  On Wisconsin's Chippewa River, a bald eagle paves way for bicyclists.
• Mankato meander
  To see the best of this low-key river town, hop on a bike.
• Rolling through the Iron Range
  The long Mesabi Trail reveals many surprises.
• Spin City
  On a bicycle, visitors can explore every inch of Chicago's lakefront.
• Sightseeing on $20 a day
  See the best of the Midwest from seat of a bicycle.
• Bicycling eastern Wisconsin
  On a burgeoning network of trails, a bicyclist can cover a lot of ground.
• Walk 'n' roll
  Thanks to a bike trail, backtracking on the Superior Hiking Trail is a thing of the past.
• A slice of cheese country
  On Wisconsin's Badger Trail, bicyclists bite off as much as they can chew.
• Grand Rounds
  In Minneapolis, bicyclists soak up the scenery along a breathtaking national byway.
• Hitting the trails in Trempealeau
  There's lots to do in this Mississippi River hamlet.
• Bicycling to Lake Wobegon
  In central Minnesota, cyclists enter a storied land.
• Bicycling the Central Lakes
  In western Minnesota, a 55-mile trail is a window onto the natural world.

Red Cedar ride 'n' glide

Along a popular Wisconsin trail, a hardy tourist can take in the sights by water and by land.

There are certain bicycle trails that inspire loyalty in those who ride them.

For many, it’s the trail that’s closest to home. For others, it’s the trail that runs by a really fine restaurant. And for some, it’s the route with the most wildlife.

One of my favorite trails, the 14½-mile Red Cedar State Trail out of Menomonie, WIs., has all of these things and more. It’s one of the least crowded trails, because the crushed-limestone surface keeps some people away. And it’s one of the longest, counting the 30-mile Chippewa State Trail, which takes up where the Red Cedar leaves off and continues on to Eau Claire and Durand.

This trail even has nightlife a few blocks from the trailhead, for those who don’t want to go home after riding. The imposing 1890 Mabel Tainter Memorial Theater in downtown Menomonie, once the company town of the world’s largest lumber operation, is a venue for musicians, storytellers and actors. Its jewel-box interior is  a gilt-edged eyeful.

But the Red Cedar State Trail has yet one thing more: a fast-moving river, once used to float giant rafts of lumber down to the Chippewa, before the Milwaukee Road line was built. One September, a friend and I decided to canoe down the river, then bicycle back.

It was a complicated plan: Drive to the end of the trail, lock the bikes near a bridge, drive back to Menomonie’s Riverside Park and launch the canoe. Paddle to the end of the trail, lock up the canoe, ride the bikes back and then go pick up the canoe.

Of course, no one would do this without a significant reward at the other end. For us, it was dinner at the Creamery in Downsville, a renovated country inn that’s surrounded by perennial gardens and has been a bicyclist’s carrot-on-a-stick since it opened in 1985.

We put in at Riverside Park, where a fisherman sat under a tree, three lines radiating from his lawn chair. The river was low, and we soon learned to train a suspicious eye on any kind of ripples that could betray boulders. A few bicyclists wove along the trail, and they all waved when they saw us; in the 90-degree heat, we were comrades.

After a stretch of whitewater, we paddled in peace, past canyon-like walls of gold sand, with ripples down their sheer faces that mirrored the river. We passed Downsville, a picnic table marking its canoe take-out, and went under a trestle bridge, one of 11 along the trail. On a sandbar we stopped for a swim, fighting to stay abreast of the current. Getting out, we traced the tracks of raccoon and sandpipers on the sugar sand and looked at the lacy leaves of dune plants.

As we paddled on past wooded bluffs, a bald eagle wheeled overhead. The oak barrens and bottomland forest along the trail are good places to see wildlife; in the spring, eagles, osprey and red-shouldered hawks often are spotted, along with blue and green heron.

It took us 3½ hours to get to the bridge at Dunnville and County Road Y. Then, on our bikes, we rode through the Dunnville Wildlife Area to the Red Cedar’s confluence with the Chippewa. There, we paused on the 860-foot trestle bridge high above the wide, pancake-flat bottomlands, through which the Chippewa carved a looping path into the horizon.

The trail looked tempting; it’s seal-coated, a step up from crushed limestone. But it was getting late, so we turned around and headed up the Red Cedar. The stretch from Dunnville to Downsville was shady and intimate, through woods and small meadows. Once, our approach alarmed a flock of a dozen young turkeys, who ran helter-skelter along the path before fleeing into the forest on sticklike legs.

We passed an old cut-stone quarry and crossed the river at Downsville. By the time we got to the Devil’s Punchbowl, a dripping rock wall that looms above the trail near Menomonie, we were sharing the path with runners and dog-walkers. At Riverside Park, a boy was pulling a silver bass from the water.

Then we retrieved the canoe and hurried to the Creamery, where we gratefully plopped into comfy chairs on the screened patio and had cold ales while contemplating the daily specials of pasta and grilled meats and fish. It was good to spend a day in the tracks of 1800s riverpigs and gandy dancers, but it was also good to get back to civilization.

Trip Tips: Red Cedar Trail and Menomonie

Getting there: Drive through downtown Menomonie on Wisconsin 25 and, on the south edge of downtown, turn west on 29. The trail starts in Riverside Park, on the west side of the river.

Where to eat: The excellent Creamery Restaurant in Downsville is open for brunch 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and for dinner Thursday-Monday, 715-664-8354. It also is an inn.

Red Cedar State Trail: The crushed-limestone trails runs 14½ miles south of Menomonie to the Dunnville Wildlife Area. There, it connects to the Chippewa River State Trail, which runs 6½ miles southwest to Durand and 23½ miles northeast to Eau Claire.

Menomonie: There are many interesting shops on Main Street, including Legacy Chocolates. Stop by the ornate Mabel Tainter Memorial Theater, built in 1890 by Andrew Tainter, one of the founders of the Knapp, Stout Co., in memory of his 19-year-old daughter. It's open daily for self-guided tours, $1. For tickets, call 715-235-0001, Ext. 100.

Last updated on August 4, 2008