Blogs from Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin, United States, North America

Today was a perfect early fall day. When I left Oshkosh, WI and rode north, it was sunny with temperatures in the low 70's. I took a couple pictures to show the color in the Oshkosh area and get a comparison to southern WI and the U.P. coming up. I stopped in the town of Wittenberg for lunch at a very nice bar called the Wittenberg Tavern Front. I had a nice conversation with the owner, a guy name Hugh and a great charbroiled cheeseburger. After that stop I rode north and stopped about 8 miles short of my destination to have a beer at Club 45 in Conover. Club 45 I then rode up to my home base for the next three days, The Gateway Lodge in Land O' Lakes, WI Gateway Lodge Tomorrow I ... read more

The temperature got down to -25 last night with a wind chill of -54. Not as cold as Orland Park, IL, though. There it was -27! We were in no hurry to get on the trails this morning since it was forecast to be the coldest day this week with a high of -10. We decided we would take short rides to pit stops and warm up. We didn't leave until about noon. We rode from the Gateway to a very nice bar/restaurant on Big Twin Lake. It was a 16 mile ride there. We had a nice lunch there and then rode another 10 miles over to Bauer's Dam on Buckatabon Lake in Conover, WI. After relaxing there with some coffee, we rode back to the Gateway, a ride of 20 miles. All totaled, we ... read more

Today I made a fairly uneventful but enjoyable ride from Big Bay to the Gateway Lodge in Land O' Lakes right on the Wisconsin/Michigan border. I stopped in for a beer at Hoppy's about 40 miles from Land O' Lakes. I was hoping the owner, Jane, would be there so I could say hi, but she wasn't in because it is Sunday. All day it was in the upper 30's. When I arrived at The Gateway Lodge: http://www.gateway-lodge.com/ it was snowing pretty heavily. It's supposed to go down to 24 tonight. Yikes.... read more

Not in my wildest imagination did I believe that booking a small cottage in the middle of a forest in northern Wisconsin would be in arctic temperatures. After all, we were there in end April which should have been Springtime ! But America has variable weather. We had planned a trip to Boulder Junction ( BJ ), N.E Wisconsin, exactly north of Madison, around 300 miles away; an opportunity for walking in the woods and maybe a boat ride in the lake adjacent to the cabin. Wisconsin is famed as the cheese state of America and its countryside is majestic. It's nature at its most basic; yes, we had not realized how true that would turn out to be. But first, here is a bit of data from the local guidebook, so you are familiar with ... read more

Contributing Photographer: Michael Weinstein A couple years ago, I made a snowmobile tour of the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. While on that trip, I met a fellow snowmobiler who happened to be from Brooklyn, NY, Michael Weinstein. We hit it off on that trip and have stayed in touch. Back around October, we discussed riding together again and we came up with the idea that he would come to Chicago and go riding the northwoods of Wisconsin and the Western U.P. Michael and I arrived at The Gateway Lodge, http://www.gateway-lodge.com/on Sunday a about 3:00 PM. It's a great old lodge that was built in the 1930's. In it's heyday, it had a ski jump, bowling alley, golf course and trap shooting. It still has the 9 hole golf course and trap shooting. I've been staying here ... read more