Sparta to Baraboo, Wisconsin

Another fine day on the trail, long, hot, dusty, and beautiful.  We covered 78 miles, including walking through three tunnels, and six miles before our final destination, we stopped to tour at the International Crane Foundation.  We were riding out by 6:15 am, and my first treat came at 9 am.  It's not often you can have pie a la mode at that hour and feel you have earned it.

We were on rail trails for about 56 miles of the trip, including the Elroy-Sparta trail, which was the first rail trail in the country, converted for recreational use and opened in 1967.  The surface of all these trails is packed limestone.  I was worried about riding them with my skinny-tired road bike.  However, the surface is well packed, with very little loose stone, and none of us had any problems or accidents.  We welcomed the shade, saw many wild flowers and wildlife, including skunks, sandhill cranes, turtles, and lots of goldfinches.

The International Crane Foundation, located about six miles outside of Baraboo, is dedicated to preserving the 15 species of cranes and their habitat around the world.  We heard about the efforts to preserve and protect the whooping cranes, whose numbers were down to only 21 in the 1940s, and now are up to six hundred, with substantial numbers living in the wild.  It was a thrill to see two of these magnificent birds close up for the first time in my life.