If you want to draw bicyclists from suburban Chicago to Janesville, Wisconsin, serve ’em pie.
Perhaps suburban Chicagoans were not the Janesville Morning Rotary Club’s target audience for its Janesville Pie Ride on June 20, but the members gladly took whoever wanted to come and ride the pretty bike trails and country roads through and around town. The ride benefited local charities.
Janesville is about 10 miles north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border and the Rockford area, so it’s a long drive even for northwest suburban Chicagoans. But at least it’s right off I-90 and easy on a Saturday morning.
And, the club gave every rider a pie at the end. A whole pie. (Plus a long-sleeved T-shirt.)
A ride for all levels
The Janesville Pie Ride draws hundreds — organizers say about 700 this year, 800 last year — to the very center of Janesville along the Rock River. The organizers said this year routes of 20, 50 or 100 km were offered, plus a “Family Fun Route.”
Those longer routes would translate to 12.4, 31.1 and 62.1 miles. The real distances, according to the downloadable Ride for GPS files, were 16.1, 32.8 and 64.2 miles. The Family Fun Route ran about 5 miles.
But we don’t mind riding a little longer on a nice June day, right? All the routes were well-marked with both short signs showing brightly colored arrows and the professionally placed colored arrows on the pavement itself.
The “20K”/16-mile route was mostly on the town’s Ice Age Trail, about half of which runs along Spring Brook. It turned around and went back from near the trail’s end at Scheiffer Park.
The “50K”/33-mile route was a loop that took riders on the Peace Trail first, southwest along the Rock River. Then after going through town a little, it took country roads, with a rest stop at about the halfway point just north of the town of Shopiere.
The route home turned out to be the most challenging, as it required long, straight roads north and mostly west, which turned out to be against the wind. Eventually you’re on a nice bike lane in Janesville and finishing up on the Ice Age Trail.
The “100K”/64-mile route contained the same 33-mile loop, then added a 13.5-mile “South Loop” and 18-mile “East Loop.” The organizers employed a protocol that many others do now, setting up a single rest stop at the center of the multiple loops.
Ride quality
So the two loops both started and ended at the rest stop. I found the East Loop the prettiest, with its long east stretch running on East Creek Road, along Turtle Creek.
It took us on smaller, often tree-lined roads and past rural homes. We rode past scenic farm country on the way back. The South Loop offered similar views especially farther north.
In fact most of the 64-mile ride was on farm roads. But Wisconsin farm country is prettier than Illinois’, with slightly rolling hills and plenty more trees in the landscape.
So, yes, there are some hills. Mountain country this is not, but it’s not flat Chicago, either. The hills will give you a little workout if you’re not used to it. Ride for GPS says the 64-mile route had 2,017 feet of elevation gain.
The down side of country roads, or at least those around Janesville, is that they’re not all in good condition. I found a lot of the tha-thunk kind of periodic cracks on many roads, if not outright potholes.
Unfortunately, the same was true of the Peace Trail and Ice Age Trail particularly closer to downtown. The Peace Trail makes up for it down a ways, when suddenly newer, smooth asphalt appears. It was a relief.
The Peace Trail down south also has the awkward portion where you must ride onto County Road D for a bit. It’s not a hugely busy road, but maybe that’s not so comfy for families. Nevertheless, it’s kind of pretty and charming around there as you cross Bass Creek.
The amenities: Um, pie!
Unlike the annual Roun’da Manure ride to the east in Sharon, Wisconsin, which offers ice cream at every rest stop, the Janesville Pie Ride does not provide pie at its rest stop. A bicyclist can dream, right?
In fact the Pie Ride rest stop is on the lighter side with snacks and drinks. It offered pieces of bagels, on which you could apply peanut butter from a tube as you wish, and pieces of bananas and apples. There were good, big chocolate chip and I believe oatmeal raisin cookies.
For the salt, there were small bags of chips and little cups of Chex mix, pretzels and nuts.
Water was available out of jugs, and you could get cups, or whole bottles, of zero-sugar sports drink.
The rest stop had four very clean portable potties. I started on the later side, but I never saw a line of riders waiting for them.
Where’s the pie? You got it at the end — your choice of apple, cherry or strawberry-rhubarb. It appears the first two were much more popular, as so many of the third option remained at the end that late finishers might have gotten an extra pie!
The organizers said the routes and rest stop would be open until 2 p.m., and riders could gather afterward at the downtown starting point. But the rest stop crew was packing up in the 1 o’clock hour as most riders had passed through, and the start/finish tent was largely packed up by 2:30.
So next year, don’t be late for your pie!
• Do you find information like this valuable? This free website is made possible almost entirely by readers like you. Consider donating to help defray the costs of gathering and presenting this material.
