Day 33 July 22nd

Today we rode 91 miles from La Crosse to Wisconsin Dells, WI. The day started out like we were going to get poured on and the forecast was 40 per cent chance of showers. We did get spit on a little bit but the showers never materialized. By the time we got to the first sag most of the riders had gotten rid off their rain gear. The day turned out warm and sunny with temps in the high 80's and lower humidity. We spent 34 miles of the ride on the Sparta rail trail. They bill it as the first rail trail in the USA. It is packed gravel and can get slick when wet and make a mess of your bike. What was really neat was that there were three tunnels built into the trail. These were not your average tunnels. They were built for trains to cut through the hills. The first one was over 3000 feet long and built in 1873. We all needed flashlights to see and had to walk our bikes through each tunnel. The temperature change in the tunnel was amazing with a 20 degree temperature drop water was also running down each side of the tunnel like minnie rivers and running down the walls of the tunnel you could feel the temperature drop as you approached the tinnels so you knew they were ahead Some people coming the opposite way were not walking but riding recumbenent bikes. It was hard to figure out exactly what was coming at you. At first I thought it was little kids walking and it startled me when they got close and I saw that they were actually tiding and even towing a cooler. The tunnels made the day interesting and presented lots of photo ops.