Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail Report

A great ride with an unfortunate acronym

Started out last Thursday night (September 8th) meeting up with the rest of the riders, a total of 11. Many different brands BMW, Triumph, Ducati, KTM and a bunch of KLRs.  The ride leader was Chad Berger, the guy that scouted and created the route.  He have ridden it 25 times so he knows his way around.  The trip was arranged by Ride Adventures and my pay included the guide + swep, hotels, food and fuel. Kinda nice to only have to whip out your wallet for beer.  Of course you can do this trip on the cheap downloading some of the GPS tracks and camp along the way but I had zero interest in that. Thursday night we met at an old ski resort outside Geneva, IL for dinner and a ride briefing.

Great group of people, all good riders.  Although the TWAT (Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail) is not a very difficult ride. Some mud and sand, deep in places, but mostly easy.

Left Friday morning rode mostly gravel roads and a few forest roads. The ATV trail on the Iowa side was closed because of all the rain. Very muddy!.  Weather was not great, the rain poured down all day.

Arrived Friday night in Black River Falls, WI, for fish fry and beer!

Left Saturday morning and the weather was great, so was this days riding. Phenomenal ATV trails and forest roads + lots of gravel as well.  Perfect day of riding, only a few interesting moments in between. One KLR decided to short out and after 1 hour of taking the thing apart and cover up some blank wires we were on our way again.  Next we had a few “falls” in deep sand.  We stopped at a tower in the middle of nowhere, on a hill.  It was a pretty good down hill slope from the tower from the forest and Chad asked if anyone wanted to be a hero and ride down there. I don’t believe he thought that anyone would do so I did.  The ride down was easy but I know I was in trouble when I got down there, pure wet mud a zero traction.  You can see in one of the pictures later that four guys had to help me push the nimble GS up the hill. (I did buy drinks that night for all). Ended up Saturday night in Park Falls, WI. It’s a one horse town but they had food and a bowling alley with a bar so we were good.

Sunday morning ride was also great with lots of forest roads, wet and muddy, but fun to ride.  The group stopped at Delta diner for brunch and the continued up to Cornucopia, WI.  I did turn around at Delta, had some private details to attend to unfortunately.

I will deffinitelly go again next year and I believe at least half of the group I went will will join me.

Chad can put together a ride for a private group as well.  I beleive 9-10 is their maximum.

I don’t recall the cost, probably $750 if you are willing to share a room and another $100 if you want a private room.

- Mats C.