In 2008, I was looking for a new weeklong summer tour after my Illinois option ended. I discovered the Evanston-based Pedal Across Wisconsin tour company’s Northwoods trip.
My brain toasted from work, I embarked on the four-hour drive to the start and soon entered what felt like a different world. It was just what I needed to unwind.
There in northern Wisconsin, at that time starting in Merrill, was an endless supply of peaceful roads amid tall trees and small lakes. The more north we went, ultimately to Eagle River and even, for a short stretch, the Michigan border, the taller the trees became.
I’ve gone about every other year since, including this year. I found a group of dear friends I now meet every year at one of PAW’s tours or another, and we agree that the Northwoods tour is our favorite. (Door County is a close second.)
The region has so many little roads that I want to explore. I look at the Garmin and keep turning onto them. But you have to know which roads actually go all the way through to another road, rather than stop at a lake or turn into gravel (if you worry about that) or even sand. The tour company’s routes help with that.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the dead-end roads are a waste. You still might catch a great water view, or at least an incredible moment of solitude.
There are a few types of roads you’ll find in the Northwoods. They’re typically best for serious cyclists, though casual bicyclists can find bike trails here and there.
Lettered county highways
First, the lettered “county highways” exist up in the northern part of the state just as they do down south. “Highway” is a relative term; they’d just be, at most, a two-lane road in our outer suburbs. They’re what will get you from town to town, so they’re handy.
The traffic and therefore your comfort level may vary from one highway to another. Our tour often takes us on County A between Route 17 and the town of Three Lakes. The shoulder’s a little tight and the traffic busier than we would like, but it’s also the only full east-west option between those two points.
Then we make our way a little north to County D west toward Lake Tomahawk. This highway’s a little more comfortable, and you can get some great views, like of Dam Lake, North Nokomis Lake and especially the big Rainbow Flowage. Turn onto County E and see more of the big body of water, then make your way north to the town of St. Germain.
Two other county highways are hallmarks of our tour. One is County X from Route 70 east of Eagle River down to Route 32 just east of Three Lakes. This doesn’t look much like a highway at all. As you ride through the little curves and maybe hills, you’re surrounded by the wooded scenes and some homes amid the trees.
The other is the incredible County K between Star Lake and Boulder Junction. It’s a two-lane road with no real shoulder, but so many of the dozen or so miles are under a canopy of trees, and few cars travel the road. It’s wonderfully peaceful. County K isn’t bad east of Star Lake, either.
The lakes
PAW says the Northwoods contains the “largest fresh-water chain of lakes in the world.” It’s true that there are an awful lot of lakes — so many that their names sometimes repeat; you’ll find multiple Long Lakes and Horseshoe Lakes in Wisconsin. And don’t mistake Sugar Lake for Sugar Camp Lake.
If you’re lucky, you’ll get a look at some of the lakes as you ride the roads. There are so many trees that sometimes you don’t see the lakes you’re riding past. But if you ride enough miles, you’ll catch glimpses of the water reflecting the trees. You can also just take the little roads to beaches or piers.
Or you can ride some of the major roads lining lakes or bridges through them. East of Three Lakes, Route 32 runs right along Spirit Lake and Laurel Lake, then through Big Stone Lake and Deer Lake. (The town of Three Lakes, incidentally, really is surrounded by about a dozen lakes.)
I already mentioned how County D and County E run around the Rainbow Flowage. Closer to Eagle River, you can ride east on what I’ll call neighborhood roads around lakes like Silver Lake, Yellow Birch Lake, Eagle Lake and Dollar Lake.
Those neighborhoods and interior roads
Maybe the real treat of riding in the Northwoods is the series of interior roads that wend through the lakes and the homes along them.
As you bicycle these quiet tree-lined streets, wide or not, you’ll come upon intersections where you’ll see tall posts displaying a series of signs, each in a thin arrow shape and labeled with names of families or maybe small businesses. Just choose what you want to peek at — but know that some of those options might dead-end.
Other roads serve as quiet throughways in what you could call subregions between towns, like the area between Minocqua and Rhinelander. You can find scenic streets like Horseshoe Lake Road, Lakewood Road (seen in the picture at the very top) and Fawn Lake Road. Maybe they’ll pass homes, maybe they’re just passing woods and lakes. You could make yourself nice loops in any case.
And then there’s the legendary Military Road, and its Old Military Road offshoot, from Route 32 a few miles east of Three Lakes going north to Route 70 east of Eagle River. It runs roughly parallel to County X, but it’s even more secluded and tree-lined, and a little hillier. Thankfully some of it was repaved in recent years.
Here’s a five-minute Northwoods road sampler.
Make what you will
I hit only the highlights here. The roads and views seem endless. I have gotten myself into trouble by trying a road deeper into a forest only to find myself stuck at a dead end or a transition to a road of sand a foot deep, and maybe I had to turn around and backtrack miles to a main throughway. Oh well.
I’m also writing about riding the Northwoods during the summer, when it gets any kind of warm there. It is possible to have a sweltering day, but it’s also possible, even in July, to have a chilly, rainy day. More often than not you’ll be layering up in the morning and peeling off in the afternoon. Hopefully you’ll have a nice day in the 70s.
And in July, most any day is good enough for ice cream. Ice cream shops abound, like in Three Lakes, St. Germain and Boulder Junction.
I haven’t ridden the Northwoods in the fall, but I can imagine that the scenery is amazing at that time — if it’s warm enough for you to ride.
As I said, there also are trails here and there, such as one between Three Lakes and Eagle River (with a road connection in the middle), and the 21-mile Bearskin State Park Trail south out of downtown Minocqua. These are gravel trails — the Bearskin is actually packed red granite — so plan your bikes accordingly and prepare to get a little dirtier. Note, too, that state trail passes are required; I’ve seen signs with QR codes giving you the ability to buy them online.
Would you call this bicycling heaven? We know of all the options around the country and world, but we also know that Wisconsin’s Northwoods holds up.
• Enjoy this little trip? Consider donating to help defray the costs of gathering material and maintaining this website.
