{"id":521,"date":"2016-07-07T23:12:49","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T23:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/?p=521"},"modified":"2016-07-07T23:12:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T23:12:49","slug":"tour-minocqua-to-wi-dells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/tour-minocqua-to-wi-dells\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour :: Minocqua to WI Dells"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>6.1.16 \u2013 6.5.14 \u00a0:: Labor Day Weekend<br \/>\nJeremy, Greg,\u00a0and me.<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Wed. July\u00a01\u00a0::\u00a0Minocqua, WI &#8211; Council Grounds State Park, WI (60 mi)<\/li>\n<li>Thurs. July 2 :: Merrill Wi &#8211;\u00a0Plover, WI (65 mi)<\/li>\n<li>Fri. July 3 :: Plover, WI\u00a0&#8211; Buckhorn State Park, WI (62 mi)<\/li>\n<li>Sat. July 4 :: Buckhorn State Park, WI &#8211; Wisconsin Dells, WI (36 mi)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Disclaimer: I&#8217;m writing this a month later&#8230;so memory and details fade&#8230;<\/p>\n<h6>Day 0 :: Tues. June 30 :: Iowa City &#8211; Minocqua<\/h6>\n<p>Tuesday Jeremy, Greg, and I got off on our usual late start. \u00a0Greg&#8217;s cousin was nice enough to meet us in the Adams area, then\u00a0drive us the rest of the way to drop us off in Minocqua. \u00a0Additionally, his family stored my car while we were touring, then stage it in the Dells at the end of our trip. \u00a0Couldn&#8217;t have done it without them. \u00a0We arrived in Minocqua late, stayed at the place we stay for our annual xc ski trip: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepointeresort.com\">the Pointe<\/a>. \u00a0Headed across the road to have some celebratory drinks, then headed in for the night.<\/p>\n<h6>Day 1 :: Wed. July 1 :: Minocqua, WI &#8211;\u00a0Council Grounds State Park, Merrill, WI (60 mi)<\/h6>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m26!1m12!1m3!1d191479.86380580242!2d-89.94379520555707!3d45.41007963740612!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m11!3e1!4m5!1s0x4d55959f9ac8cd81%3A0x6cc34ae9dec5c233!2sThe+Pointe+Hotel+%26+Suites%2C+8269+US-51%2C+Minocqua%2C+WI+54548!3m2!1d45.8630116!2d-89.7096937!4m3!3m2!1d45.1889095!2d-89.727671!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1467926230166\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, we woke up, discovered the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.islandcafeminocqua.com\/\">Island Cafe<\/a> was closed on Wednesdays. \u00a0We asked someone on the street, and\u00a0found out about an excellent alternative I was unaware of, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greatnortherncoffeeshop.com\/\">Great Northern Coffee Shop<\/a>. \u00a0We just beat the rush (somehow?) and the food and coffee were excellent.<\/p>\n<p>After breakfast we started our tour. \u00a0The bike trail south out of Minoqcua is beautiful, weaving in and out of forested sections, and criss-crossing lakes. \u00a0In fact this entire tour would follow various bodies of water along the way. \u00a0 In particular, the trail had some impressive bridges. \u00a0Apart from the scenery, some highlights of the day were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a bridge beer stop<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheWindmillIceCreamShoppe\/\">Ice Cream<\/a> shop on the trail!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pankows.bar\/\">Pankow&#8217;s Bar<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; friendliest people we met, a dog that sat on a bar stool, and multiple offers of places to stay, best bar of the trip (on hwy 107 near Irma, WI)<\/li>\n<li>Bev and Tom&#8217;s bar down the road had a bar made of old empty bottles + 2 gals who won the gambling machines and bought us some rounds<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.wi.gov\/topic\/parks\/name\/councilgrounds\/\">Council Grounds State Park<\/a> &#8211; hospitality of the rangers when we rolled in after closing to find a campsite<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error\"><span style=\"color:red\">Flickr API error: <\/span><span class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error-msg\">Invalid API Key (Key has invalid format)<\/span><\/div>\n<h6>Day 2 :: Thurs. July 2 :: Council Grounds State Park, Merrill, WI &#8211; O&#8217;so Brewing Tap Room,\u00a0Plover WI (65 mi)<\/h6>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m30!1m12!1m3!1d403540.83933089336!2d-89.84896064470975!3d44.78580786317269!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m15!3e1!4m3!3m2!1d45.1843888!2d-89.73341289999999!4m3!3m2!1d44.524122!2d-89.5723162!4m5!1s0x880057544d97745b%3A0xfd5de4b7d82a1c59!2sO'So+Brewing+Co%2C+Village+Park%2C+Plover%2C+WI!3m2!1d44.451594!2d-89.524951!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1467927012434\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Thursday, we woke up, leisurely enjoyed some coffee at the campsite (thanks Jeremy!), then headed into town for breakfast, and just had a nice days ride to our destination, a hotel in the same commercial center as the brewery&#8217;s tasting room. \u00a0Highlights of the day would be the neat <a href=\"http:\/\/greencircletrail.org\/\">Stevens Point trail system<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/osobrewing.com\/\">brewery<\/a> at the end of the day.