Invitational ride review: Bicycle Club of Lake County’s Wisconsin Ramble

The Bicycle Club of Lake County began June with an invitational it had been preparing for and touting all year, and it was neither in Lake County nor even in Illinois.

The organizers of the 2025 BCLC Ramble Ride took riders over the border to Wisconsin. To be sure, it wasn’t a stretch for at least some Lake County riders, as the ride began at Wilmot Mountain right over the border, hardly a mile north of Route 173. Then three loops were based out of Bassett Park, adjacent to the Kenosha County Memorial Park just off north Twin Lakes.

The choice to ride in Wisconsin got riders out of traffic that pervades even northern Lake County and onto roads with Wisconsin scenery that’s just a little better than ours (right?). A lot of the roads were in open space, by farmland and prairie. A few went through forested areas. A few more went through small towns and their neighborhoods, like the fragmented town of Salem Lakes.

A car is passing a cyclist who's on the shoulder of a paved two-lane road through trees on the left and grass lots of homes on the right. — **OK, there was traffic here and there on the Wisconsin roads, but look at the wide shoulder here.**

A few roads were a little busy with traffic, maybe or maybe not with shoulders to ride on. A lot of the routes followed the Kenosha County bike system, as signs indicated.

Some rolling hills enhanced the views — or presented little challenges.

Cars pass two bicyclists who are riding on the shoulder of a paved two-lane road curving to the right uphill. — **Little hills came pretty early in the ride, and farmland views were plentiful.**

The BCLC assembled five routes that were printed out but also available on the Ride with GPS app. Two of the routes, the “white” routes, were the about 15-mile ride to Bassett Park at the beginning and the different route back to the Wilmot Mountain tubing area whenever riders wanted to finish.

Two bicyclists prepare to turn left on an unstriped street in a rural neighborhood with a house ahead and trees in the background. — **We rode through little rural neighborhoods onto streets with large numbers, like 312th Avenue on the north edge of Salem Lakes.**

Then there were the red, blue and yellow options. Red and blue were about 20-mile loops, and they took us by the smaller lakes in the area: Powers Lake, Pell Lake, Freedom Lake and Silver Lake, as well as smaller unnamed lakes. The “white out” route already took us past Camp Lake before Silver Lake.

Then the vaunted yellow route of about 35 miles, really two loops in one, emphasized hills rather than waterfronts, though it did pass little Bohners Lake. The elevation gain was 1,453 feet in just the 35 miles, with a maximum grade of 5.3%, according to Ride with GPS.

The “white return” route at last emphasized a ride through Twin Lakes and by the actual lakes, Lake Mary and Elizabeth Lake.

On a street through a small downtown with a tall tree on parkway up ahead and boats on a lake to the right. — **You do go through downtown Twin Lakes and see Lake Mary for a little bit. This road isn’t entirely accommodating to bicyclists.**

You actually don’t see much of the lakes except when going through downtown, but Lake Shore Drive is still lovely with smooth pavement and trees, plus, what do you know, hills.

Looking down a slightly curvy two-lane paved road through a forested area. — **You wouldn’t believe this is Lake Shore Drive in Twin Lakes nor that you might find little hills here.**

The yellow route was the one I declined to ride, while I logged 72 miles on all the others. And while the yellow route was touted, perhaps feared for its hills, it wasn’t like the other routes were devoid of them. My Strava had me gaining 2,666 feet without the yellow route. Riders who did the whole BCLC Ramble logged 107 miles and about 4,000 feet of elevation gain.

The BCLC painted colored symbols on the pavement to guide riders, if they didn’t use the paper or electronic routes. They were thorough and there was no problem following along.

A painted symbol indicates direction on a paved two-lane road before an intersection in the middle of farmland and prairie. — **The BCLC made their colored road markings clear. And there’s that open space again.**

The roads did vary in quality a bit. That’s one complaint I heard about the yellow route — the bumpy roads made the route not so nice, the smooth ones did make it nice. That could be said of all the routes — there were enough smooth roads to balance out the difficulties.

A BCLC Ramble lawn sign is placed at the bottom left of a park scene with a shelter full of people in the background. — **It was one rest stop no matter which and how many loops you did on the BCLC Ramble.**

With the loops out of Bassett Park, the BCLC was able to station the one rest stop there. Organizers stocked it with a variety of fruit, chips and baked goods (even brownies!), plus PB&J that they had prepared themselves and sandwich wraps, with meat or veggies. They had water and Gatorade available.

The PB&J and meat wraps went first, but by the end just about the right amount of food was available.

The BCLC collected a registration fee of $35 at the worst, and it uses the proceeds to support advocacy efforts. Their ramble page notes where money goes; these are the figures for this year’s ride, which netted just over $4,000:

Organization	Donation
Ride Illinois	$1,000
Wisconsin Bike Federation	$1,000
Active Transportation Alliance	$ 500
League of American Bicyclists	$ 500
Rails to Trails Conservancy	$ 500
Working Bikes	$ 500

All in all, it’d be hard to find this much peaceful riding from one Chicago-area location, short of heading west out of Lake and McHenry counties. The BCLC knew where to go: You can do worse than riding in Wisconsin.