The window of opportunity is small for doing a multiple-lake adventure ride. The snow depth must be minimal or it becomes too difficult to ride several lakes efficiently within the short winter daylight hours. The lakes need to have enough ice to safely enter and exit it at random spots, which may be through bogs, at boat landings, or on shorelines that hug the roads. Bogs tend to take a long time to freeze so those require extra attention when planning. It also helps if the snowmobile trails are closed to be able to connect sections and get to the hard to reach lakes. Snowmobile trails also bring in an extra element of adventure. This concept of lake adventure rides was kind of new to me last year when Chris Schotz invited me on his lake ride in Harrison Hills. 32 lakes in 34 miles. It was a good one. That ride gave me the bug to create my own.
A couple weeks ago I began looking at the map of northern Wisconsin looking for multiple lakes that were close to each other. I wanted to go to an area that was new to me. Maybe add in a groomed fat bike trail. Shannon lake fat bike trails near Sayner, Wi looked like a good spot. The LAMBO mountain bike group that takes care of the trail also recently posted good things about the trail conditions. I start this process by searching each lake individually on the DNR website to find the boat landings. Then I look at satellite maps to see where the roads run super close to the shoreline to enter or exit the lake without trespassing. Lastly I look for any public parks I could use to enter or exit the lake. Ideally I want to build a route that doesn’t do a lollipop on the lake but instead uses the lake as a way to get from point to point creating a shortcut that is only possible in the winter. After mapping it all out I came up with 13 lakes in 40 miles.
On a cold Wednesday morning I drove up to Shannon Lake trailhead to start this adventure. I had a late start while trying to wait out the cold of the morning. By noon it was nine above, about as good as it was going to get on this day. As advertised the Shannon Lake trails were in perfect condition. And surprisingly they were freshly groomed after the 2-3” of fresh snow they received the night before. It was truly a winter wonderland.
After exiting the singletrack on the south end I made my way to the first lake crossing, Lost Lake and immediately after that, Stella Lake. Stella Lake required a steep climb off the lake to the road alongside the lakeshore. The slippery, steep incline combined with the pine trees made it quite difficult to push the Pugsley up to the road.
I made my way to Plum Lake from there. The lake had a cool island large enough that it had a house on it. I rode over to the island which was quite far from my direct path across the lake. Next up was a lollipop onto Razorback Lake and then onto some fresh groomed snowmobile trail, which had a few downed trees to work around,
led me to Star Lake, a very large lake. This was the largest lake I would cross. A long spin totaling over two miles brought me to the park on the other side. A sign at the park marked it as the first place in Wisconsin to cut two billion feet of pine lumber between 1894 and 1906.
After a quick lollipop on the remote Lone Tree Lake as the sun was getting low. I had to make a decision to cut my ride short at this point and to start making my way back to the truck.
With night coming I didn’t want to cross any unfamiliar ice with only the light from my bike light. I looked at my route and I still had one more lake, Little Star Lake, that I could jump onto on County K and shortcut the road.
Rolling back into the parking lot it was completely dark. Thinking about the great singletrack conditions, I decided to ride all of Shannon Lake trails to finish out this awesome day. Total miles ended up being 46 after five and a half hours. A frosty three above at the end made for an amazing ice beard as a bonus.
Shane Hitz Biking Adventures 