Spending a Day in Western Wisconsin

Day 11

We woke to a beautiful Thursday. Our first destination was about an hour west to West Salem. The La Crosse River trail.

We pedaled 10 miles round trip from West Salem to Bangor. It was starting to warm up a little and the vegetation bugs were starting to fly. We made sure we kept our mouths closed while riding. The trail was packed gravel but pretty well maintained. There was plenty of parking at the trail head.

We’d gotten a late start to the morning and even though we’d had a big breakfast were getting snacky. So when we found there was a bakery just across the highway from the entrance to the Neshonoc Lake, we delayed our paddle to take a look. Linda’s Bakery had been suggested to us but we kind of forgot about it until we encountered it.

Linda’s had just about every bakery item imaginable. Including a few types of breads I’d never heard of.

The coffee was decent and the pastries were excellent. Linda’s came highly recommended to us and we recommend as well!

We were feeling the caffeine and sugar starting to take affect so we thought it would be a good idea to get to the lake before we ran out energy.

Neshonoc Lake was well, kind of unusual. The sign at the ramp looked like it had been used for target practice. There had been an e-coli warning the previous few week but it had expired so we felt safe. We didn’t plan on swimming.

When reading about the lake it listed the deepest part of the lake was 8′. I’m not sure we ever found water that deep. Even 100′ from shore, our paddles still touched the bottom. In fact, it was so shallow that two dogs playing fetch with their owner came out to greet us while we paddled by! They were very large dogs and they actually stood next to my boat. At least a 100′ from shore. I think they wanted to play but I couldn’t be sure so I waved at their owner and paddled away.

We paddled around the shoreline in about an hour-3 1/2 miles in all and we were done. It seemed to be a pretty clean lake but not much to it so we likely won’t return again.

We drove back to the house and took a much-needed nap then headed to Summit Ridge Restaurant for a car show.

This restaurant and bar is pretty much in the middle of the country but that didn’t seem to affect attendance. It was very busy with perhaps a hundred cars. Inside seating was unavailable so we went out to the food tent. We had beef sandwich at the outdoor bar then walked the show.

Summit Ridge offers live music weekly and a car show every Thursday during the summer. It’s worth a visit if you are somewhere between La Valle and Mauston on Highway 58.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day. All the way west to Eau Claire.