Back to Day 3 - Bike packing adventure

It's coming on two weeks since Owen and I went on our bike packing trip so I figured I'd better get back to writing about day 3 as I promised to do in my last post.

We started Day 3 in Luck, Wisconsin with super weather once again. Owen and I keep thinking we'll get going early but it was about 9:00 a.m. by the time we had breakfast, packed up and were on the trail again. We headed south on the Gandy Dancer Trail for St. Croix Falls, an easy 15 mile ride and found our way through some city trails to downtown St. Croix Falls.

Owen wanted to see the falls, so we took some pictures then found a little coffee shop, Coffee Time, and had lunch. They were busy and we had to wait awhile for our order, but the two women working there were so sweet and the food quite good so it was well worth the wait.
St. Croix Falls
We wanted to stop at Cyclova, a bike shop a couple of doors down from Coffee Time, but were bummed to discover that they were closed on Tuesdays. We looked in the window instead and saw what appeared to be a good line up bikes including bikes from Salsa Cycles like the Salsa Vaya and Mukluk Owen and I were riding.

We decided to head back north on the trail but first we wanted to find the actual beginning of the Gandy Dancer Trail so we could say we'd ridden the entire bike friendly portion of the trail. We would our way around a bit and found the trail's beginning and took a couple of pictures then headed back north.
I'm about to ride onto the southmost start point of the Gandy Dancer Trail
Our ride north back to Siren was good and uneventful other than there are a few soft spots on the trail that almost caused me to wipe out. The soft spots occurred when the trail crossed roads and also at the exit of a short tunnel. After skidding about a bit in a couple of places, I got smart and got off my bike and walked through the soft spots.

On our way back to Siren, Owen and I stopped for coffee at a bike friendly cafe called Cafe Wren. It's right at the side of the trail just north of Luck and we had spotted it the day before and decided we needed to make it a destination. Very glad we did as it's my kind of cafe! Good coffee and snacks, bike parking, artwork from local artists and a huge outdoor seating area. We actually stopped back at Cafe Wren for lunch with Ryan on our drive back home - in part so I could buy some Luck, Wisconsin bicycle pint glasses they sold there.

Owen out on the patio at Cafe Wren
Luck, Wisconsin pint glass from Cafe Wren
After Cafe Wren, well, it was more and more pedaling. We stopped in Milltown Wisconsin to take a picture for our friends at Milltown Cycles (the shop where we purchased our Salsa bikes and a whole bunch of other things) then pedaled on until we made it to Siren, Wisconsin.
Milltown, Wisconsin
There, we checked in at The Lodge at Crooked Lake (we would have stayed at the Pinewood Motel again but it was full), cleaned up and walked across the lot to Adventures Restaurant for dinner. We walked around Siren a bit and over to Crooked Lake then settled in for the evening.

And with that, Day 3 was done.

Stats for Day 3
  • 53.6 miles
  • 5 hours 28 minutes moving time
  • 9.8 mph average speed




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