As we continue on our way to the American Volkssport Association (AVA: America's Walking Club) Convention next week in Madison, Wisconsin, we continue to do pre-walks in many different places. Pine View Campground at Fort McCoy is our resting place for two nights so we can do the Sparta, Wisconsin walk.
 |
| Pine View Campground at Fort McCoy. |
Pine View Campground [open to the public] is on the Fort McCoy Army Base. Throughout the day, we hear nine different bugle calls :- 5:50 a.m.: First Call
- 6:00 a.m.: Reveille
- 6:45 a.m.: Assembly
- 7:00 a.m.: Mess Call - Breakfast
- 12:00 p.m.: Mess Call - Dinner
- 5:00 p.m.: Retreat/To the Colors
- 5:45 p.m.: Mess Call - Supper
- 10:30 p.m.: Tattoo
- 11:00 p.m: Taps
We also hear lots of guns firing from the Rifle Range!
This is an awesome campground with Fort McCoy Commemorative Area Tours (Saturdays, first-come, first-served, $2 per person). Amenities include full hookups, a fire pit, a picnic table at your site, an 18-hole miniature golf course, a swimming beach, a camp store, hiking trails, and lots of trees for shade. You will also find a laundromat, cabins, rental canoes/kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, paddleboats, pedal karts, and bikes. We like it! And, it is only six miles from the start point for our walk.
How did the name Fort McCoy come to be? Major General Robert McCoy had been raised in Sparta. He gained fame for his military leadership during World War I and the fort was named for him.
Sparta is known as "The Bicycling Capital of America." This designation was earned because it had the first Rails-to-Trails Program in the country. An abandoned Chicago Northwestern mainline railroad bed served as the basis for these trails. Now Sparta bike riders can connect to 101 miles of state bicycle trails. The town is bicycle crazy. Here are a few pictures of bicycles around town:
 |
I couldn't quite get
behind this for a
good photo op. |
 |
Bob hangin' with Ben Bikin',
the town's mascot. |
 |
| Me 'n' Ben Bikin'. |
 |
Bicycle "rack" in front of the
Deke Slayton Memorial
Space and Bicycle Museum. |
 |
| Even the street signs have bicycles! |
Sparta's earliest history shows the Sauk and Fox Indians as the first known inhabitants. In the mid-1700s, the Winnebago tribe lived here. Settlers of Welsh descent arrived in 1849-1850.
When the railroad arrived in 1858, businesses sprang up. There was a tourist boom in the 1870s with the discovery of artesian mineral waters.
Today, people come to Sparta for recreation: golf, fishing, snowmobiling. bicycling, canoeing and kayaking, museums, beautiful parks, and six unique wooden bridges. Not to mention, Ginny's Cupboard with an old-fashioned soda fountain and an espresso bar, and Rudy's Drive-in Restaurant with root beer floats (and food).
Our walk started at Memorial Park which boasts picnic pavilions, baseball fields, a golf course, playground, restrooms, an aquatic park, and Perch Lake (which is stocked with largemouth bass, panfish, Northern pike, and brown and rainbow trout). I'm guessing here, but I think the Lions Club had something to do with building the park. There are lion drinking fountains and a lion in the playground.
 |
Memorial Park Pavilion with golf
course in the background. |
 |
| A lion drinking fountain. |
 |
Perch Lake (created by damming
the La Crosse River). |
 |
Dam on the La Crosse River
forms Perch Lake. |
We then entered neighborhoods and passed by the VFW building, and numerous parks. I loved Grandma's House.
 |
| Grandma's Garden. |
 |
Grandma's House (she has a
lot of grandchildren). |
 |
| Eagle carved on a tree stump. |
 |
| Display at VFW. |
 |
| La Crosse River. |
There were interesting things to see on the way to the La Crosse River Trail. I think it's fun to find unique art and pretty flowers. There was a beautiful train mural in the backyard of a bar. I was able to hold my camera over the fence to get a photo of it.
 |
| Backyard garden troll with a pet frog. |
 |
| Harris Crossing Bar. |
 |
The locomotive mural in the bar's
backyard. |
 |
There's a train decor theme
going on at this bar. |
From here, it was a number of blocks before we got to the bike trail. At the entrance to the bike trail is Speed's Bike Shop. He's got a great location with a captive audience. LOL. We took the Elroy-Sparta State Trail to where it hooks up with the La Crosse Trail. On the way to the Depot, we saw a rabbit and a deer.
