Exploring the Trans - Wisconsin trail

The best part is I was on my 5th or 6th beer by that point

How crazy do you have to be to take an SV on T.W.A.T.?

Well, you wouldn't be the first person to ride a street bike on it! I guess it depends on weather or not you like your bike.

If your comfortable riding gravel and take your time, you should be able to do 75% of the route without too much trouble. The other 25% might leave you walking home. the SV has a pretty exposed oil filter which might be a problem.Just be willing to re-route and you should still have a good ride.

Excellent work!!!!!!!!

Living out the winter doldrums I've been dreaming up my summer ride.

This is now in the top three.

I'm thinking this will get ridden no matter what as I'll now have two (big) rides this summer.

If anybody has a garmin gps link for this ride I would like to have it. Would be a nice weekend ride for me.

You bet, email me at chad@lonewolfexpeditions.com and I'll send it to ya!

rokklym, you think early April would be too early for this? I don't want to worry about too much snow up towards the lake.

Great photography and story to go with it! One day when I get over your way I hope to do that ride Thanks!

I think that might be pushing it a bit! There isn't much snow around the middle of the state where I am but there could be further north. One issue you might have is that some of the ATV trails are closed during the spring due to the soft ground. You could always avoid those trails and stick to the roads, which could be extremely muddy. Once the frost starts coming out, things get real sloppy!

The other problem is that things can get awful quiet during the off season between snowmobile season and summer. You may run into closed gas stations, campgrounds, restaurants etc. I'm not saying not to do it, it could be quite the adventure! If I were you I'd wait a while though.

yeah, we're going to wait until the last weekend in april.

Well chad was kind enough to send me the GPS file for this trip and Mapsource loaded it no problem but my POS garmin is telling me it cant map the route because it is not on a road! Can anyone help me out here? what do I need for this to work do i need topo maps loaded on my device or do i just need to throw it out the window and get someting that works? Yes im a newb at all of this, my garmin has only ever been used for pavement but i dont want to just ride on pavement

Which Garmin are you using?

Man, that is sweet! My girlfriend is from Wisconsin... hmmmmm... Maybe we could ride up on the GS together, she can visit her family and I can go moto-exploring? Hmmm....

That's a fantastic ride; I love dirt roads and there just aren't that many of them here in Old Dominion.

Doug

Just a head's up...The peak of fire season is typically from the middle of April to mid May in the NW part of the state. Many of the trails are closed during that period, especially county forest trails.

I am actually using the Garmin XT software on my Windows Based Phone it works great for street directions and works exactly like my friends Garmin Nuvi 225W. I am able to import different map sets to it if I buy the software so i could get a Topo map set if that would help. maybe i just need to break down and buy a different GPS but i like only carrying one device for music movies phone internet and GPS...

Wow, what a great trail. This is a must do ride!!

Hey Folks,
This looks like a great ride. I am going to also request the GPS link, I'll email you Chad. I actually been reading about it all winter and can't wait to go. Are group was thinking the first or second week of May. Would it be OK then? I figured it would not be super hot and the bugs would not be to bad, but if some of the trails would be closed that would suck. Are group has a number of DRZ 400's and a few 250's. I also talk to a few other people that did it and they said it was awesome. Any tips or advise would be helpful. We will be leaving from Dubuque, Iowa.

I think that would be a decent time to do the trip. You will run into a few closed places in Northern Wisconsin, so just plan ahead. Don't rely on things being open at odd hours and such.

If you plan on doing ATV trails, make sure you stop at a trail head before riding any of them so you can see if there are any trail closures. That is one problem I've had in the past, with dual sports you really have no need to go to the parking lot, just hop on the trail at a convenient point. Well, that is all fine unless the trail is closed for some reason.

I'm going to scan some the the ATV maps so people can compare them to the GPS file so they know where the trail heads are. I'll probably make a new file this year that shows the trail heads and follows the ATV trails as an option.

Here is the map of the Perkinstown ATV trail for reference. My route actually goes into the parking lot / trailhead off HWY 64.



Here is a link to the original scan if you need to print it:
https://rokklym.smugmug.com/gallery/665723_QLFA9#485140915_ViHrw-O-LB

Thanks for the advise, I'll drop you an email soon.

Count me in as one lunatic who wants to ride this. Can you email me the route, also? I've got a garmin 60 csx. I'll pm you with my email.