5stone

I'm planning a long Wisconsin road trip, hitting a number of mountain biking destinations culminating up at the Chequamegon National Forest. Right now I'm trying to figure out how much time to spend up there. I know they have 300 miles of trails but I'm looking for people who have ridden up there to suggest how many days I should dedicate. I'll ride anything and be happy but I prefer difficult technical singletrack and fast forested singletrack the most.

Will two days be enough to feel I've ridden the best of what the area offers or should I spend another day?

I'm planning on camping nearby to keep it cheap and will have a vehicle so I can drive to whatever trailhead.

Thanks for any advice.

Peek the Geek

Two days should be plenty of time to hit the true singletrack up there. One day you're going to want to hit the Hayward Cluster. You could start at the Hatchery Creek trail head. From there you've got 21 miles of continuous singletrack on the Hatchery Creek and Makwa Trails, all the way up to OO. If the out-and-back seems too ambitious, you could park at the Mosquito Brook trail head and sample some of both.

The second day (or third if you want to spend more time on the Hayward Cluster) head up to the Cable and Namakagon clusters. The singletrack gems up there are the Ojibwe Trail and Rock Lake Trail. I haven't ridden Ojibwe yet, but I've heard it's outstanding. Difficult, but outstanding. Rock Lake Trail lives up to its name, with lots of rocks, but it's also one of the nicest flowing trails I've ridden. In fact, it's my favorite in the state. They did a heckuva job designing that one (I think IMBA's TCC helped there). The Namakagon Trail is decent, too, if you've got extra time and energy, but hit the others for sure. www.cambatrails.org has lots of info if you haven't checked it out yet.

When are you planning on going? If possible, schedule your trip so that you're up there on June 4-6. That's when they're doing their Festival of the Trails, which is a truly fun and unique event.

dminor 

Well, knock me over; Peek is back! Good to see you.

Hey, where is your avatar? That was one of the coolest.

Glynis27

Wait. There is another CAMBA besides us (Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Association)? This is too crazy. I came in to give suggestions, but this isn't even the right CAMBA.

Peek the Geek

Thanks for the "welcome back." Looks like the site has gone through some major changes since my last visit. My avatar should be up now.

5stone

Thanks for all the great information, will help me plan the trip. I've heard about the fest about which you speak and I considered it but then thought maybe I didn't want to deal with crowds. I'm thinking about going up the end of September/beginning of October because the trees should be turning right then and there will be less bugs and people. And I'll be in the best shape after riding all summer.