In the depot, there is a visitor center, restrooms, clothing, postcards, and a map where you can put in a pin to show where you're from. Ours was the first pin in San Antonio.
 |
| A rabbit in a yard. |
 |
| Pretty flower. |
 |
| A deer on the bike trail. |
 |
| Silos next to the trail. |
 |
| Elroy-Sparta Bike Trail. |
 |
| The Depot. |
 |
| A blanket in the Depot. |
 |
| Our pushpin for San Antonio. |
The Elroy-Sparta bike trail is 32 miles long and incorporates three, century-old railroad tunnels, and passes through a number of small towns. Bob rode his bike 16 miles on the Elroy-Sparta trail yesterday. One tunnel is 3/4-mile long. You have to have a flashlight and walk your bike through the tunnel. He only went a short distance into the tunnel before he turned around and headed back the way he came. He said it was dripping wet and had bats in it.
 |
Bob at the entrance to the
3/4-mile tunnel on the
Sparta-Elroy Bike Trail. |
From the Depot, Bob and I walked to the Ben Bikin' statue. The trail goes alongside Water Ave., one of the main thoroughfares in town.
 |
| A classic car in a driveway. |
 |
| Caboose Cabin. |
 |
| Hippo? Unicorn? Dragon? What? |
 |
| Maybe a bull(dog)frog? |
 |
| The bridge before the Ben Bikin' park. |
At the Ben Bikin' Information Center, we looked at the display and "listened to" Ben Bikin' tell us about Sparta. We also took our pics with Ben Bikin' (see photos at top of the blog). This is the checkpoint for this walk.
Next, we continued on a trail into Evans-Bosshard Park which has some nice covered bridges.
 |
| Bob at The Pointe Bridge. |
 |
This was just off our route. We don't
know what it is for. |
 |
| Mary Morrow Covered Bridge. |
 |
Bob inside the Mary Morrow Bridge.
It's beautiful knotty pine. |
 |
| Another bridge (we didn't go on it). |
The most interesting part of the walk was the old downtown. It's in very good shape, even though all the storefronts are not rented out. What stood out to us was the intersection of Main and Court. There is so much history contained there. Each corner has a historical building and they are quite lovely.
There is the Sparta Free Library, a Carnegie Library. It was not open until 10 a.m., so we could not go inside to see this historic landmark.
 |
| Sparta Free Library (Carnegie funded). |
Next, was the old Masonic Temple which has been converted into the Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum. Too bad we didn't have time to explore the museum, although it didn't look open either.
 |
| Deke Slayton Space & Bicycle Museum. |
The Monroe County Justice Center sits between the Space Museum and the Monroe County Courthouse. And on the fourth corner at this intersection is the U.S. Post Office.
 |
| Monroe County Justice Center, Sparta, WI. |
 |
| Side view of Monroe County Courthouse. |
 |
| Front of the courthouse. |
 |
Lady Justice statue atop
the Monroe County Courthouse. |
 |
| U.S. Post Office, Sparta, Wisconsin. |
We hadn't eaten since 5:30 a.m., so we were on the lookout for a good place to have some chow. As we walked down Water Street, we enjoyed the different buildings. The restaurant that looked good was Dorine's Family Inn, "In the Heart of Sparta." When we entered there was only one table and seats at the counter available. This is definitely a favorite place in town!
 |
| Bob's mom would like shopping here! |
 |
A gorgeous newer home or very well
remodeled (we couldn't tell). |
 |
| Flamingo planters! |
 |
A lovely sculpture in a
front yard. |
 |
| I love this front patio. |
 |
| Unique design; Gothic maybe? |
 |
| Utilitarian. We liked the rock work. |
 |
| An interesting tower on this one. |
 |
We liked the design of this home. On
the front left is an enclosed sunroom. |
 |
Franklin Victorian B&B, a Queen Anne-
styled house with a carriage house.
(National Register of Historic Places) |
We are now back at the park where we started. The gate to the football field was open because they were mowing the field. I took the opportunity to step inside and snap a couple of photos of the Spartans.
 |
| The Sparta Spartans. |
When we finished the walk, we made a trip to Walmart to stock up on provisions. Tomorrow morning, we are off to Madison, Wisconsin.
It should be interesting. We have a reservation at a campground by a lake. This evening, we received a flash flood warning for Dane County. Madison, Wisconsin, sits dead center in Dane County. We don't know what we'll do if our campground gets flooded!
Stay tuned. Travel Bug out.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please let me know what you think, your experiences, and constructive criticism to make this blog stronger.