June 8, 2025
High Cliff State Park, WI to West End, WI
Day 11 - Sunday
I got up at 5:20 a.m. as we had some miles to do today. After packing up we rode down to the bathrooms at 6:15 a.m., ate our muffins, cleaned our teeth and were underway by 6:40 a.m.
The campground had a racoon problem, I heard them around the tent several times during the night. When I got up this morning I noticed one had ripped a hole in my tent with it's claws. Bastard.
We stopped in Stockbridge at 7:30 a.m. to peel off our first layer of clothing.
The first road we took today was pretty good, Wisconsin Hwy 55 had a rumble strip, however when we got on to US 151 we lost the rumble strip and traffic got heavy. Being a Sunday, the early traffic was light, just fisherman with their boats but by 9 a.m., things got heavy and we had some close calls with pickups towing travel trailers.
We also dealt with a head wind most of the way so were reduced down to 6 or 7 miles per hour at times.
In the small town of Calumetville we saw this funky tractor museum, along with what could be a part of the Beverly Hillbillies set. Note the "California here we come" on the side of the tractor or is it a motor home?
We arrived at our first lighthouse at 9 a.m. and by then we had removed our outer layers as it was warm enough for shorts and t-shirts.
Calumet Harbor Lighthouse
The tower that now serves as beacon for the entrance to Pipe Creek was once a water tower for the Fond du Lac Table Factory.
In 1936, the tower was moved to Calumet Harbor.
Not much further down the road was the Fisherman's Road Lighthouse.
Fisherman’s Road Lighthouse
The beacon at Fisherman’s Road Fishing Club was moved from Calumet Harbor around 2001.
We arrived in Fond du Lac and based on our progress I decided to cut off some miles and not ride across town to the Fond Du Lac lighthouse. We instead carried on down the Prairie Trail which hugged Hwy 151 around town.
Cameron wanted to eat at Culvers again and as it was right off the trail this made it a good pit stop.
Looking at the weather we knew rain was coming so ate quickly as we thought we may get a bit further before it arrived.
After lunch we were outside debating the weather and should we ride another 30 minutes before the worst rain hit, and then it did. So it was back inside to wait. We made another attempt an hour later but the same result, rain eases off, looks like we can go, and then it comes down again.
After a 3 hour wait we were rolling again and we did a few more miles on the Prairie Trail then turned south and rode county roads the 5 miles to the town of Eden.
In Eden it took us some time to find the start of the Eisenbahn Trail. Google showed the trail, paved and starting right in the center of town but it starts about half a mile up Hwy 45 behind the Community Center.
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The Eisenbahn trail is crushed gravel but as it had just rained it was slow going through quite a few wet spots.
We arrived in West End about 6 p.m. and headed to the TownePlace Suites, they had rooms but they hadn't been cleaned as they were short on cleaning staff. They recommended the Hampton Inn 2 miles further east out of town, so we decided to eat before we rode out there. The hotel staff recommended the Brazen Head Pub as they had just won the award for best hamburger in Wisconsin, so we rode over to try it.
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After a beer and undoubtably a good burger, we rode around the downtown to check out the historical buildings.
We then rode to the Hampton Inn which of course involved a couple of hills.
After we checked in and showered we went down and had a spa and swim, looking outside it was raining so once again we made a good decision on accommodation.
Today was a pretty long day. Stopping for 3 hours didn't help but we had a busy highway with traffic and the trail was slow due to recent rain.
The positive was the heat from the spa pool took the sting out of all the mosquito bites. And we had a nice sleep in a comfortable bed.
Today's ride: 68 miles (109 km)
Total: 509 miles (819 km)
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