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error\"><span style=\"color:red\">Flickr API error: <\/span><span class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error-msg\">Invalid API Key (Key has invalid format)<\/span><\/div>\n<h6>Fri. July 3 :: Plover, WI\u00a0&#8211; Buckhorn State Park, WI (62 mi)<\/h6>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m28!1m12!1m3!1d341260.14737330726!2d-90.34284184684134!3d44.16971556728319!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m13!3e1!4m5!1s0x880057544d97745b%3A0xfd5de4b7d82a1c59!2sO'So+Brewing+Co%2C+3028+Village+Park%2C+Plover%2C+WI+54467!3m2!1d44.451594!2d-89.524951!4m5!1s0x8800a8005861330d%3A0x46635a2259bafeae!2sBuckhorn+State+Park%2C+Buckhorn+Park+Avenue%2C+Necedah%2C+WI!3m2!1d43.9310987!2d-89.9987562!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1467927988296\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The ride to our overnight was very nice, including riding through potato field country, Jeremy asking someone who drove by how irrigation systems work, an excellent side of the road beer stop with a friendly butterfly, the scenery and roads, the supper club we stopped at for drinks, and then&#8230;the\u00a0<em>rain<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Only rain of the trip, we drug our feet perhaps too long at the aforementioned supper club, and just made it into the campground as the rain started, promptly building steam to a downpour. \u00a0We just managed to get the tents up, (sort of&#8230;I managed to get about an inch of water in the lower corner of my tent, which was annoying until I stabbed a hole in the floor). \u00a0Once again, Greg&#8217;s family came to the rescue. \u00a0As they lived nearby, they picked up 3 soggy but happy campers, and went to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buckhorncafe.com\/\">Buckhorn Cafe<\/a> for fish fry with us. \u00a0Excellent food, and good company makes a little rain manageable. \u00a0Food was good enough, we eagerly anticipated our return for breakfast. \u00a0After dinner, we were dropped off at our campsite, and promptly went to bed as it was mosquito-pocalypse outside.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error\"><span style=\"color:red\">Flickr API error: <\/span><span class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error-msg\">Invalid API Key (Key has invalid format)<\/span><\/div>\n<h6>Day 4 ::\u00a0Sat. July 4 :: Buckhorn State Park, WI &#8211; Wisconsin Dells, WI (36 mi)<\/h6>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m32!1m12!1m3!1d226521.13748496532!2d-90.16553139408511!3d43.722394539034305!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m17!3e1!4m5!1s0x8800a8005861330d%3A0x46635a2259bafeae!2sBuckhorn+State+Park%2C+W8450+Buckhorn+Park+Ave%2C+Necedah%2C+WI+54646!3m2!1d43.9310987!2d-89.9987562!4m5!1s0x880752fccac80c13%3A0xe2b1f318dab6c65a!2sThe+Garage+Bar%2C+County+Road+HH%2C+Lyndon+Station%2C+WI!3m2!1d43.7620413!2d-89.88449969999999!4m3!3m2!1d43.629011399999996!2d-89.7816706!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1467929176819\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We woke up, packed our damp gear, and headed to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buckhorncafe.com\/\">Buckhorn Cafe<\/a>\u00a0again, for breakfast this time around. \u00a0Perogies were a popular choice. \u00a0As we didn&#8217;t have a particularly long day of riding ahead of us, we were in no rush, and lingered happily. \u00a0A goal of the day was to hit the Garage Bar which is exactly what it sounds like, a garage that the proprietor turned into a bar. \u00a0There we also made some friends, a common occurrence when you&#8217;re out riding around in WI. \u00a0As usual, the roads and scenery did not disappoint.<\/p>\n<p>We ended our day at the outskirts of the Dells, where Greg&#8217;s family had been nice enough to stage it for us. \u00a0Then, as all good things do, our trip was over and we headed home to begin looking forward to next year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error\"><span style=\"color:red\">Flickr API error: <\/span><span class=\"flickr-justified-gallery-error-msg\">Invalid API Key (Key has invalid format)<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>6.1.16 \u2013 6.5.14 \u00a0:: Labor Day Weekend Jeremy, Greg,\u00a0and me. Wed. July\u00a01\u00a0::\u00a0Minocqua, WI &#8211; Council Grounds State Park, WI (60 mi) Thurs. July 2 :: Merrill Wi &#8211;\u00a0Plover, WI (65 mi) Fri. July 3 :: Plover, WI\u00a0&#8211; Buckhorn State Park, WI (62 mi) Sat. July 4 :: Buckhorn State Park, WI &#8211; Wisconsin Dells, WI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/27543535864_53f82bc4c1_o.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hfie-8p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrabbott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}